Of course everyone around says that there is a disconnect between theory and practice. But when one melds practice into theory it becomes a potent weapon. Case in point – USAA. USAA is investment, banking and insurance service provider to military members and their families. USAA has an extremely good CRM which knows the family history of a customer when he calls up. Therefore if I was calling up USAA for a transaction, their database is so good to know that I have a son turning 20 this year. This provides their sales reps immediate opportunity to what may be called as “cross-selling”.

Cut the chase to India. I am not claiming that analytics is not being done, already, but I see great potential for certain service providers which I will elaborate below.

1. Category 1 – Mobile service providers – Mobile providers are sitting on huge data which at the moment seems under-utilised. For example, I land in Chennai, for the first time. The mobile service provider for once knows for sure that I have landed in Chennai for the first time. They can send me an SMS titled “These are the 5 things that I can seek in this city”. If the subscriber likes the service he/she can subscribe to it paying some fee.
2. Category 2 – Banks – I am just puzzled at their potential but still they are sitting idle. They collect our personal details to the extent of our birthdays etc. What are the potential – based on my age – they can create products or cross sell their existing products. When I am nearing the age of 30 – sell me a house loan (which almost everyone requires). At the age of 45+ – sell me a pension fund. Simply offer me a customised plan on my birthday. “We see you will turn x years old in the next five days, here is what Y bank has to offer on a limited basis to you and your family member”. Seeing the context, hell yeah, I wouldn’t mind it.
3. Category 3 – Credit card -Analyze my transactions for the past year. It will reveal a lot about me and my likes / dislikes. If ICICI were to do such an analysis, books would clearly emerge as my first love. Do you realise the “cross selling” potential here. Infact aggregate this data over their customer base and there you go. Nice targettable micro-segments.
4. Category – 4 – Any service provider who collects my date of birth – Customize offers
5. Category – 5 – ATMs – Banks could analyse the volume of cash transaction on an area by area basis. Given that users will be allowed to take out cash from any banks, abstracting the ATM layer, banks can gain a lot. Suppose in my area, I withdraw a lot of cash from a Z bank where I don’t have an account. My own banker, Y bank, can aggregate the transactions in my area to see whether that is the case indeed with other customers of Y bank. If yes, then Y bank can open a separate ATM branch in my locality. Vice-versa if an ATM is not generating that much cash withdrawals, then close it down and open one where the volumes are more. Across bank data can be used to arrive at these volume details. Lot of inter-bank collaboration can be used, if Y bank’s ATM serves more Z bank’s customers, then share the data and charge’em for it. Vice versa hold as well.

Here is a campaign well done – CROSSWORD

Crossword clearance sale

Okay I am a sucker for books, accepted. Still the Brio offer sounds a good enough reason to move my ass and visit the sale. This is what I was referring to in transaction analysis for credit cards.

What are the implementational issues – in terms of software. What will be the issues? I don’t know. Whatdya reckon, let us know.

-Egghead