CFI Group - Claes Fornell International

Advanced Analytics

Understanding the big picture.

Linkage

To CFI Group, linkage is the process of defining the enterprise model from employee behavior through financial results.  Linkage models represent a holistic approach to the identification and defining of value creation across an organization.  In a world of limited resources, senior leaders must decide where to invest  - in employee programs, in product quality, in customer service, or not to invest at all.  By defining the causal relationships across an enterprise, managers can determine the financial benefit of each decision.  Firms can compare an employee program, which may decrease turnover and drive customer satisfaction, to the return from an investment to improve product quality.  By understanding the financial return from each decision, firm leaders are able to make more informed decisions.

Optimization

Setting service levels is often done based on benchmarking against an industry average and is rarely done with the customer in mind.  Industry averages are just that – averages. The needs of business customers differ from the needs of consumers; consumer needs differ by type of transaction. Knowing the optimal service levels (i.e., delivery time, hold time, etc.) provides a competitive advantage and prevents needless spending.

Data Mining

For many organizations, the problem is not too little information, it is too much. Firms often collect more data than they need, with the hopes that it might somehow be useful. Data mining is the process of making data order out of data chaos. 

At CFI Group, we view data mining not as an end in itself, but as a method for efficiently focusing analytic effort to find the patterns and relationships that promise the most predictive power. Our research analysts integrate second-generation data mining tools with our patented analytic system and consulting expertise to uncover the information you need to know to make the right decisions about how to grow your business.  

The CFI Group approach provides greater flexibility in combining data from multiple sources, in a wide variety of formats, without substantial pre-processing.  The end result is more accurate, robust, and actionable insight into what drives customer behavior.

Churn Analysis

By linking survey data to "hard" data (directly from your customer database, such as account status), CFI Group can help you:

• Identify and address the reasons why your customers decide to jump ship and take their spending dollars elsewhere.
• Quantify the increase in retention rate and incremental revenue if you address those issues.

Lost Customer Studies

To better serve the customers they have, it is often useful for firms to understand the customers they lost.  Lost Customer Studies provide a mix of qualitative and quantitative information used to identify:

• Specific events, situations, or problems that led customers to defect.
• The proportion of your churn that is voluntary (triggered by the customer) as opposed to structural (not sought by the customer).
• Actions that, if taken, would have potentially prevented the defection.

Lost Customer Studies provide very detailed insights and paint a “step-by-step picture” of customers’ decision-making process; they provide your company with a thorough understanding of “what to do” and, more importantly, “what not to do” when customers are on the brink of changing suppliers – allowing you to protect the value of your customer base, one customer at a time.