Match Marketing

WINTER 2011

V O L . 5 2 N O. 2

Interview by Michael S. Hopkins and Leslie Brokaw

Matchmaking With

Math: How Analytics

Beats Intuition to Win

Customers

REPRINT NUMBER 52206

THE NEW INTELLIGENT ENTERPRISE

MatchmakingWith Math:

How Analytics Beats

Intuition toWin

Customers

THE LEADING

QUESTION

In sales, the rapport between a prospective buyer and seller can

be the deciding factor. Using analytics, Assurant Solutions has

tripled its success. (A case-study interview.)

INTERVIEW BY MICHAEL S. HOPKINS AND LESLIE BROKAW

ASSURANT SOLUTIONS SELLS credit insurance and debt protection products. Maybe

you’ve bought a product like theirs. If you lose your job or have medical problems and are unable to

make a credit card payment, Assurant Solutions will help you cover it.

Like a lot of insurance products, payment protection is a discretionary add-on often made at the

point of purchase. But when customers get the bill and see the additional fee of, say, $10.95 per month

for payment protection, maybe they

think, “Well, I’ll take my chances”

and decide to cancel.

When those customers call, they

reach Assurant Solutions customer

service representatives, because the

company manages insurance activation, claims, underwriting

and customer retention (for many

industry-leading banks and lending institutions).

It’s in that last piece — that attempt to retain customers, beat the

churn and stem a high exit rate —

that Assurant Solutions faced a

now-universal management challenge. As a call center positioned as

the pivot point of all customer inter-

If analytics

are brought to

bear on a call

center, how

are operations

and results

affected?

FINDINGS

Many conventional

beliefs about call

centers prove to

be wrong. For instance, customers

will wait longer

than expected.

Evidence trumps

intuition when predicting outcomes.

Conflicting goals

can be reconciled

in real time by

analytically

driven models.

By implementing...