Transforming Fuel Cards and Fleet Management
Empowering Fleetcor with Beyond's Data Consulting, Advanced AI Solutions, and Robust Data Ecosystems for Enduring Market Leadership.
The global payment solutions provider worked closely with Beyond to develop its AI capabilities through a multi year data transformation programme
About Fleetcor
Fleetcor is a global provider of commercial payment solutions, specialising in fuel cards and workforce payment products and services. With its headquarters in the United States, Fleetcor's operational footprint extends across North America, Europe, Asia, and South America, serving over 800,000 businesses.
Their portfolio of brands is diverse, offering a variety of payment methods including fuel cards, tolls, lodging discount cards, and corporate spend cards.
Fleetcor streamlines the way companies manage and report expenses, helping businesses control employee spending and ultimately saving money on their bottom line.
Industry Context
The fuel card industry is on the cusp of transformation. Intensely competitive, the sector has historically engaged in price-based competition, with businesses juggling multiple cards and showing low brand loyalty.
However, the advent of electric vehicles (EVs) is reshaping the landscape. As the sector pivots towards sustainability, with EVs projected to form a significant portion of fleets, fuel card companies must adapt. This shift not only alters the product offering, but also requires a revamp of the infrastructure, with charging solutions replacing traditional fuel stations.
The industry must anticipate these changes and innovate to provide integrated payment solutions that cater to a mix of fuel types, including electricity.
For companies like Fleetcor, this evolution presents both a challenge to their traditional business model and an opportunity to lead in a nascent, rapidly growing market segment.
The Imperative for Data Transformation
For Fleetcor, embarking on a data and digital transformation journey is not just a strategic move, but an imperative for growth.
The need to leverage customer analytics is two-fold: to enhance the customer experience by offering tailored services and pricing to move beyond the price wars that erode profit margins and to build up their knowledge and insights into customers to tackle the shift towards EV as effectively as possible.
By harnessing the power of data analytics, Fleetcor can gain a comprehensive view of customer behaviors, preferences, and needs.
This intelligence enables the creation of personalised experiences and value propositions that resonate with their customers. Furthermore, the insights derived from customer analytics serve as the backbone for digital initiatives such as real-time fuel card monitoring, fraud detection, and dynamic pricing models, all of which contribute to a superior customer experience and a more robust competitive stance in the market.
Fleetcor's Data-Driven Transformation with Beyond
Fleetcor approached us with a clear vision: to fully embrace data as a strategic asset. Recognising the need to assess their current data usage and the potential it held, they sought to kickstart a journey toward a data-driven transformation.
With the business having expanded through numerous acquisitions across various countries, Fleetcor understood that a crucial first step would be fostering alignment and collaboration between these disparate entities, a task made more challenging by a lean head office structure.
Partnering with Beyond, Fleetcor embarked on a thorough assessment of the as-is capability and then by developing tangible proof points within its various businesses. These proof points showcased 'the art of the possible', demonstrating how data could be leveraged to make informed decisions, optimise processes, and enhance customer understanding. This was instrumental in securing buy-in for a long-term commitment to data-centric strategies.
Through our collaboration, Fleetcor has begun to tap into data's potential as a significant differentiator and value creator, setting the foundation for a future where data insights lead to competitive advantage and business growth.
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Customer Data Strategy
The initial stage of Beyond's engagement with Fleetcor involved a strategic assessment of the company's data practices, with a comprehensive review of data systems, technology, and capabilities to discover opportunities for boosting commercial value.
We carried out thorough interviews with stakeholders across different business divisions to form an in-depth understanding of Fleetcor's data utilisation, identifying both successes and areas for improvement.
These discussions not only provided insights into the company’s current data state of play but also informed a strategic plan that catered to both immediate needs while supporting long-term data aspirations.
Concurrently, we conducted an evaluation of data skills across teams, pinpointing specific training and development areas to cultivate a robust data-centric corporate culture.
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Customer Attrition Analysis
As a major factor impacting business performance the initial ‘Quick Win’ work concentrated on customer behavior analysis, specifically investigating the drivers behind customer attrition.
This project required a sophisticated approach to data integration, requiring the collation and cleansing of a multitude of various data sources from legacy systems, which included a myriad of formats and sources such as historical price changes and promotional data often recorded on disparate Excel spreadsheets.
AI Attrition Modelling
Building on the insights from the previous phase, Beyond developed an AI-powered attrition model.
Machine learning algorithms were employed to profile each customer, identifying key behaviors and usage patterns that could predict potential attrition.
The automated prediction model significantly widened the window of opportunity for Fleetcor to engage with customers showing early signs of departure, changing the response time from a mere two weeks to up to six months.
This predictive capability, combined with a value-based segmentation strategy, enabled targeted retention efforts using the call centre, culminating in a remarkable 18% reduction in attrition within the most valuable customer segments.
Tailored attrition model for individual customer spots attrition earlier.
Value at risk modelling prioritises attrition
activity.
Automation increases speed of action to remedy attrition.
18 %
Attrition Reduction
Attriting customers now identified with
25 weeks
of runway
Call agents reduced lost customers from
15 % down to 3 %
“We chose Beyond because they have a strength in analytics, and they are more dedicated, more engaging and more capable of dealing with the results”
Vice President, Business Performance, Fleetcor Technologies
Segmentation Development
Recognising the opportunity for a more nuanced approach with its customer base the subsequent work focused on developing a deeper understanding of the customer base through data-driven segmentation.
Beyond combined a wide array of firmographic and behavioural data to create actionable segments with distinctive behavioural traits.
These segments informed the creation of growth hypotheses for testing.
This process facilitated the development of tailored customer strategies and journeys and allowed Fleetcor to distinguish and prioritise different customer needs effectively.
Journey Customisation
With a segmentation framework in place, Beyond proceeded to design and implement bespoke digital customer journeys.
These journeys were tailored to each customer group at every stage of the customer lifecycle. Starting at the acquisition stage, and continuing through the onboarding process ensured that each customer receives the appropriate level of support and guidance.
As customers become more embedded, the digital journeys adapt accordingly, transitioning into growth and retention pathways. Particular attention is put into the timing of rates and fee changes based on an individual's behaviours.
A retention stream was established, utilising the early detection signals from the attrition model to provide interventions for customers who might be at risk of disengagement.
“We work in a high volume transactional market-place, which we have a reasonable footprint in, and what Beyond are really helping us to do is to really cut through the layers and layers of complexity of data and really trying to understand our customers in a way that traditionally we haven’t gone to.”
Paul Holland, Chief Operating Officer, Fleetcor Technologies
Execution Challenge – Marketing Data Quality
To make the most of the new insights and customer classifications, we had to improve the quality and access to data for the marketing team. Even after starting to use a new marketing platform, the campaign team faced difficulties because the data was fragmented and they didn't have a complete view of each customer to effectively run campaigns.
This issue was particularly noticeable when trying to support customers at the beginning of their relationship with Fleetcor. The previous data analysis had proven that communicating well early on is key to keeping customers in the long run.
To address this, Beyond developed a unified and reliable source of customer information for Fleetcor. We organised all customer data in one place, ensuring it was accurate and could be expanded with more details over time. This gave us a full picture of our customers and potential customers at Fleetcor.
With this new approach, the marketing team could understand customers better and create more focused and timely campaigns. It also provided essential evidence that supported the need for a common data system and way of working across the company.
CRM Campaign Enhancement
With new customer journeys having been designed and the immediate data challenges sorted, Beyond stepped in to empower Fleetcor's regional teams by helping them to make full use of the newly improved data tools within their customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
We put a strong emphasis on creating a more personalised customer experience and on developing robust methods for measuring and improving the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
To achieve this, we crafted and put into action cutting-edge campaign strategies, which were rigorously tested and refined through a structured 'test and learn' cycle.
This proactive and cyclical strategy ensured that marketing efforts were continuously fine-tuned, resulting in more engaging customer interactions and ultimately, higher rates of successful transactions and conversions.
Tuning and Validation: Fraud Detection and Credit Risk Models
The finance teams in the US were looking for automated solutions to enhance fraud detection and credit risk assessment, aiming to improve performance.
Beyond analysed data from 80,000 applications, focusing on identifying key fraud indicators. We developed and implemented new automated fraud detection guidelines to expedite the process and minimise manual intervention.
Testing these guidelines revealed their efficacy in enhancing fraud detection rates. Our recommendations improved automatic decision-making by 2.9%, identified principal fraud indicators with their occurrence rates, and addressed data quality issues to bolster system efficiency.
Data Ecosystem Development
Fleetcor's journey with Beyond established a solid foundation and business case for a data transformation that encompasses the creation of a robust, unified data ecosystem.
We designed a scalable AWS-based data lake to centralize business data, integrating seamlessly with Fleetcor's Marketo platform for global marketing operations. This advanced architecture ensures data reliability for reporting, automation, and analytics, positioning it as a strategic asset for data-driven decisions and strategic growth.
Our data engineers and Fleetcor's team jointly employed agile methods to create this progressive infrastructure, supporting Fleetcor's long-term ambitions.
Operating Model Design
With the new Data Eco System a new way of working and collaborating with data across the group was required.
Beyonds Data Consulting team collaborated with Fleetcor to design a new shared vision and operating model for a shared services and Centre of Excellence.
The COE will focus on analytics and data governance to support business growth. It aims to streamline processes, improve decision-making with better business insights, and use advanced analytics models to capitalise on upsell opportunities and other significant business opportunities.
The COE is a strategic move to centralise expertise, improve data quality and governance, and enable the business to leverage data for better efficiency and profitability.
Benefits of the new data eco-system and operating model
Speed of implementation / culture change
Create a home and beating heart for the development of new data centric Fleetcor DNA.
Innovation
Drive future innovation through LOB collaboration. Tapping in to the innovation expertise and experience of our different markets.
Dynamic Model
Enable increased agility to alter the shape and focus of our data operating model as markets and consumers evolve.
Expertise and experience
Leverage best practice and learnings from the broader LOB base.
Improved quality and resilience
Data as a service model creates a higher level of quality, service delivery and resilience.
Outcomes Focused
Allow Fleetcor LOB efforts to be outcomes-focused rather than on data and people management.
Retention
Minimising the loss of people and knowledge by being part of a bigger Data team
Data Analytics Governance
Embed best practices, governance and standards in all areas of analytics and data science.
Lessons Learned
Interested in becoming a data driven organisation like Fleetcor?
Let's discuss how our tailored solutions can empower your decisions and drive your success. Contact us today to explore the possibilities.
William Beresford
Chief Strategy Officer
Why Choose Beyond?
Expertise
Our team of seasoned consultants has decades of combined experience in data strategy and consulting. We bring deep industry knowledge and hands on experience to every engagement.
Customised Solutions
We provide tailored solutions that fit with where you are on your data journey to address your unique data needs and challenges, ensuring a perfect fit for your organisation.
Value-Driven Approach
Our focus is on delivering real value through our services. We work to identify opportunities for cost savings, revenue generation, and process improvements.
End-to-End Support
We are with you every step of the way, from initial assessment to implementation and beyond. We are committed to your success.
Examples Of Our Work
