Supernova Award Category
Data to Decisions
The Problem
Belfius, a bank whose goal is to create various forms of added value for Belgian society, recognized the trend toward mobile-first customers early. Understanding that customers are increasingly interacting on smartphones, the decision was made to push as much activity there as possible to meet evolving consumer preferences and support the business.
Belfius mobile app became the most highly-rated in Belgium after the company shifted its culture and attitude toward a mobile-first approach. But the company decided that having a great app was not enough in the mobile-first world; it needed data and context to truly reshape the customer mobile experience at all touchpoints.
To meet the needs of modern customers, the campaigns must be modern, as well, and that meant letting go of a one-size-fits-all (or even one-size-fits-many) approach, and eschewing it in favor of a strategy focused on customer centricity and personalization.
However, to deliver relevant and personalized customer experiences, it needed to harness and execute on the large amounts of customer data it was amassing.
The Solution
Belfius sought to aggregate the myriad of real-time customer data within its ecosystem to uncover the context necessary to establish goal-driven individual customer centricity. This includes customer behavioral data from which Belfius can identify areas for improvement and engage with and respond to customers with greater relevance.
Belfius implemented NGDATA’s Customer Data Platform (CDP) to bring all its data together in one centralized place and gain an individual-level view of each customer in real time, creating individual Customer DNA profiles. Belfius uses the NGDATA CDP to continuously shed light on insights and act upon them automatically, delivering alerts to trigger the right moment to talk to each customer. The rules engine personalizes the messages based on the stage of the customer journey, and scoring capabilities update every customer profile as interactions occur.
The results
The first specific use case focused on a next-best-offer program around Belfius’ pension savings product offerings with a goal of increasing mobile deposits. NGDATA worked with Belfius to build out the specific program. By the end of the initial case, 60 percent of pension deposit activity stemmed from mobile use – representing a significant increase in deposit activity above and beyond results from all the branches combined. The uptick fueled a 40% increase in net deposits year over year, based on the improvements in timeliness and relevance of recommendations.
Belfius can now learn in real-time from customer behaviors, context and preferences to optimize omni-channel customer interactions and deliver messages and offers that are relevant and meaningful to customers at the right moment, via the right channel. Belfius is going above and beyond to gain greater customer loyalty by delivering the superior experiences their customers demand after finally being able to contextualize massive amounts of customer data to deliver real results.
Metrics
As a result of the NGDATA CDP implementation, Belfius saw the following result metrics:
- A 40% increase in net profits year after year.
- Pension savings deposits increased by 100% due to more timely, relevant and targeted mobile offers, surpassing branch pension savings efforts combined.
- Pension savings sales via the NGDATA CDP outperform other Belfius sales channels by factor 1.2.
The Technology
NGDATA Customer Data Platform
Disruptive Factor
Belfius’ CDP implementation broke the mold in one key way: it put the individual customer – not segments of customers – at the center of its initiative. Belfius understood that sending a bank mailer outlining an offer to a customer segment of 1,000 consumers or a banner ad on the website were no longer sufficient for creating great customer experiences. To meet the needs of modern customers, the campaigns must be modern as well, and that meant ditching a one-size-fits-all (or even one-size-fits-many) approach and eschewing it in favor of a strategy focused on customer-centricity and personalization.
By deriving actionable intelligence from the proliferation of mobile data, Belfius is a banking innovator. It is now moving forward with similar projects across its top ten product offerings, including credit cards, loans and more – all designed to create more relevant and timely offers, and to drive further mobile interactions.
Shining Moment
As a result of this implementation, Belfius’ mobile app has received top mobile awards, and the Digital and Data teams have been formally recognized as worldwide technology innovation leaders by industry analyst firms.