With 38 operators, the Austrian fixed line market is highly competitive whilst the mobile communications market is heavily saturated, with one of the highest penetration rates in the EU.

Telekom Austria is a leading player, with 2.6 million fixed lines and 10.2 million mobile customers across Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia. In this article, Mr. Gerhard Partl, Head of Credit Management for Telekom Austria Wireline, presents a practical experience of using Experian Decision Analytics’ behavioural scoring solution in application processing, fraud management and collections.

With a very competitive market, and a high level of customer churn being an intrinsic characteristic of the telecommunications industry, we understand only too well the importance of managing our customers effectively. In considering the cycle of financial risk management, we identified that the key to balancing a customer’s risk and sales potential was assessing each one correctly and treating each customer individually. Despite the large volumes of business that we deal with, we needed to have in place an automated, standardised, efficient and effective customer management system. This was implemented with a behavioural scoring solution from Experian Decision Analytics.

Behavioural scoring essentially provides a 360° view of each customer, using data collected about each customer to evaluate their development and provide a forecast of their future behaviour. This enables us to proactively equip and service each customer based on their quality and needs. We now use behavioural scoring information at the following stages of the customer cycle:

• Applications – Telekom Austria currently receives applications from 50,000 new customers and 300,000 existing customers each year. Utilising behavioural scoring is advantageous for us here, as it enables us to speed up the application process, whilst also addressing the issue of data collection being very difficult. We use the behavioural data to transfer the existing knowledge to the application process.

• Fraud management – With approximately 800 fraud alerts, resulting in 200 cases handled each day, we use behavioural data to profile our alerts, enabling us to effectively deal with the real fraudulent applications we receive.

• Payment reminders – With 40,000 customer and 75,000 collection activities handled per month it is vital that we minimise the financial risk but, at the same time, not lose customers with high potential. Behavioural data enables us to segment the reminder process effectively.

• Collections – It is assumed that winning new customers is seven times more expensive than maintaining an existing customer relationship, and tomorrow, defaulters can still be customers with whom we earn money. We use the behavioural data here to steer the dynamic collection agency process, where there is no termination before handing the customer to the collection office.

Our firm belief is that the intelligent handling of data is the key to success. Behavioural scoring supports us in all of our important decisions, from behind the scenes to the customer’s front door. The employee receives all of the important information about the customer, the product and the risk status, together with a clear, reasoned recommendation.

Gerhard Partl - Head of Credit Management, Telekom Austria TA AG – From his presentation given at the Experian Decision Analytics European Telco Forum 2007

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