This paraphrased lament from Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner may loosely reflect the predicament facing many communications companies today: afloat on vast sea of customer information, yet, lacking resources or expertise, unable to draw from it much new or actionable intelligence.
Not that data mining is ever a small or insignificant task. It isn’t. Even when resources are plentiful, obstacles can loom large—especially across numerous lines of business, where risk can multiply exponentially. Siloed data, disparate customer records and other challenges also make the work difficult, as do:
- The dynamic nature of consumer information
- Inconsistent data quality and match logic throughout the enterprise
- The inability to reliably link active and inactive accounts
- failing to identify existing customer relationships at the point of application
The missing link
Experian has seen many communications companies overcome these issues through database linking—that is, connecting, integrating and packaging customer information from several sources into a more cohesive and accessible structure.
Linking reduces risk by identifying overlap of consumers with multiple accounts across several lines of business. It also reveals duplicate records, as well as active accounts that may be current in one line of business, but delinquent or inactive in another.
The benefits
The broader perspective gained through database linking can drive new efficiencies and profitability in many vital areas of your business, from fraud prevention to skip tracing and collections. Should the need arise, newly linked information can also be used to locate elusive customers or former employees for legal purposes.
What you can do right now
Even if resources are currently limited you can still begin discovery—the process of identifying precisely what data you have, where it resides within the enterprise, how it’s being used, and by whom.
This information, perhaps combined with guidance from an experienced external service, can provide a solid foundation from which to begin leveraging (and if indicated, supplementing) existing customer data.
We know communications clients who have identified millions of dollars in uncollected bad debt that was linked directly to current, active customers, using a couple of “next generation” data tools.
Like the old Mariner, your in-house data has a big story to tell. Question is, are you equipped to hear it?
If you like this topic, click here to read the post entitled “Leveraging Internal Data to Create a Holistic View of Your Customers.
