Foschini selects Contactor Service from PIC Solutions

The Foschini Group, one of Africa`s largest fashion retail groups, has selected the Contactor Service developed by PIC Solutions for the validation and correction of customer information. Contactor ensures the correct format of area codes, telephone numbers and matches postal and telephone area codes.

Maintaining accurate contact details within large customer databases is vital for organisations such as The Foschini Group, which invest significantly in telemarketing campaigns and calls to delinquent accounts.

However, over the past 36 months, the area codes and number formats of over one million South African telephone numbers have changed. This has created significant operational issues for The Foschini Group and all other credit grantors in the country.

Vic Schou, RCS Operations Director, states: "Foschini currently conducts automated dialling campaigns on mildly delinquent accounts. However, we took the decision to run all of our accounts through the Contactor Service in order to receive updated telephone numbers for all of our customers. These can now be used to conduct additional telemarketing campaigns.

We are very pleased with the previous results of the Contactor Service and are convinced that the corrected numbers will significantly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our dialling campaigns and improve productivity. Any improvement in the contactability of our delinquent customers will result in additional recoveries that will far outweigh the costs of this service."

Mike Crawley, Director of Software Services at PIC Solutions, adds: "The Contactor Service provides our clients with a turnkey solution for inaccurate telephone numbers. This service has proven to be very popular with our clients, as they only pay for numbers that are actually fixed. Based on the increasing requirements for data integrity, we see the Contactor Service growing from strength to strength in the future."