Case Study

KPN

Dutch telecom reduces churn, raises customer satisfaction with targeted support through data-driven campaigns

Website
www.kpn.com
Industry
Telecom
Geography
The Netherlands

KPN is a major telecommunications provider in the Netherlands, active in the consumer market with a number of brands including KPN, XS4ALL and Simyo. For business customers, KPN offers a full range of services, from fixed and mobile telephony and internet to diverse end-to-end-solutions in the area of infrastructure, workplace management, the cloud, safety, data networks, and data centers.

Despite strong growth in data traffic via its networks, KPN has managed to reduce energy consumption every year. Since 2015, KPN has been 100 percent climate neutral.

The Challenge

Frustrated customers pose tremendous risks to businesses. Especially because it’s a slow, silent process: Studies have shown that only 1 in 26 customers will complain to a company – the rest simply leave (Gartner Customer Experience Survey).

Aware that low internet speeds or unstable internet connections count among the biggest frustrations, leading Dutch telecom KPN needed a way to identify dissatisfied customers and reduce a major pain point for them: slow Wi-Fi connection in their homes. And before these customers canceled and switched to a different provider, to help them with targeted assistance and a better service plan.

Overall campaign goals included:

Significantly reduce churn among internet plan subscribers
Decrease the number of at-risk customer profiles in KPN database
Boost customer satisfaction and net promoter scores (NPS)

The successful campaign created with Selligent was initially just a pilot. Nowadays it is a key part of KPN’s Wi-Ficustomer proposition and included in multiple data-driven initiatives, such as welcome and onboarding.

Gerrit van Leeuwen

Digital Director, Yourzine

The Path To Success:
Reduce churn & boost NPS

Identifying at-risk customers required a cross-functional team consisting of specialists from KPN and experts from strategic CRM partner Yourzine. Using data science and consumer profiles in Selligent, the team created a prediction model to score customers according to their churn risk. This risk was calculated based on factors such as previous call center contacts about Wi-Fi problems, plus visits to troubleshooting webpages and internet speed tests.

The next step to reduce churn: KPN created a campaign to specifically address customers with the highest risk. Executed through Selligent by Marigold, the campaign addressed at-risk customers with automatic emails offering help to solve Wi-Fi problems by educating them about the routers in their home and offering a “Do-it-yourself” kit with video tips and details on how to improve router service. The emails quickly resolved customer frustrations, without requiring the need to schedule and then wait for a service appointment. By digitally engaging and educating customers to solve their own problem, it not only reduced customer frustration, but also reduced costs to KPN of having to send out a truck and service team to address the problem.

As a major success factor, the team used Selligent’s testing capabilities to determine the most efficient subject lines, body copy and design visuals before rolling out the campaign to the entire target segment.

Results

The combination of data-based segmentation and pre-tested communications delivered via Selligent by Marigold resonated with frustrated customers. “The campaign went viral as it solved one of the biggest challenges for consumers – a stable, good internet connection,” said Gerrit van Leeuwen, Digital Director at Yourzine. The results also helped the KPN team create a strong business case with success metrics.

In the bigger picture, the Wi-Fi customer campaign provided KPN with a successful precedent for future data-driven initiatives across a wide number of channels. These include TV, radio, as well as outdoor billboards and direct mail.

“Thanks to the experiences during the email pilot, we could efficiently plan the broader rollout across additional channels and above-the-line communications in the best way possible. Teething problems had already been eliminated during the pilot phase thanks to Selligent,” said Gerrit van Leeuwen, Digital Director at Yourzine.

-50 %
Churn
+33 Points
Increase in NPS/customer satisfaction to 43 points

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