Capital One – The Analytics Superpower, Really?
Prior to Support Analytics’ move to Maryland last summer, we were located in Richmond, Virginia. Everyone in Richmond and probably the country knows the credit card company Capital One (a.k.a. Cap One), but may not know that their headquarters is located in McLean, Virginia. They also have a large facility in Richmond. For the purpose of this post, I am only focusing on their credit card business.
If you have read Tom Davenport’s book, Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning
Here’s my question. If they are such an analytics superpower, why do I get business credit card applications when I already own one of their business credit cards? This hasn’t happened once by accident. I get one about every two weeks. If they can’t differentiate between who is a current customer versus who is a prospective customer, then I can’t continue to consider them in the elite sector of analytics. Sorry.
Think of the dollars wasted through this process. Not only is there the postage fee, but there is also the working cost to: store data, print the applications and ship them out. I won’t even get into the whole notion of saving trees or the annoyance factor.
March 24th, 2008 at 1:50 am
I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog.
Tim Ramsey
April 1st, 2008 at 9:11 am
Thanks for the comment Tim! It’s always nice to hear that I’m not just talking to myself. I would invite you to sign up to the blog feed via a feedreader or delivery through email. Thanks again!
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:50 pm
I was doing some research and came across your blog. I used to work at Discover Card and I know that they sent mail to low usage users to “remind” them to use their card. Most consumers have many cards, the mailers try to make you pick that card out of your wallet and boost usage… now I am sure there is a lot of waste and that a better model could be used, but measuring transaction lift of ppl who get the mailers is easy to do and amazingly enough it actually works.
May 27th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Some great points that I didn’t really consider. Thank you for sharing!
I guess it would be a constant reminder that you already own the card and may be more apt to use it.
Personally, I am annoyed by getting the application once a week and having to shred it. If I feel this way, then there are probably many others who do too.
May 28th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
They probably use some type of name and address matching logic.
Since you moved, do they have your latest address on file? Or do you have more than one registered business name?
I’m guessing it’s at least a non-prescreened offer that didn’t attempt to match you at the credit bureaus.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Yeah, they have the address right and the registered business name hasn’t changed.
I continue to receive them, which keeps my shredder well fed.
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Tony, I had some time to get caught up on business reading and came across this post. First, Capital One co-brands dozens of credit cards, for airlines, cruise lines, NPO’s, etc., and each generates its own mailing lists. Within Capital One are a variety of product managers, also marketing slight variations of financial products. And last, there are the marketing analysts list to test response rates for those product managers. On one side, you’d think they’d limit the number of times they mail to an individual. On the other, they know that persistance pays.
The option of course is to opt-out. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse offers some suggestiosn and links to do so: http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs4-junk.htm
Good luck.
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Thanks for the comment Peter. What I think many companies are missing is the customer’s view. Yes, they are getting their product in front of me many times to remind me to use their card, but what’s the cost.
The cost is my frustration of adding to the shredder stack with another of Cap One’s offers. With the internet now, I know exactly where I can go to sign up for a card, which is exactly what I did when I opened my business account. They should invest in targeted advertising instead of mass marketing. That’s just my opinion.
Thanks for the link suggestion.