Martech and big data: Vodafone strengthens omnichannel for B2B

The Coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the global economy and promises to radically transform the world of marketing and sales as well. Established business logic and traditional analysis models are now being questioned: consumers have profoundly changed their purchasing habits and the way they interact with companies.

In this context, technological innovation and the introduction of advanced analytics solutions can help accelerate business transformation effectively. Reply works on various projects focused on martech tools capable of achieving more efficient results in less time and automating business processes.

Today, a successful marketing approach must be customer-centric, putting a “human” approach at the forefront of everything. Vodafone Business Italia has, thanks to Reply’s consultancy, implemented the use of martech solutions by introducing the application of data science methodologies to adopt machine learning and artificial intelligence models with the aim of better understanding its customers and optimising journeys.

Vodafone Business Italia has been working with big data for several years, using specialists capable of interpreting and translating data into targeted marketing actions. “Data visualisation is extremely relevant to us: we look at users’ behaviour in real time and use a highly structured customer contact system”, explains Lidia Stasolla, Head of Business Customer Value Management at Vodafone Business Italia.

The turning point came during the first lockdown for Coronavirus: “In those very particular months we realized that an important piece of our contact strategy was missing, perhaps because it was too oriented to the multichannel, but not to a balanced omnichannel which requires a different and more reasoned approach”, says the manager, explaining that Vodafone wanted to start again from omnichannel to redesign a new marketing approach.

“The most important thing is to be able to give the customer the right content through the right channel and at the right time, which is when they are willing to listen to you. The more these parameters are aligned, the more user involvement is destined to strengthen, to the benefit of the business”, explains Stasolla.

Among the strategies implemented by Vodafone Business during the lockdown period there was, above all, the choice to strengthen the loyalty and engagement program of the business segment. “Due to the lockdown, with the closure of the stores, our Vodafone Happy Business loyalty program could only be promoted digitally, and in two days we had to review the entire schedule for the next two months, with the aim of trying to involve as much as possible the customers and encourage them to use the digital channel”, explains the manager Vodafone.

Thanks to an innovative insight-driven approach and the use of martech tools, the telecommunications company managed to overcome the traditional segmentation of its customers based on the number of employees per business - with offers that followed this logic. Instead, they could determine the real needs of the moment, improving the customer experience and cross-selling KPIs, thus marking an important change of pace.