Analytical CRM system: Managing Business Rules

Buying an aCRM system does not have to imply integrating CRM with a purely analytical Data Mining system. After all, the analytical capacity in CRM is nothing more than a set of customer service rules and these may originate both from knowledge gained during work with customers and an exact, analytical understanding of their needs.

Because customer service rules change over time, and in accordance with the type of business in question, the CRM users must be  free to make modifications themselves. In this situation, the CRM system should be equipped with a business rules management module which attunes the work of  CRM to the rules specified by its users. The result of this implementation is  the aCRM system.

aCRM is almost wholly identified with a purely analytical system whose main aim is to build  customer service models, sales models or loyalty programs using Data Mining analyses. In reality, these analyses are most often conducted by external software or in analytical modules integrated with a CRM system. These are not however essential components of analytical CRM.

The essence of aCRM is matching sales and IT  initiatives, which are supported by a customer service system, to the established business rules that are functioning now. These can be, but do not have to be, based on the outcome of Data Mining. Usually, however, the business rules connected with customer service are not complex. Business rules come out of the experience gained working with customers and understanding customer needs.

Here are some examples of these rules: ‘When a  customer has a birthday, an e-mail will be sent expressing best wishes’, ‘If a  sum more than ten times greater than average is paid into an account, contact the customer and offer an investment product’, ‘All customers who have made three complaints and had these adjudicated in their favor will not have to pay credit card charges for the next six months’.

The Comarch aCRM system is a combination of Comarch Sales Management, which has been acclaimed by the banking market, Comarch Campaign Management, Comarch Contact Center, an analytical module providing a series of Data Mining algorithms and a business rules management system. It is precisely this last system that enables the user to build customer service rules to use in the CRM system either as automatic actions (e.g., establishing individual prices for customers based on their purchasing history) or as communications to be  displayed to consultants during conversations with customers. As a result, the business rules management system personalizes contact with customers and means that offers can be tailored to their needs.