Skip to content
Product cover

Matchmaking With Math: How Analytics Beats Intuition to Win Customers

December 15, 2010 | Michael S. Hopkins, Leslie Brokaw | Data, AI, & Machine Learning

Credit insurance and debt protection product seller Assurant Solutions ran a classic customer service
call center–operationally optimized, “skills-routed,” managerially enlightened. But when it explored analytics-based approaches to rethinking how the center worked, a strange thing happened: The success
rate for customer interactions tripled.

According to Cameron Hurst, vice president of Targeted Solutions at Assurant, the result surprised them. “We learned that operational efficiency and those traditional metrics of customer experience like abandon rate, service levels and average speed to answer are not the things that keep a customer on the books.” They found instead that technology could assist the company in retaining customers by leveraging the fact that some customer service reps are extremely successful at dealing with certain types of customers. Matching each specific in-calling customer to a specific customer service rep made a huge difference. Science and analytics couldn’t quite establish why a particular rapport would be likely to happen, but they could look at past experience and predict with a lot of accuracy that a rapport would be likely to happen.

In this SMR case-study interview, Hurst explains how Assurant Solutions figured out the right questions to ask, used analytics to focus on new ways to match customers with reps and figured out the best ways to solve the problem of conflicting goals.

Purchase Options

Educator and Student Discounts Available. Learn more »

  BENCHMARKS  
Loading Time: Base Classes  0.0006
My Controller Construct  0.0013
Build Nav  0.0006
Controller Execution Time ( Products / Route )  0.0688
Total Execution Time  0.0694
  GET DATA  
No GET data exists
  MEMORY USAGE  
1.5692 MB
  POST DATA  
No POST data exists
  URI STRING  
store/matchmaking-with-math-how-analytics-beats-intuition-to-win-customers
  CLASS/METHOD  
products/route
  DATABASE:  MITSLOAN_DEV   QUERIES: 68  (Hide)
0.0029  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0002  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0007  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0002  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0014  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0006  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0002  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0008  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0001  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0001  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0001  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0001  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0001  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0002  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0001  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0001  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0001  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0001  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0001  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0001  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0004  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0002  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0001  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0001  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0001  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0001  

SELECT *
FROM (`carts`)
WHERE `cart_id` =  '824c9a28c75686c071a3ef3ec881e851'
ORDER BY `created_at` DESC 
0.0002  

SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS cat_id
FROM (`product_categories`)
WHERE `status_id` =  'A'
AND `url_friendly` =  'matchmaking-with-math-how-analytics-beats-intuition-to-win-customers'
AND `parent_id` =  1 
0.0026  

SELECT c.parent_id, c.format_id
                    FROM products AS p, products AS c
                    WHERE p.prod_id = c.parent_id AND
                        c.avail_id IN ('A','B','D') AND
                        c.type_id = 'V' AND
                        (
                            c.sku = 'matchmaking-with-math-how-analytics-beats-intuition-to-win-customers' OR
                            if(c.format_id = 'Certificate', '', p.url_friendly) = 'matchmaking-with-math-how-analytics-beats-intuition-to-win-customers'
                        )
                    LIMIT 1 
0.0003  

SELECT `parent_id`
FROM (`products`)
WHERE `prod_id` =  711 
0.0002  

SELECT *
FROM (`products`)
WHERE `products`.`prod_id` =  '711' 
0.0002  

SELECT *
FROM (`authors`)
JOIN `products__authors` ON `authors`.`author_id` = `products__authors`.`author_id`
WHERE `products__authors`.`prod_id` =  '711'
ORDER BY `sort` ASC 
0.0001  

SELECT `cat_id`
FROM (`product_categories__products`)
WHERE `prod_id` =  '711' 
0.0001  

SELECT *
FROM (`product_flags__products`)
WHERE `prod_id` =  '711' 
0.0001  

SELECT `sku`
FROM (`products__xsell`)
WHERE `prod_id` =  '711'
ORDER BY IF(position = 0, 1, 0) ASC , `position` 
0.0233  

SELECT `products`.`parent_id`
FROM (`transaction_lines`)
JOIN `products` ON `products`.`sku` = `transaction_lines`.`sku`
JOIN `product_categories__products` ON `products`.`parent_id` = `product_categories__products`.`prod_id`
WHERE `products`.`avail_id` =  'A'
AND TO_DAYS(transaction_lines.updated_at) < (TO_DAYS(NOW()) - 90)
AND `product_categories__products`.`cat_id` IN ('276') 
GROUP BY `products`.`parent_id`
ORDER BY COUNT(*) DESC
LIMIT 6 
0.0002  

SELECT `parent_id`
FROM (`products`)
WHERE `prod_id` =  '701' 
0.0002  

SELECT *
FROM (`products`)
WHERE `products`.`prod_id` =  '701' 
0.0003  

SELECT *
FROM (`authors`)
JOIN `products__authors` ON `authors`.`author_id` = `products__authors`.`author_id`
WHERE `products__authors`.`prod_id` =  '701'
ORDER BY `sort` ASC 
0.0001  

SELECT `parent_id`
FROM (`products`)
WHERE `prod_id` =  '3943' 
0.0002  

SELECT *
FROM (`products`)
WHERE `products`.`prod_id` =  '3943' 
0.0002  

SELECT *
FROM (`authors`)
JOIN `products__authors` ON `authors`.`author_id` = `products__authors`.`author_id`
WHERE `products__authors`.`prod_id` =  '3943'
ORDER BY `sort` ASC 
0.0001  

SELECT `parent_id`
FROM (`products`)
WHERE `prod_id` =  '3049' 
0.0002  

SELECT *
FROM (`products`)
WHERE `products`.`prod_id` =  '3049' 
0.0002  

SELECT *
FROM (`authors`)
JOIN `products__authors` ON `authors`.`author_id` = `products__authors`.`author_id`
WHERE `products__authors`.`prod_id` =  '3049'
ORDER BY `sort` ASC 
0.0001  

SELECT `parent_id`
FROM (`products`)
WHERE `prod_id` =  '3433' 
0.0002  

SELECT *
FROM (`products`)
WHERE `products`.`prod_id` =  '3433' 
0.0003  

SELECT *
FROM (`authors`)
JOIN `products__authors` ON `authors`.`author_id` = `products__authors`.`author_id`
WHERE `products__authors`.`prod_id` =  '3433'
ORDER BY `sort` ASC 
0.0001  

SELECT `parent_id`
FROM (`products`)
WHERE `prod_id` =  '3497' 
0.0002  

SELECT *
FROM (`products`)
WHERE `products`.`prod_id` =  '3497' 
0.0002  

SELECT *
FROM (`authors`)
JOIN `products__authors` ON `authors`.`author_id` = `products__authors`.`author_id`
WHERE `products__authors`.`prod_id` =  '3497'
ORDER BY `sort` ASC 
0.0001  

SELECT `parent_id`
FROM (`products`)
WHERE `prod_id` =  '4191' 
0.0001  

SELECT *
FROM (`products`)
WHERE `products`.`prod_id` =  '4191' 
0.0002  

SELECT *
FROM (`authors`)
JOIN `products__authors` ON `authors`.`author_id` = `products__authors`.`author_id`
WHERE `products__authors`.`prod_id` =  '4191'
ORDER BY `sort` ASC 
0.0010  

SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS media_id, position
FROM (`media`)
WHERE `foreign_key_table` =  'products'
AND `foreign_key_column` =  'prod_id'
AND `foreign_key_value` =  '711'
AND `kind` =  'image_600x600'
ORDER BY IF(position = 0, 1, 0) ASC , `position` 
0.0001  

SELECT *
FROM (`media`)
WHERE `media`.`media_id` =  '347' 
0.0003  

SELECT *
FROM (`mime_types`)
WHERE `mime_types`.`extension` =  'jpg' 
0.0001  

SELECT *
FROM (`media_metadata`)
WHERE `media_id` =  '347' 
0.0003  

SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS media_id, position
FROM (`media`)
WHERE `foreign_key_table` =  'products'
AND `foreign_key_column` =  'prod_id'
AND `foreign_key_value` =  '711'
AND `kind` =  'gallery_image'
ORDER BY IF(position = 0, 1, 0) ASC , `position` 
0.0003  

SELECT *
FROM (`products`)
WHERE `avail_id` IN ('A', 'B', 'C', 'H') 
AND `parent_id` =  '711'
AND `type_id` =  'V'
ORDER BY IF(position = 0, 1, 0) ASC , `position`, `title` 
0.0001  

SELECT `c`.`format_id`, `c`.`price`, `c`.`sale_price`
FROM (`products` AS c)
WHERE `c`.`prod_id` =  '712'
LIMIT 1 
0.0002  

SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS media_id, position
FROM (`media`)
WHERE `foreign_key_table` =  'products'
AND `foreign_key_column` =  'prod_id'
AND `foreign_key_value` =  '712'
AND `kind` =  'thumbnail'
ORDER BY IF(position = 0, 1, 0) ASC , `position` 
0.0002  

SELECT `product_categories__products`.`cat_id`
FROM (`product_categories__products`)
JOIN `product_categories` ON `product_categories__products`.`cat_id` = `product_categories`.`cat_id`
WHERE `product_categories__products`.`prod_id` =  '711'
AND `product_categories`.`parent_id` =  1
AND `product_categories__products`.`cat_id` NOT IN (1, 261)  
0.0004  

SELECT `cat_id` AS id, `parent_id` AS parent, `status_id`, `name`, `description`, `url_friendly`, `page_title`, `meta_keywords`, `meta_description`, `position`, `updated_at`
FROM (`product_categories`)
WHERE `cat_id` != 1
ORDER BY `parent_id`, IF(position = 0, 1, 0) ASC , `position`, `name` 
0.0003  

SELECT *
FROM (`product_categories`)
WHERE `status_id` =  'A'
AND `parent_id` =  1
AND `cat_id` NOT IN (1, 261) 
ORDER BY `name` 
0.0002  

SELECT *
FROM (`site_settings`)
WHERE `option_key` =  'announcement' 
  HTTP HEADERS  (Show)
  SESSION DATA  (Show)
  CONFIG VARIABLES  (Show)