CUNA Mutual Uses SAS for TruStage Agency Customer Contact Strategy

Using advanced regression techniques, CUNA Mutual has developed improved models to target customers in direct business, resulting in better customer satisfaction, increased revenue and reduced cost.

CUNA Mutual Group has shared with Insurance & Technology's readers in the past how it has taken a page from Victoria's Secret when it comes to customer data and eschewed competing on price and product in favor of delivering what CIO Rick Roy calls a great direct-to-consumer brand experience. Yesterday, Simon Gao, CUNA Mutual's VP of Consumer Analytics relates how the company has has revamped its customer contact strategy to provide more relevant, timely offers to credit union members through the carrier's TruStage Insurance Agency.

[Related: Why Insurance is Like Victoria's Secret .]

Since 2006, CUNA Mutual has used SAS for data mining to create

what the vendor calls clear and concise internal reports. The insurer is now engaging in more advanced uses of SAS's technology today, using SAS Enterprise Guide as its primary predictive modeling tool.

"By leveraging advanced regression techniques, we successfully developed new models to help us determine a better strategy for targeting consumer prospects," comments CUNA Mutua's Gao. "Our results have been strong, both contributing to our organization's bottom line and enabling us to most efficiently reach the credit union members who most need the protection our products provide."

[Read more about how CUNA Mutual uses data to tailor the right product to the right customer: CUNA Mutual Pursues Growth With Data-Driven Marketing.]

CUNA Mutual uses SAS for a variety of other projects within TruStage, such as developing forecasting models and automating scoring to identify the best prospects to target as most suited to cross selling opportunities. In addition, the team is visualizing data better with JMP desktop statistical discovery software from SAS.

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio