Data science allows OneFamily to identify demand for new products

OneFamily is an award-winning financial services company, providing products and services that help modern families thrive. The firm’s vision of “Inspiring Better Futures” means creating products to meet the needs of every generation of the modern family: from dual parents, divorced people and single parents to grandparents, junior savers and family friends.

OneFamily serves over two million UK customers, caring for over £7 billion of families’ money. With over 40 years’ experience, the OneFamily team offers a range of products including protection and lifetime mortgages, children’s and young people’s investments, including Junior ISAs and Child Trust Funds. The business has donated £3.5 million to support customers and communities since 2015 and is committed to responsible investment through climate-impact funds.

Deliver accurate, low-waste customer targeting

Julian D’Aguiar, Customer Data Manager, OneFamily explains: “We are a progressive, innovative financial services organisation and we’re dedicated to developing products that meet the needs of today’s generation.”

“That’s why we’re strong advocates of data science, using it to determine strategy and product development and to help us predict market trends. Evidence-based decision making is core to our contemporary, forward-looking approach. Targeting effectively minimises waste and maximises value and relevance to our customers: these principles are important in our ethical business model.”

Fresco and Acorn datasets and predictive data modelling expertise

Julian was impressed by the Fresco and Acorn datasets.

They compare well with other segmentation models I’ve used in my career: we believe they’re best of breed products in our sector. They allow OneFamily to segment our family-oriented customer base and see how it’s represented across the UK population. We can zoom in to understand the preferences and needs of customers in granular detail, then locate other similar target groups.

OneFamily uses Acorn and Fresco data for insight into existing customers, including its large Child Trust Fund (CTF) customer base.

Julian adds, “Fresco is aimed at the financial services market so it’s a good match with the information we find most useful as we review and refine our products and portfolios. We can see where we index well across the UK and we can spot new opportunities to meet customer needs.”

Focused and effective product planning, marketing and retention

Data science has helped Julian and his team to identify demand for new products such as Junior ISAs, lifetime mortgages and over 50s family saving products. Fresco and Acorn data also help OneFamily prioritise recipients for cross-selling or upselling campaigns, connecting them with products that meet their current needs.

Julian D’Aguiar’s insight analysts now run logistical regression models and retention models to predict customer behaviour and preferences. Julian says, “We categorise our customers and apply CACI’s variables to identify high, medium and low propensity groups for a given product or campaign.”

“We have in-house data science skills, but we don’t have the resources to make the most of our ‘R’ analytics software. CACI’s experts bridge the gap, providing specialist knowledge and so we can exploit the datasets to the max. CACI’s Head of Analytics is exceptionally knowledgeable and has steered our retention project so we can use propensity modelling on top of the lookalike datasets. That means we can focus with confidence on incentivising the top three deciles rather than expensively blanket-marketing to the entire base.”