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Shamik Paul

Wish you knew who would walk into your store on a Thursday afternoon to buy a bottle of perfume, or who would be happy to hear of your latest credit card scheme?

24/7 Customer says its predictive solutions give this insight into customers’ mind, which would help convert customer interactions into actual sales. The contact centre services provider says it has developed predictive models based on patterns of end-consumer behaviour that can help its clients to foresee what kind of customers need what, when, and who do they buy from.

For 24/7 Customer’s clients, this means lower costs of operations because the number of calls made can be reduced as the solution would help to focus on customers who would actually mean business, says Mr V. Bharathwaj, Chief Marketing Officer, 24/7 Customer.

24/7 Customer offers customer lifecyle services that include customer acquisition for its clients, providing services to these customers, and creating loyalty and retention programmes.

Explaining how the solutions are developed, Bharathwaj says 24/7 Customer studies end-consumer behaviour over a period of time, works its findings into models and then applies the models to technology to convert them into applicable software, which is then used on a platform such as chat or e-mail. “A lot of statistical and mathematical modelling is required to spot patterns in consumer behaviour,” he adds.

Citing an example from the retail sector, Bharathwaj says of all people who enter a large store, there would be some who would need to speak to a salesperson before they can decide if they want to buy. And if catered to, some of them would definitely make purchases. “Who are these customers and how do you identify them — that’s the model we work on so that the interaction becomes sales,” he explains.

In an environment where most clients are trying to reduce cost of operations, solutions that help increase conversion ratios will see a greater demand, the company says.

“The service includes improving conversions and reducing costs, improving customer satisfaction and increasing customer stickiness,” says Bharathwaj. “If that is happening, why will someone say no? It is even more relevant in a situation like this when cash becomes very important and everybody is looking at preserving cash.”

The company has 10 clients in the retail, technology, financial services and telecommunications space that have subscribed to these services, which is about a third of its customer base. “Since these are IP-driven services, these are typically high-profit, high-value deals,” says Bharathwaj.

The company continues to see good demand for these services, he says. It has launched these solutions on the sales and services side. “There are six models that are patent pending and hopefully there will be another six-seven in the next 12 to 18 months,” says Bharathwaj.

He says the earnings from these services is on a gain share basis. “We are going to customers and saying, ‘can we reduce the number of calls? Will you benefit from that? If you do benefit from the reduction, you are going to save money, and if you save money, give me a part of that’,” he adds.

shamik@thehindu.co.in

More Stories on : Software | Customer Relationship Management

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