Portrait Software Blog

And onto the next one...

Posted 18 May 2010 - 9:55am by Luke McKeever

A few weeks on and now that the dust has settled on a good year at Portrait (see trading statement), what have we learned?

Firstly, relationships count. A renewed focus on establishing stronger relationships with key customers has helped us to cement trust and led to many new investments in Portrait technology. We must continue to forge strong win/win relationships with our customers.

The profitable side of churn

Posted 11 May 2010 - 4:39pm by Emilio Lapiello

Companies are always striving to retain customers, and they should.

What they sometimes don’t focus on is verifying which customers they are going to retain. What is the value of these customers to the company? Are they profitable?

Especially in highly saturated markets – telco, financial – it is key to realize that some level of churn is normal, but most importantly that reducing churn to zero is not the goal.

Defining real-time decisioning

Posted 6 May 2010 - 9:38am by Mark Smith

Real-time decisioning (RTD) technology is a topic often discussed here at Portrait. This valuable marketing tool facilitates effective customer interactions and has produced significant, measurable results for many of our customers. For many, however, RTD remains a mystery. How does it work? What are the options? Which option is best for your company?

Measuring the social customer’s lifetime value

Posted 5 May 2010 - 11:47am by Patrick Surry

I’ve talked quite a bit recently about Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), and how the goal of direct marketing is to increase CLV through a series of targeted “investments” (offers) in the customer. For example, it’s great motivation for uplift modeling and thinking about the true cost of e-marketing.

What we're reading this month

Posted 26 April 2010 - 10:48am by Yvonne Summers

From: Chief Marketer Blog - Sell the Way Your Customers Buy

Every marketer's goal is to send relevant and engaging content to customers. But consumer buying behavior is evolving so quickly that the rules are constantly changing. In this article, the author discusses how marketers must realize that the balance of power has shifted to the consumer. Marketers need to quickly adapt and frame new programs that sell to customers in the way they now buy using the resources available across multiple channels.

Dismiss, delete, repeat: the challenge of mental opt-out

Posted 21 April 2010 - 5:20pm by David Newberry

If you work in the marketing space – and likely even if you don’t – you’re familiar with the term “opt-out.” In the age of consumer preferences, with more and more customers able to dictate who contacts them and when, opt-out has become one of the most prominent marketing challenges. One type of opt-out that isn’t thought of as commonly, however, is mental opt-out.

Predictive modeling to combat collections

Posted 19 April 2010 - 12:52pm by Neil Skilling

I was recently interviewed by Tom Groenfeldt of Banking Technology about an application for modeling techniques that isn’t usually front of mind: bank collections. Unfortunately, (and not entirely surprisingly) in the midst of the recent financial crisis, banks have seen an increase of late loan payments, bankruptcy, and home foreclosures. As a result, banks are paying closer attention to their customers’ borrowing and payment patterns, not only for their customers’ benefit, but also for their companies’ protection.

Trends in multi-channel communication

Posted 14 April 2010 - 3:54pm by Jeff Nicholson

I was recently approached by TMCnet’s Customer Interaction Solutions and asked to share a few thoughts on multi-channel and cross-channel trends that Portrait has seen recently. One of the topics we discussed was the increasing use of multiple channels to interact with customers. Utilizing multi-channel communication doesn’t mean contacting your customer through all channels, but rather through the right channels, as determined by the individual customer and his or her specific needs and preferences.

Mail model of the year makes real money for U.S. Bank

Posted 13 April 2010 - 3:26pm by Mark Smith

U.S. Bank, a recipient of our Uplift Award in October 2009, was featured in CRM Magazine’s April issue, highlighting the bank’s significant savings and increase in revenues by only pitching customers who aren’t already likely to show interest.

Email marketing isn’t free

Posted 8 April 2010 - 4:48pm by Patrick Surry

In a recent meeting with a retail organization, we were talking about what kinds of direct marketing were underway, and how they were making sure only the most relevant customers were targeted with each offer. With email, they were targeting the entire base because (and I quote) “email’s free – there’s no mailing cost – so there’s no real reason to focus on a smaller segment of customers”.