IBM targets analytics to help carriers cut churn

It’s not very often that you find one of the world’s largest companies intimately involved in how telecom companies handle something as personal, though important, as customer care calls.
But, that is what IBM Corp. is pushing through its SPSS division that is focused on providing telecom providers with nearly instant analysis on steps that can and should be taken to handle customer service calls that may include a customer looking to leave the carrier.
Customer retention is one of the biggest concerns for wireless carriers as the industry has seen a dramatic slowing in new customer growth over the past several years with any new growth for a carrier coming from either lower-valued prepaid customers or from stealing high-valued postpaid customers from other operators.
SPSS, which was acquired by IBM late last year, is a software solution that uses a carrier’s already extensive database of information on their customers to quickly provide easy-to-understand options for customer care representatives handling calls with consumers.
Erick Brethenoux, VP of corporate development at SPSS, explained that carriers have traditionally relied on demographic and interaction data when deciding on how to handle customers that call in with issues or are looking to churn. This has included looking at what rate plans they are on as well as if they paid their bill on time each month.
What SPSS said it brings to the table is to combine additional information that the carrier has already gathered into the matrix. This information includes text data from live interactions with customers and also looking at what portions of the carrier’s Web site the customer may be looking at. In addition, Brethenoux said SPSS also looks at customer survey data that either the carrier carries out or is handled by third-party providers to get a feel for the “mood, desire or needs” of a customer, as well as the general mood of a customer base by looking at social networking sites and message boards.
“We are not saying that this provides a 360 degree view of each customers, no one can do that,” Brethenoux said. “We think of it as more like a 340 degree view, or as close as you can really get to what a customer is thinking when they call in.”
While SPSS is basically using information a carrier has already gathered and would indeed already have access to, Brethenoux noted that what SPSS and IBM bring to the table is the ability to quickly render recommendations to customer care agents in real time as they are on a call.
“Where we come in is in providing the technology to analyze this information, “Brethenoux said. “We have the expertise and background on how to do this.”
Brethenoux noted that the company was able to scale the platform to a customer with 18 million subscribers in as little as 15 minutes.
In addition to reducing churn, the SPSS platform opens up cross-selling capabilities for carriers as customer care representatives are provided with options that might appeal to a customer. Brethenoux stressed that when it comes to cross selling, the platform only provides recommendations and that it’s really in the hands of the customer care specialists as to whether there is an opportunity to offer additional services to a customer.
“If someone is calling in screaming and yelling, it’s probably not a good time to try to sell them more services,” Brethenoux said.