Intouch - Video Ezy

Experian QAS proves to be a hit at Video Ezy

Video Ezy has established itself as one of the premiere home entertainment outlets in the world, receiving kudos from industry leaders for its bold marketing strategy and unique vision.

With 560 outlets throughout Australia, Video Ezy is the largest, most successful home entertainment retail organisation in the country.

Disparate data sources
Video Ezy's franchise model led to the existence of 560 separate membership databases around the country. Three years ago the quality of the data contained in these proprietary systems was inconsistent, leaving Video Ezy with many puddles of dirty data.

As a progressive organisation, Video Ezy is constantly looking at ways to improve its competitive advantage. In 2001 the company decided to look at ways to leverage one of its greatest assets - its customer database.

Move to leverage membership data
Video Ezy identified the need for a single view of its customers and to model customer profiles and their visit and consumption patterns.

Christian Ward, CRM Project Manager Video Ezy said, "We knew that the data recorded at store level could be used to provide us with a competitive edge. We operate in a very competitive market therefore a customer relationship program based on an up-to-date and accurate marketing database was required.

"We implemented a total change to our existing ways of doing business and how we marketed to our customers. This included completely new server architecture at Head Office with data replicated from completely new in-house developed point of sale (POS) software at the stores. This gave our franchisees access to centralised marketing facilities, promotions, movie titles and stock items, saving team members hours of setup time."

Cleaning dirty data
Video Ezy identified the lack of data quality from stores as an important issue and recognised the need for a solution that not only cleaned the existing data but also ensured the member fields were entered in accordance with Australia Post conventions (AMAS).

Following a competitive pitch process involving leading address management vendors, Video Ezy selected Experian QAS' QAS solution to fulfill their requirements.

Christian Ward continues, "We decided to go with Experian QAS as its professional approach and positive reputation provided us with confidence in the solution. The QAS product is a mature solution and was able to be integrated with our POS software allowing for a localised rollout."

Experian QAS' QAS Batch is employed to clean membership data before it is replicated centrally. QAS Batch runs through an existing database and verifies address data with Australia Post's Postal Address File (PAF), ensuring that addresses are real and accurate. Address data is automatically formatted into a specified format allowing for simple migration of data into the new marketing database. Inaccurate addresses are flagged for manual follow up. This allowed Video Ezy to consolidate the dirty data puddles into a single, clean data warehouse.

Experian QAS' QAS Pro was integrated with the in-house sales software to ensure accurate address data at the point of entry. QAS Pro verifies addresses against Australia Post's PAF as the team member enters the details. It also improves efficiency by reducing the number of keystrokes required to enter an address, saving the team member time when entering address information, a useful bonus especially when stores are busy.

The cost of dirty data
Christian Ward explains, "You automatically assume that direct mail will always reach its destination. Until you experience dirty data, realise the costs associated with it and calculate how it eats into your budget - you never appreciate how big an issue it can be. Dirty data can really take away your voice, which, as a customer focused organisation, is a major handicap.

"Experian QAS enabled Video Ezy to clean up and consolidate our membership databases, strengthening our voice. With Experian QAS' QAS Pro operating downstream we can be confident that we are getting the data right first time at point of entry, allowing us to market to our customer base more effectively. The product is intuitive and requires minimal training; an essential factor given that ease of use is vital in our industry.

"People no longer consider the accuracy of our address data, they have come to expect it!"

Experian QAS delivers real benefits Collating the information on its membership base to a central location has allowed Video Ezy to dramatically alter the way it operates and interacts with its customers. Through the extraction and reporting of information from the database, Video Ezy is now able to analyse the purchasing trends of more than 2.5 Million members, allowing it to identify who spends what and analyse responses to specific offers.

"This allows us to carry out centralised marketing campaigns such as personalised CRM ticketing, which allows us to focus on our customers with offers that are relevant to them," Concludes Ward. "We are now better armed to react more efficiently to customer situations and have a better understanding of our membership base. This alone makes the system profitable for us, and we have seen significant returns from this project."

For further information about Experian QAS, please contact QAS.