Swiss financial institution uses advanced analytics to reimagine marketing and personalize customer experiences

PostFinance turns to SAS to automate and optimize campaigns for improved offers, more effective communications and higher response rates

All across the world, people are turning to fintech apps to handle things like making payments, getting loans or saving for retirement. As traditional banks brace for disruption, some are innovating to deliver the world-class customer experience people now expect.

This is precisely what PostFinance – Switzerland’s fifth largest financial institution – is doing, as it modernizes how it markets products and services.

Financial customers now expect a personalized experience that reflects their particular stage in life. But as digital banking grows in popularity, banks no longer see many customers in person. Therefore, they must deliver timely and relevant communications across all channels to keep customers engaged and build relationships.

A better way to handle leads

Common marketing practices that worked in the past are inadequate for today’s customers, who no longer respond to marketing brochures or telemarketing campaigns. Instead, any cross-selling or up-selling activities must come in the form of personalized offers.

PostFinance now manages its sales and marketing campaigns through SAS Customer Intelligence solutions, which deliver the powerful analytics needed to personalize the customer experience and create lasting brand loyalty among its 3 million customers.

Data from email, SMS, direct mail, call centers and branch offices is analyzed and converted into leads. The underlying intelligence helps PostFinance identify “hot” leads, which are calculated based on the customer’s affinity for a certain product and how strategically important that product is for PostFinance.

The financial institution generates around 3.7 million leads each day – nearly half of which are cross-selling opportunities. The sales channel for these leads depends on the complexity of the product or service. Simple products like credit cards can be sold cost effectively online, while more complex services require the expertise of a consultant.

For leads that reach consultants, each comes with a list of “next best offers,” allowing that salesperson to offer the most relevant products and services first. To avoid overwhelming customers with offers, PostFinance developed a contact strategy to determine how often a person should be contacted about a certain product per channel.

“SAS was an important piece of the puzzle to transform our sales approach from portfolio-based to data-based,” says Dennis Lengacher, Head of Customer Cycle Management and Campaign Conception at PostFinance. “Marketing and campaign managers now can contact customers based on their known affinities and respond to their needs accordingly.”

Earning trust through better results

SAS also enables event-based cross-selling at PostFinance. For an example, consider a recent graduate who began her first job. Using SAS Customer Intelligence, PostFinance discerns she now has a regular income, and the financial institution can examine factors such as whether she has a credit card, a retirement account or funds to invest – all elements that help determine the best offer to meet her needs.

SAS Customer Intelligence also helps PostFinance determine the best contact strategy to reach a customer, like whether communications should transition from manual interactions to automatic based on an individual’s behavior. And regardless of content strategy, SAS helps ensure that regulatory requirements, such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), are secured.

“Initially, our marketing experts were skeptical with leaving decisions to a machine,” Lengacher recalls. “But once they saw the numbers, they were convinced in the new approach. With SAS Customer Intelligence, we’ve achieved a higher conversion rate – credit card sales have doubled – and we’re able to use our marketing funds more efficiently.”