Case Study:
Website-1-800-Flowers Uses Data Mining for CRM
1-800-FLOWERS is an Internet pioneer. Online sales are a major marketing channel in addition to telephone and fax orders. Competition is very strong in this industry. The company’s success was based on operational efficiency, convenience (24/7 accessibility), and reliability. However, all major competitors provide the same features today. To maintain its competitive edge, the company transformed itself into a customer-centric organization, caring for more than 15 million customers. The company decided to cultivate brand loyalty through customer relationships based on detailed knowledge of customers. How is this accomplished? SAS software spans the entire decisionsupport process for managing customer relationships. Collecting data at all customer touch points, the company turns those data into knowledge for understanding and anticipating customer behavior, meeting customer needs, building more profitable customer relationships, and gaining a holistic view of a customer’s lifetime value. Using SAS Enterprise Miner, 1-800-FLOWERS sifts through purchasing data to discover trends, explain outcomes, and predict results so that the company can increase 1-800-Flowers.com Uses Data Mining for CRM response rates and identify profitable customers. In addition to selling and campaign management, the ultimate goal is to make sure that when a customer wants to buy, he or she continues to buy from 1-800-FLOWERS and cannot be captured by a competitor’s marketing. Their objective is not just about getting customers to buy more. It is about making sure that when they decide to purchase a gift online or by phone, they do not think of going to the competition. Data mining software helps the company identify the many different types of customers and how each would like to be treated. Customer retention increased by over 15 percent.
Q1. Why is being number one in operational efficiency not enough to keep 1-800-FLOWERS at the top of its industry?
Q2. What is the role of data mining?
Q3. How is the one-to-one relationship achieved in such systems?
Your answer must be typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman font (size 12), one-inch margins on all sides, APA format and also include references.