If a member of your fraud team is not having regular meetings with your sales and marketing leaders, you are probably missing the opportunity to harvest valuable internal data.
Fraud teams do more for merchants and banks than protect customers and prevent losses. They are an often-overlooked source of valuable customer data within an organization; data that could be used to hone and even drive sales and marketing efforts. Sadly, siloed operational structures and outdated understandings of the role of fraud management within an organization hold many companies back from realizing the full potential of their fraud teams and the valuable customer data they collect and analyze.
Retailers and financial institutions with mobile apps, online banking or ecommerce websites, are already gathering a goldmine of information that can be used for more than just keeping customers safe. Winning at omni-channel marketing and fulfillment, remaining relevant in the consumer mindset and gaining market share have one thing in common – an engaged and leveraged fraud team. Marketers interested in knowing their customers better and designing more effective product launches will often find the data they seek in their fraud teams’ back pocket.
3 ways fraud teams can reduce exposure and enable revenue
Marketers and sales leaders rarely think to approach fraud teams when they need insight into customer behavior or the risk levels that new geographies, payment methods, sales channels and fulfillment options present. Cloaked in obscurity, fraud teams are often viewed as practising a mysterious breed of data analysis voodoo that is irrelevant beyond its ability to detect illicit spending and money movement behavior and identify sophisticated ne’er-do-wells.
In reality, fraud teams can directly impact the success of sales and marketing efforts in three meaningful ways:
1. Fraud teams drive deeper understanding of customer behavior
One of the great things about a fraud management system is that it is data rich. Fraud management teams collect data about the many ways consumers interact with stores and banks. How customers utilize loyalty programs and want to be communicated with, where and when they like to purchase products and services and what they do on their mobile devices are all just as critical to effectively preventing fraud as they are to driving consumer spending.
2. Fraud teams make marketing efforts more lucrative
Fraud management teams have at their fingertips a wealth of customer profile information and an up-to-the-minute understanding of the risk levels that new marketing ventures present. Their ability to place risk management controls around new offers, provide comprehensive reports and perform detailed analysis make forays into new territory less risky and more profitable for merchants and financial institutions.
3. Fraud teams use integrated data technology
For too long, departments and their databases have been siloed from each other within banking and retail organizations. Historically, fraud teams have used one set of data to accomplish company objectives while sales, marketing and operations teams use others. Today, technological advancement has obliterated the barrier that used to exist between disparate data sets. Conversations about business benefits and use cases can help define the analytics, rule sets and predictive data models needed to support sales and marketing efforts. In the age of big data, that information can be gathered, distributed, analyzed and interpreted to create positive bottom line results.
Marketing and sales professionals wanting to build a holistic picture of real-time, cross-channel customer behavior will find no better resource than their internal fraud teams. A willingness to reach across the aisle and broaden the value of the fraud collection team beyond stopping fraud is a critical component to driving greater customer satisfaction and sales revenue.
About Mike Braatz
Mike Braatz is Senior Vice President - Payments Risk Management, Merchant and Bill Payment Solutions for global electronics payments and banking leader ACI Worldwide. He has extensive experience in designing enterprise fraud management solutions for clients in the retail, software and financial services industries.
About ACI Worldwide
ACI Worldwide, the Universal Payments company, powers electronic payments and banking for more than 5,600 financial institutions, retailers, billers and processors worldwide. ACI software processes USD 13 trillion each day in payments and securities transactions for more than 300 of the leading global retailers, and 18 of the top 20 banks worldwide.
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