Targeting private customers

Currently, more than 75,000 private customers use the IKB Privatkunden investment service via an online platform of IKB Deutsche Industriebank. Up to now, advertising customer communication has been carried out via various service providers.

The consolidation of all collected data is becoming increasingly important for every company in order to gain a holistic view of the customer. This is the only way to achieve a targeted approach that can lead to greater customer loyalty and ultimately to more business value. IKB saw a need for action in this area to optimise customer communication processes.

The following areas of action were identified following a review:

• Dependence on external partners for promotional customer communication, which limited control and flexibility.
• Longer lead times for campaign planning, which led to delays.
• Lack of comprehensive reporting and therefore limited opportunities to analyse data and make informed decisions for future campaigns.
• Lack of individualisation of marketing content, which limited the relevance and impact of the messages on customers.

To optimise customer communication, IKB Deutsche Industriebank planned to introduce a modern CRM system for its private customer business in order to achieve automated and therefore more efficient communication. There is also the prospect of integrating other private customer processes, such as customer service, into the CRM platform in the future. This will enable holistic and seamless support for private customers.

In addition to the introduction of the Salesforce Service Cloud, IKB Deutsche Industriebank is aiming to achieve more efficient and individually personalised promotional customer communication, particularly through the introduction of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud. By implementing four customer journeys, both new and existing customers are to be addressed automatically with target group-specific content, initially digitally by email and in future also by post.

A key aspect of the project is the integration of the customer journeys into the external service provider's data repository. This means that current customer master data and attributes can be used to carry out ad-hoc selections and automated journeys. The accompanying user training and the gradual familiarisation of the future administrator are also of great importance in order to ensure smooth operation later on.

Customer communication is now managed exclusively by IKB Deutsche Industriebank's internal marketing team and the resulting benefits are remarkable.

By limiting the number of external service providers and increasing the level of automation, customer communication has been significantly intensified. Personalised communication has also enabled a more targeted approach to private customers, which has led to greater customer loyalty. The 360° view of private customers enabled IKB Deutsche Industriebank to develop a comprehensive understanding of customer needs and preferences and increase customer benefit. In addition, the seamless interaction of Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Service Cloud enabled targeted sales activities to proactively respond to customer needs. Overall, customer communication was made more efficient and customer loyalty was strengthened.