SaskTel reduces churn with SAS® Customer Intelligence solutions

For years, the wireless market in Canada experienced rapid expansion, and wireless carriers were in customer-acquisition mode. But times have changed. The market is no longer experiencing unbridled growth, and telephone number portability has made it easier for customers to switch providers. To transform its business in this changing environment, SaskTel is using SAS® Customer Intelligence software to develop new customer campaigns, optimize campaign execution and reduce customer churn.

The leading full-service communications provider in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, SaskTel serves nearly a half million businesses and consumer customers by offering competitive voice; data; dial-up and high-speed Internet; entertainment and multimedia services; security, Web hosting; text and messaging services; and cellular and wireless data services over its digital networks.

SaskTel is a communications pioneer. The company was the first in North America to offer high-speed DSL Internet access, and the first Canadian IPTV provider to roll out high-definition television. With telephone number portability making the wireless market even more competitive, the company is using SAS® Customer Intelligence solutions to improve its customer interactions in a bid to reduce churn.“We can no longer base our business decisions on the unbridled growth the industry experienced over the past 10 to 15 years. We have to look at new ways of doing business, since we can’t bank on getting 50,000 to 70,000 new customers every year,” said Mike Woolley, Manager of Marketing Analytics at SaskTel. “With the market getting increasingly competitive given number portability, we’re using SAS to create predictive churn models that, in turn, help us create better-targeted customer campaigns.”

Telephone number portability – the ability to keep a number while switching providers – is attractive to consumers and has forced wireless carriers to reevaluate their business strategies. Before number portability was mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in 2007, customers tended to stay with the same service provider because they had to give up their phone number if they switched to another company. Now, customers can bring their existing phone number with them when they switch providers. In response, SaskTel has shifted its focus to marketing strategies and tactics that will help retain customers.

SaskTel is expanding its use of SAS to target the right market and the right customers through multiple channels of communication. The company is using SAS Enterprise Miner and SAS Marketing Automation within the SAS Customer Intelligence platform to find ways to increase the average revenue per customer and reduce overall churn.

“We’re still doing the same number of acquisition campaigns, but now we’re looking at retention and churn, and that requires more of our time,” Woolley said. “And the team is finding that time due to the efficiency and ease of use of SAS software. So in addition to maintaining our new acquisition campaign, analysts can focus on creating campaigns for retention and churn.”