Matrixx Marking Inc., Cincinnati, an outsourced customer management solutions company with more than 30 call centers located throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, has signed a three-year marketing agreement with Intelliquest Marketing Information Solutions, Atlanta.
Under the agreement, Matrixx Marketing, which recently became part of Convergys — a teleservices, billing, and customer management giant comprised of Matrixx and Cincinnati Bell Information Systems Inc. — will use the IQ MKIS Donnelley Consumer File. The file, a demographic and lifestyle information household database file of the technology industry, will be linked to Matrixx's teleservices clients, allowing them to better predict likely responders to a product or service offer, and to be able to profile and deliver information.
Matrixx Marketing's client list, which was recently enhanced by the purchase of AT&T's Customer Care division, includes heavy hitters such as American Express, Gateway International, Lucent Technologies Inc., and AT&T.
The IQ MKIS file is the first major data purchase that Matrixx has ever made.
Christine Wright, vice president of Database Services at Matrixx Marketing, said Matrixx will use this file within the telecommunications, utilities, technology, and cable industries exclusively. “It will [help to] create some unique linkages between telecommunications purchasers and technology users. We will be linking their data and our customer response information,” she said.
The IQ MKIS file will be used for both prospecting and to enhance current customer information. “[The idea] is to take technology types of indicators that Intelliquest has on its file and that are unique to its businesses and link those to telephony-specific types of products and services,” Wright said.
In addition, Wright said the union will also allow Matrixx and Intelliquest to create proprietary products that describe technology and complex telecommunications customers. For example, the combined data products will be able to indicate which customers are avid PC users who also have one or more wireless phones and a fax line.
“We can score the file with these unique models that better describe which households are more likely to be advanced technology users, and develop gradations of technology users that are linked also to their use of telecommunications products and services,” said Wright. The two companies will market these products together.
In general, she said that the relationship with Intelliquest will be strategic. “We will be developing new data products and services that are leveraged between our response file and their data. So, if we create a generic profile of a sophisticated or complex telecommunications user and link that back to Intelliquest's registry database, then we can create some unique indicators in the field that our clients will be able leverage.”
In addition, IQ MIS data will be helpful to Matrixx because it will help it's clients lean more about their customers.
“A lot of our clients, other than having an inbound response file, do not really know who their customers are. [IQ MKIS] will help us to profile [our customers'] inbound callers as well as [offer] enhanced lists for the outbound calls that [they] make,” said Wright. “Prior to being able to develop a predictive model, for instance, we will be able to enhance the file with this type of information so we can better determine who is more likely to respond to a promotion.
“This agreement will improve the lists that Matrixx has with its customers, and it is advancing the technology and the whole process of teleservices.”
In other Matrixx news, the company recently announced an agreement to provide customer service and telesales support for the Bell Atlantic Video Services Company' s offering of direct broadcast satellite (DBS) services.
Under terms of the one-year contract, which is renewable up to three years, Matrixx will provide the services from its new call center, in South Jordan, UT.
Matrixx 's services to Bell Atlantic Video will include telesales support to acquire customers, as well as customer service support for current and future customers. Customer service representatives, for example, will have access to an enhanced subscriber management and billing system offered by Matrixx's sister company, CBIS.
In addition, Bell Atlantic Video recently signed an agreement with CBIS for billing and subscriber management to support the DBS service offering.
CBIS, which, as a result of the Matrixx acquisition will be called the Convergys Information System Services Group, is focusing its energies on billing and customer management needs, particularly in the area of wireless communications.
“Matrixx has extensive experience in the DBS market, and it understands the challenges we're facing,” said Richard E. Beville, president of Bell Atlantic Video. “They have the customer service experience we need as we prepare for our market launch, with a long list of clients who have benefited from exemplary customer care. We also wanted a company that could ramp up quickly to meet our growing needs, and Matrixx has those capabilities.”
