Posted by Brian Berg Google+
Standing apart in the rental car industry is incredibly difficult, but the Avis/Budget Group has done just that by using big data to paint a better picture of who their customers really are and using that data in effective automobile mailing list . Using a segmentation style called customer lifetime value; Avis is able to focus on a complete view of their customer. Using this style allows the firm to view each customer relationship for their long term value in addition to a single transaction. To solidify the customer experience, Avis is able to use this big data to garner and nurture important relationships.
While Avis has collected data as closed sourced the firm is now integrating big data solutions to expand its impressive collection of data to open sourced. Avis is rich in their data collection with customer data coming directly to the firm from sources such as rental transaction systems, website data and other in-house sources.
With the plethora of customer data in Avis’ hands, locating data to analyze wasn’t the problem; finding a structured way to accomplish such a large task was. Avis first determined their main marketing goals; to leverage its data in an effective way while improving marketing ROI and increasing the customer experience to help drive long term customer value. They next created an organized process and data infrastructure involving 3 main groups; customer data integration, performance management and analytics.
By using a lifetime customer value strategy Avis’ has seen a multitude of success. Not only has the firm been able to make the most of their customer data, they were also able to make projections for upcoming rentals for a rolling calendar year and what types of profits each customer would bring into the firm. While most customer lifetime value models see a three to five year projection, Avis was able to see higher efficiency with a one year projection on a rolling basis.
Through the customer lifetime value Avis is able to predict rental frequency down to customer level as well as customer profitability. The effectiveness of the firms contact strategy is accomplished through a highly organized contact strategy with the right context being provided.
The strategy has been a win win for the firm allowing for them to understand the relative value of customers especially those on their automobile mailing list more fully which has in turn allowed for an effective communication strategy and customer service solutions.