Behavioural campaigns lift loans response rates by 102%

A large financial institution approached the Applied Behavioural Economics (ABE) team to increase the response rates for one of its financial services campaigns. Behavioural economics principles were successfully applied to optimise various existing customer communication channels throughout the personal loan take-up/uptake journey.

The financial institution found the take-up of personal loans was low, especially among clients/customers who had not previously taken up any personal loans . The project and tested campaign were thus aimed at pre-approved clients who had not previously taken up a personal loan.

The improved communication channels included the initial campaign SMS and email, contact-centre agent call script, and the personal loan confirmation email. The success of the project was, therefore, not only based on an increased response rate to SMSes and initial emails but also on the higher conversion rate from contact-centre agents who used a behaviourally informed call script.

ABE piloted its newly designed communications over a course of six weeks, measured against the existing, business-as-usual models. The test campaign SMS achieved a 163% uplift in response rate against the previously used SMS, and the campaign email, a 43% uplift. Not only did the behavioural economics-trained contact-centre agents book more loans but also to a higher monetary value.

After the proven success of behaviourally informed client/customer communications, it is recommended that all contact-centre agents be trained in behavioural economics. The insights applied to this personal loan uptake journey can also easily be applied to other campaigns and customer communications of the particular financial institution.