“Knowing Me, Knowing You” — Catchy Tune, Critical Tactic

“Knowing me, knowing you, ah ha!”  In the eternal words of Abba (to say nothing of Alan Partridge), knowing people is important. Knowing people’s behaviour patterns certainly is at the heart of risk management, fraud and collections strategies. Homogenous or one-size-fits-all strategies just don’t work as well. So why should customer communication be any different?

Automated communication and case resolution is becoming a necessity for all institutions with fraud verification or collections needs. With the emergence of mobile devices and electronic communication channels, institutions can engage with their customers using multiple media channels, in intelligent automated dialogs.

Customer response to automated resolution of fraud and collections events has been overwhelming, and has transformed the operating models of many financial institutions. But we often find that dynamic and tailored communication strategies are overlooked in favor of a one-size-fits-all strategy.

Recent FICO analysis has shown that even something as simple as customer age can have a significant impact on propensity to resolve by channel. One FICO client has seen that customers aged 30-59 are 7% more likely to resolve fraud alerts by voice than are customers aged 29 and under. Interestingly, another FICO client has seen that those aged 30 and under can be twice as likely to respond to an interactive SMS than older customers.  Results appear to be dependent on what you’re trying to communicate, by which channel, and to whom. Rather than assigning the same contact strategy for everyone, analytics can be used to tailor your contact strategy for optimum results.

Using data from previous interactions in combination with demographic information can have a significant impact on successful contact and, most importantly, speed to resolution. Within FICO Customer Communication Service, you can vary scripts, voice tones, language, alert times, and channel or number order.

By getting to know your customers, and using that knowledge in segmented contact strategies, you can create a better experience for them, and ultimately increase the speed and success of your communications. Knowing me, knowing you, it’s the best you can do. Ah ha!