British Gas deploys SAS analytics "as a service" to drive marketing campaigns

Analytic capabilities intended to mine customer information to power outbound marketing initiatives

British Gas has implemented two analytics packages from SAS in order to better mine customer information.

The software will be used in British Gas's outbound marketing campaigns and will draw on its databases of customer interactions. Insight from data gathered will also provide input into the overall strategy to become a customer-centric organisation, through greater understanding of customers and improved customer loyalty.

The analytical capabilities are being provided as a service by SAS, working alongside British Gas.

"We're looking to improve the response rate to campaigns by using analytics to tailor our offer to each individual customer," said Steve Thomas, head of campaign decisioning at British Gas.

He continued: "Ours is a highly competitive market, and we want to better understand our customers through improved analytics. SAS helps us enhance our marketing campaigns and shape the British Gas goal of becoming a customer-centric organisation. All this can be managed through our relationship with SAS who provide us with a service that perfectly complements our existing processes."

"Meeting customer needs is a major challenge for energy providers and one of the reasons is the lack of insight to deliver what customers really want... It's crucial that companies like British Gas are able to collect and analyse consumer data to give them the power to know more about customer preferences," said Mike Pell, executive director at SAS UK & Ireland.