How Advanced Analytics Improved Customer Experience During the COVID-19 Pandemic
By: Shannon Shultz, Director Data and Analytics Engineering, DNA
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic presented numerous challenges for our cardmembers, some of the greatest being financial. Unexpected expenses arose for individuals who suddenly found themselves working from home or acquiring unforeseen medical bills; business owners who saw a steep decline in patronage with stay-at-home mandates and those that found themselves out of work entirely. Thanks to Discover’s existing monitoring systems, our teams quickly picked up on our customers’ difficulties making payments on time or altogether. It was clear that finding an immediate solution was critical.
Our Data & Analytics team jumped at the challenge and Greenhouse approach was born. A new way of working, Greenhouse sculpted a vision to create a solution incorporating a real-time, event-based architecture to detect and respond to customer events in minutes — taking an idea from concept to prototype in six weeks. Embarking on this innovation journey, we focused on three distinct areas: Speed to Value, The Way We Work and Engineering Innovation. Core to it all, was enabling cross-functional teams that were able to adapt their mindset and were excited to continuously innovate on new ideas.
We constructed a real-time response by way of an end-to-end, real-time data pipeline. This allowed us to detect and respond to customer needs quickly during a time when uncertainty was pervasive. We also captured events from customers’ interacting on our website, which allowed us to create a real-time monitor and signal when customers would change their behavior when it came to paying their Discover Card. Finally, we combined the event with the customer profile to analyze their contact preferences and previous payment patterns to test and learn how we could help provide relief when it came to payment delinquencies. Incorporating a modern data architecture while utilizing real-time analytics and machine learning, we were able to reach a final solution in 6 weeks.
In line with our customer-centric approach to all aspects of our business, the Greenhouse initiative was created to support our cardmembers and to prevent payment delinquencies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Greenhouse set a new precedent for developing solutions, reducing the time from months to mere weeks. When we focused on the customer experience by using end-to-end, event-driven data, analytics and decision making, we were able to achieve a truly real-time response model. The overall return on investment of the Greenhouse venture has already reached over tens of millions of dollars in just four months. As for our employees, we saw groups of engineers empowered to make decisions and leverage the tools they wanted, all out of a desire to provide a better customer experience. We are confident Greenhouse has reshaped the way we will work from this point on.
