Customer fraud and bad debts were on the rise at one of the world's largest telecommunications and wireless data communications providers. Customers whose telephone service had been disconnected for nonpayment were able to call the customer service department, request and receive new telephone service. Then, the customer would not pay his or her new telephone bill, and the cycle would start all over again. All the while bad debts were mounting.

This telecommunications company's inability to accurately determine an applicant's credit history affected its product sales as well. For example, when applicants request new telephone service, the company also tries to sell them additional products or services. But unfortunately, the sales associates did not have an easy way to determine the caller's creditworthiness. As a result, an associate might spend several minutes explaining phone service to an applicant who was later deemed uncreditworthy. This problem made it difficult for sales associates to sell their products effectively.

At the recommendation of Dun & Bradstreet, this telecommunications giant turned to SCSI and its cutting edge Business Information Analysis System (BIAS) - a custom designed risk analysis tool that enables companies to instantaneously retrieve credit information and make risk decisions quickly and profitably.

Using BIAS, SCSI helped implement a four-pronged solution that enables them to greatly automate their processes. With the BIAS system, sales associates can now instantly identify 1) duplicate applicants; 2) customers with unpaid final bills; 3) alerts from credit bureaus; and 4) a scored rating of the customer's credit history.

The BIAS solution has given this provider several powerful weapons against dishonest customers. These include:

Duplicate Application Window  Now, when a customer calls, the associate enters the caller's information into the BIAS system. Then, the first screen presents a "duplicate application" window. This enables the associate to determine if the caller is a new applicant. In addition, if a customer calls back repeatedly (in an attempt to find an associate who might approve new service), it shows up on the system. An associate looking at that first screen will be able to tell the date and time the customer called, who that person spoke with, and what he or she was calling about. This function also helps the company serve its customers better, by enabling the associate to tell the caller the status on an outstanding issue or if another family member has already called about a certain matter.

Watch List  The second weapon, a "watch list" enables associates to readily identify applicants with unpaid bills. This second "check point" has further minimized bad debts.

Credit Alerts  The BIAS system also enables this company to look for alerts from credit bureaus. So if, for example, a caller was using an incorrect or false Social Security number (many applicants use the Social Security number of someone who is dead!), it will immediately show up on the system.

Scoring  Lastly, the BIAS system goes out to three major credit services - TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax - and gets an instantaneous credit "score" on applicants, so that associates can better determine to whom they can appropriately sell services and equipment.

"Bad debts have significantly decreased and profitability has increased since implementing the BIAS solution. In addition, sales associates can now more effectively cater or alter their sales approach to each specific customer, enabling them to sell our products and services more efficiently," according to Dan McCurdy, Senior Manager, who led the entire system conversion including staff training and the role-out process.

But the BIAS credit solution is only the first of a two-step project. They are also now implementing an order entry solution that integrates the credit system with existing order processing. With this solution, when customers call to order services and equipment, the BIAS credit system will serve as the gateway to the order processing system - enabling the sales associates to sell proactively and appropriately to the right customers.