Newton, MA
April 7, 2009
Regional Banks Leverage Marketing Automation Capabilities to Create More Personalized, Targeted Campaigns Aimed at Improving Sales Efficiency and Customer Loyalty
Enterprise marketing software provider Neolane, Inc. today announced that
Synergie, an Economic Interest Group (GIE) comprised of eight Crèdit Agricole
banks, selected Neolane's technology platform and Business & Decision's customer
relationship expertise to move its relationship marketing practices to a new
level and boost sales efficiency. Automation of marketing processes,
personalization of messages and management of cross-channel campaigns are the
three cornerstones of the newly-deployed approach.
Synergie GIE is comprised of eight Crèdit Agricole regional banks: Ile de France, Brie Picardie, Val de France, Nord-Est, Lorraine, Alsace Vosges, Franche Comtè, Pyrènèes Gascogne. Its network includes 1,500 agencies that together manage more than 10 million client accounts.
Like many other network banks, Crèdit Agricole regional banks are facing new challenges in relationship marketing. They need to personalize the style and content of campaigns', use all available contact and interactive channels while safeguarding privileged relationships with customer service representatives, take into account customer habits and preferences, and do so in a way that avoids over-solicitation and intrusive communication methods.
As a result, in 2008, Synergie GIE initiated the Multi-channel Relationship Marketing project. Its aim was to initiate customer communication at the right time using the most appropriate combination of interactive channels in order to build customer loyalty and generate sales. To support this initiative, Synergie selected Neolane's enterprise marketing software and Business & Decision's consulting and systems integration expertise.
"Neolane and Business & Decision's expertise and references in the cross-channel marketing field were determining factors in Synergie's selection," said Stèphane Jeanjean, multi-channels director for Crèdit Agricole Nord-Est. "Neolane’s solution satisfies our consolidation, administration, co-ordination and execution objectives concerning customer communications on all channels - within agencies, by email, on the call centre platform, by SMS, on the bank's website or by mail. As for Business & Decision, they deployed their product and marketing expertise throughout the entire project."
Crèdit Agricole Nord-Est has always been an innovator when it comes to taking advantage of IT capabilities to provide targeted services and improve upon existing customer communication. Examples include the distribution of account balances by SMS text messaging, online access to savings accounts using electronic signatures, the adaptation of the 'display interface' of current accounts making it compatible with the new wireless terminals (smartphones, iPhone, Blackberry, etc.) and the use of IP telephony within the Crèdit Agricole Nord-Est's agencies. Therefore, this regional bank was the obvious choice when it came to selecting a testing ground for the Multi-channel Relationship Marketing project.
At the beginning of 2008, the first step was to establish the cross-channel platform by gradually administrating all of the campaigns using various relationship scenarios. The application deployed by Business & Decision, with the Neolane solution, provides teams with a targeted and personalized approach to communication, tracking and controlling customer contacts, and most of all, a better chance at closing sales opportunities through the interactive use of five different channels: mail, telephone, email, web and branches.
Onsite marketing teams have been using the new marketing platform since April 2008. Today, they can create and easily implement "standard" as well as "scenario" campaigns. A scenario is a campaign usually involving interaction between several channels, the interaction being planned over several stages. For instance, for a given campaign, targets will receive a message through different channels. Then, based on their response, subsequent messages will be personalized using the most appropriate channels. For example, a customer who has clicked on an offering in an email may subsequently receive a call from the call center or the relationship manager, depending on estimated sales potential.
"Thanks to Neolane and Business & Decision, we have strengthened our campaigns' efficiency by associating data mining with the power of the marketing platform. We have managed to personalize relationships with all customers and approach each one of them in the most relevant manner with regards to personal history, and using the most appropriate contact channel, without being perceived as spam," said Colette Vivent, Crèdit Agricole Nord-Est multi-channel development and coordination manager.
"After only nine months using Neolane, we have created and executed more 170 cross-channel marketing campaigns that have generated more than 760,000 emails, more than 70,000 outbound calls through the telephone platform and, more importantly, more than 800,000 proactive customer contacts have been processed by relationship managers," added Colette Vivent.
For example, strategic sales actions have been established in the bank, namely the "Livret A" savings account reservation campaign, campaigns for paperless communication (online statements for example) and in June 2008, the Cart'LIB launch campaign. "The use of cross-channel scenarios have helped us achieve optimal sales efficiency: almost 35 percent of targeted customers have bought the Cart'LIB," concluded Colette Vivent.
The resulting improvement in new relationships and associated business success have led to the Multi-channel Relationship Marketing project being gradually extended to include all of the Synergie GIE regional banks.
As a result, each regional office is now capable of detecting increased sales opportunities and dealing with them with increased efficiency. Customer representatives' roles have also become more efficient and effective because of the better quality of contact opportunities that come their way and timely access to information about their customers' needs. "Thanks to the intuitive graphical interface, marketing teams can rapidly create marketing scenarios for all the customer interaction channels. The Multi-channel Relationship Marketing project implementation is a success and we look forward to maximizing the potential of this solution to provide even more services to our customers," added Stèphane Jeanjean.
During 2009, Crèdit Agricole Nord-Est will benefit from Neolane's ability to:
