Businesses generating over 25% return on investment via inbound customer marketing
16 August 2005
New Capgemini and Epiphany research study details the impact of inbound customer marketing at large retail banks, insurance, travel and communications firms in the United Kingdom & Ireland
LONDON and SAN MATEO, Calif. – 16 August 2005 – Epiphany, a leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for consumer-oriented businesses, and Capgemini, one of the world’s foremost providers consulting, technology and outsourcing services, today released the results of an industry survey showing that Inbound Customer Marketing (ICM) generates a healthy return on investment for those companies that have deployed it, with more than 44 percent of companies surveyed achieving greater than 25 percent ROI on their implementations.
Inbound Customer Marketing is the practice of offering a customer a product or service when the customer has initiated the contact through an inbound channel, such as the call centre, Web or branch network. Sophisticated approaches to ICM, such as real-time marketing, use real-time learning algorithms and predictive modelling of customer behaviours to determine the best offer to make to an individual customer at that point in time.
Steven Harris, Head of Insight Driven Marketing Consulting at Capgemini, said: “When customers initiate contact with an organisation, they are willingly giving their time, attention and permission for that contact. Not only can the customer’s request be dealt with, but this is also an ideal opportunity to give a specific message or offer targeted to each customer. Customer-orientated companies, such as telcos, are leading the way in Inbound Customer Marketing.”
Nikolas Badminton, Head of Marketing Intelligence Delivery, Capgemini, added, “The organisations we found that were achieving the best results from ICM ensure that there is tight integration of customer data and technical processes for call centre, web and retail channels. It is this integration that ensures they continually design offers which are most relevant to each of their customers.”
“As the leader in providing inbound and outbound customer marketing solutions, Epiphany understands the specific strategies businesses need to put in place for intelligent customer interactions,” said Andy McEwan, vice president, EMEA, Epiphany. “Industry best practices, such as using real-time analytics, customer segmentation, multi-channel campaign management, and real-time interaction optimisation, will enable the largest enterprises to create and build long-term, profitable relationships with customers.”
Survey Background and Key Findings
Capgemini and Epiphany commissioned research to understand what kinds of companies have implemented Inbound Customer Marketing, and to determine the level of sophistication and success of each deployment. The survey interviewed the heads of Marketing, CRM and Call Centre operations at more than 50 Fortune 500 enterprises in the UK & Ireland across the financial services, telecommunications & media, insurance, and travel & leisure sectors in April 2005.
Key findings include:
- ICM varies in sophistication from “offer of the day” to use of real-time learning algorithms
- Return on ICM investment is high, with travel companies and telecommunication firms leading the way
- Inbound marketing channels can deliver up to thirty times the campaign conversion rate of traditional outbound direct mail
- The call centre and Web have been the channels of choice for ICM deployment, with the Web the major channel for continued development
- People channels, such as the call centre and branch, are better for retention offers and electronic channels, such as the Web, are better for cross-sell and up-sell offers
- The best performing companies use real-time learning algorithms (generally in conjunction with predictive modelling) for ICM, consistently achieving up to 50 percent sales conversion rates on cross-sell, up-sell and retention offers.
Additionally, there were several key findings for each vertical industry market surveyed:
Telecommunications & Media: This sector was found to be well ahead of the curve across all channels. Telecommunications providers are seen as pioneers of real-time marketing and are generally generating strong results:
- No companies in the sector had less than 15 percent ROI; 60 percent of companies realised ROI of more than 25 percent
- 88 percent adoption of ICM in the call centre (highest in all sectors), also highest with 50 percent adoption in branch network
- 50 percent adoption of real-time marketing in call centres (highest in all sectors), also highest (38 percent) on the Web channel.
Retail Banking: Financial services companies were early ICM innovators, through prompting systems, but have been surpassed by the travel & leisure and telecommunications & media sectors:
- Highest usage of ICM in branches (47 percent vs. survey average of 27 percent )
Insurance: This sector lagged behind in terms of sophistication and performance, but a couple of early adopters have generated some success:
- Only 14 percent of insurers are generating ROI greater than 25 percent (compared with 44 percent across all sectors)
- 33 percent adoption of ICM in the call centre and Web.
Travel & Leisure: Companies in this sector are ahead of their peers in other industries, particularly on the Web:
- 80 percent of travel & leisure companies had ROI greater than 25 percent. No companies in this sector had ROI of less than 15 percent
- 67 percent are using the Web for ICM – the highest in all sectors.
A summary of the findings and the report can be found at: www.epiphany.com/united_kingdom/icmrepor t www.capgemini.com/resources/thought_lead ership/inbound_customer_marketing_resear ch_report/
About the Capgemini Group
About Epiphany
Epiphany® provides CRM software solutions that increase profitability at the
largest consumer-oriented companies by making every customer interaction intelligent.
With over 475 customers – including nearly 35 percent of the Fortune 100 – Epiphany
powers deep customer insights and optimises each relationship from both a revenue
generation and customer retention viewpoint. Built on the industry’s most advanced,
service-oriented architecture, Epiphany software solutions address problems that
span business silos, departmental functions and geographic locations, and result
in rapid, measurable ROI. With a suite of blended marketing, sales and service
solutions, Epiphany enables global organisations to align touchpoints, processes
and technologies around the most valuable enterprise asset – the customer. With
worldwide headquarters in San Mateo, CA, Epiphany serves customers in more than
40 countries worldwide. For more information please visit www.epiphany.com
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