Telstra aims for 15 percent improvement in telemarketing hit rate

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 14 April 2010 09:16

IT Industry - Strategy

Telstra is hoping that a recent upgrade to its SAS business analytics software that analyses date for marketing purposes will lead to a 15 percent improvement to hit rates in some of its outbound telemarketing campaigns.

Telstra has been a SAS user for more than 20 years and according to SAS, it recently upgraded its system "to improve the speed, granularity and consistency of analytics that drives its marketing efforts."

The work, "involved Australia's first migration to the SAS 9.2 Enterprise Intelligence Platform which provides the core components of the SAS Business Analytics Framework and dovetails with [Telstra's] Teradata database."

Telstra's chief marketing officer, Kate McKenzie, said that the new initiative was expected to produce an up to 15 percent improved strike rate across some outbound marketing campaigns.

"This initiative'¦is perfecting the science behind our marketing offers and is part of our continuous refinement of Telstra's market based management approach'¦With the new system, we are able to better understand how our customers are using their telecommunications services, assess their needs more quickly, and offer the most appropriate products to suit them."

Telstra has won an award from SAS for its use of SAS products to analyse customer information for customer service and marketing purposes. It is one of four enterprises worldwide to receive this year's SAS Enterprise Excellence Awards; the others being UK-based Lloyds Banking Group, Canada Post and GE Rail Services of the US.

According to SAS co-founder and CEO, Dr Jim Goodnight, "Telstra was selected because it displays all the characteristics that distinguish winners of this award. You act swiftly to address challenges, use technology in innovative ways to solve business problems, and focus on meeting the needs of your customers."