NetCologne and b.telligent
Utilising Apteco software to gain a 360° customer view to automate trigger-based campaigns
Background
NetCologne was founded in 1994 and with 1,200 employees, is one of the pioneers for superfast internet and regional fiber-optic expansion within the greater Cologne, Bonn and Aachen area. The company offers its B2C and B2B customers a wide range of internet, telephone, television and mobile communications services. In the region, 485,000 customers count on NetCologne's reliable and stable internet and telephone services. As part of the Stadtwerke Köln Group, the company is also committed to the city and region in many ways, connects schools to the fiber-optic network and has been carbon neutral since 2022. NetCologne's mission is to use its innovative strength, pioneering spirit and reliability to bring people together and the region ever further forward.
The challenge
As a regional German telecommunications company, NetCologne faces intense competition from large national and international corporations. Competitive pressure in the German telecommunications market has increased significantly in recent years, particularly as a result of the ongoing roll-out of fiber-optic networks throughout the country. Many new competitors have entered the market and are trying to gain market share from the established companies. In addition, the shortage of skilled workers in Germany and the comparatively low number of employees compared with the competition pose a significant challenge.
Watch the full customer story
Watch our video which covers the full impact of Apteco marketing software on NetCologne, presented by Pascal Weeke and Laurentius Malter.
The Apteco Solution
The use of Apteco was crucial for NetCologne to consolidate its position as one of the leading regional telecommunications providers in Germany and to successfully meet the challenges of the market. The main goal was to use Apteco to optimise a wide range of processes for existing customers through trigger-based automation and to target the right customers at the right time. Over the last few years, Apteco has therefore become an essential part in the automation strategy and is used for various use cases. These range from trigger-driven marketing and mail campaigns in the sales area to a next-best-offer campaign that has ran successfully for years as well as complex multi-stage processes.
The importance of customer recovery led to an emphasis on automation with the help of Apteco. In addition to the growing awareness of the importance of these processes, the desire to use a variety of channels and the complex dependencies that had to be taken into account played a significant role in the decision to automate and control the win-back process. The process, which was previously carried out manually via Excel lists and exclusively by telephone, was prone to errors and no longer met the requirements of a modern telecommunications company.
After a professional target image of the win-back process had been designed with the help of workshops and coordinated among the company's internal stakeholders, the implementation could start via Apteco FastStats and PeopleStage. The decisive factor was the distinction between two types of customers in FastStats, in order to be able to route them differently in PeopleStage. Two groups were formed; customers to be recovered and customers who should not be recovered. To divide the groups, the specified reasons for termination from the CRM system are taken into account and the customer is assigned to one of the two groups. Customers who cancel due to price or service reasons, for example, are to be won back. Customers who move outside the supply region, for example, should not be won back. If the reason is unknown, it is first assumed that a customer is to be won back. Depending on the classification, the customers are either considered for the win-back process or excluded. In this way, scattering losses can be avoided and only the relevant target group can be addressed with the available resources.
Crucial for the success of the win-back process and the acceptance of the measures by customers and internal colleagues was the correct processing of triggers and feedbacks over the entire runtime. With Apteco, win-back could be intelligently implemented through the combination of targeted selections in FastStats and the mapping of all contingencies with process chains in PeopleStage. Through the system-side support, NetCologne achieved a conversion rate of over 30% on the relevant target group.
The Apteco solution has been essential for our day-to-day business for over five years now. Intelligent automation is a top priority for our team, because if campaign steps cannot be automated, we would not be able to implement them sustainably. Our customers' satisfaction has improved since the introduction because every customer now gets what they need. And even seemingly negative contact points generally lead to more satisfied customers thanks to the customised and timely communication.
Kristiane Burg, Head of Online and Customer Relationship Management Business Unit Private Customers, NetCologne
Kristiane Burg, Head of Online and Customer Relationship Management Business Unit Private Customers, NetCologne
The impact on the business
The Apteco solution is currently used on a customer basis and in the future, the software will also support the automation of object-related communications, for example, in order to automatically control direct mail for entire residential buildings.
In addition to automated campaigns, opt-ins and customer behaviour are now also taken into account in the channel selection for campaigns.
The CRM team can independently carry out multidimensional selections, receive net counts for campaigns at the click of a button and can support all customers in a timely manner and on the basis of current data.
A customer-centric mindset has been established and contributes to greater customer transparency. This also gives the company a competitive advantage over large corporations in the region around Cologne.
NetCologne was able to further reduce its churn rates and reduce customer complaints, providing a positive effect on opt-in rates. In the past, customers were quick to withdraw their opt-ins because they felt annoyed by unnecessary and inappropriate communication.