Researchers’ Work from University of Lausanne Focuses on Bank Marketing (Forecasting the next likely purchase events of insurance customers)

Marketing Weekly News

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Marketing Weekly News -- Investigators discuss new findings in Marketing - Bank Marketing. According to news reporting originating from Lausanne, Switzerland, by VerticalNews correspondents, research stated, "The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the value of enriched customer data for analytical customer relationship management (CRM) in the insurance sector. In this study, online quotes from an insurer's website are evaluated in terms of serving as a trigger event to predict churn, retention, and cross-selling."

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from the University of Lausanne, "Design/methodology/approach - For this purpose, the records of online quotes from a Swiss insurer are linked to records of existing customers from 2012 to 2015. Based on the data from automobile and home insurance policyholders, random forest prediction models for classification are fitted. Enhancing traditional customer data with such additional information substantially boosts the accuracy for predicting future purchases. The models identify customers who have a high probability of adjusting their insurance coverage. Research limitations/implications - The findings of the study imply that enriching traditional customer data with online quotes yields a valuable approach to predicting purchase behavior. Moreover, the quote data provide supplementary features that contribute to improving prediction performance. Practical implications - This study highlights the importance of selecting the relevant data sources to target the right customers at the right time and to thus benefit from analytical CRM practices. Originality/value - This paper is one of the first to investigate the potential value of data-rich environments for insurers and their customers. It provides insights on how to identify relevant customers for ensuing marketing activities efficiently and thus avoiding irrelevant offers."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "Hence, the study creates value for insurers as well as customers."

For more information on this research see: Forecasting the next likely purchase events of insurance customers. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 2018;36(6):1125-1144. International Journal of Bank Marketing can be contacted at: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd, Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, W Yorkshire, England. (Emerald Group Publishing - www.emeraldinsight.com; International Journal of Bank Marketing - www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=0265-2323)

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting J. Wagner, University of Lausanne, Dept. of Actuarial Sci, Fac Business & Econ, Lausanne, Switzerland. Additional authors for this research include S. Mau and I. Pletikosa.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbm-11-2016-0180. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.