We wanted a solution that could perform analytics on our valuable customer data to help us proactively service customers, ensure customer loyalty and retain them. This exercise is a must for survival in a fiercely competitive environment. From the receiver's point of view, it is highly possible that he will be exasperated. Let us take a look into the mind of the caller. Individuals, irrespective of profession, are bound by targets and the caller from the bank is also not free from this. But, frequent calls made to wrong customers will put them off. On the other hand, the bank is, many a time, ignorant of several prospects waiting to be explored. The article highlights BI tools and how they can be effectively used for cross-selling by the banks.
`Cross-selling' is nothing but selling an additional product or service to an already existing customer. The products marketed, can be group companies' products or other companies' products. Cross-selling is not new to business, but its importance has increased manyfolds in the current scenario because they have to compete with increasing number of players. Further, it makes lot of trade sense to sell to existing customers, as making new customers comes with a cost.1 The cost of cross-selling to an existing client is less than the cost of acquiring new clients because of reduced cost of advertising, which provides a pricing advantage over competitors. Leading banks like HDFC, ICICI and Standard Chartered makes a major proportion of their retail income from internal or existing customers. As more and more products are sold to existing customers, it helps in strengthening the association with the customers. Hence, it is not about marketing alone, but the focus has now shifted to customer retention and managing relationship.
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