Challenge

Competition for wireless customers is fierce. It’s no wonder the industry considers a customer whose contract has expired to be at considerable risk of being scooped up by a competitor.

Regional wireless carrier Bluegrass Cellular in Kentucky was looking for an effective way to drive contract renewals and improve retention for at-risk customers. They also wanted to leverage this opportunity to upgrade customers to newer smartphones and data plans, to help drive increased revenue.

Actions

RPM accepted the challenge and developed new DM creative leveraging Bluegrass Cellular’s recognizable brand look and feel from advertising, as well as their friendly reputation. We developed a renewal-focused mail package designed — not just to sell customers — but to thank them.

Grabbing the readers’ attention with an elegant thank you card format, we delivered a sincere and warm message of thanks for their loyalty. Inside the card, a “Customer Appreciation Certificate” delivered a limited-time offer and clear call to action, including the nearest retail location.

Two offers were tested head-to-head and customer data was segmented and coded to allow us to answer important questions about the optimal timing of the contract renewal offer.

Results

The campaign far exceeded Bluegrass Cellular’s goals and expectations, driving contract renewal rate of up to 20% and a cost-per-renewal as low as $5! The top-performing offer increased initial performance by about 10% and delivered the additional benefit of increasing the average revenue per customer.

This program not only helped identify offers that drive customer action, but the addition of customer segmentation helped identify the perfect timing to renew at-risk customers.

Based on the outstanding results, Bluegrass Cellular continued the Contract Renewal Program and utilized ongoing testing to drive the program forward and push for even higher results and customer satisfaction.