Comparethemarket in CRM review

Comparethemarket.com, the price comparison site which is home to the Russian meerkat character Aleksandr Orlov, has kicked off a review of its CRM account.
The company behind the site, Budget Insurance (now BGL Group), has confirmed the move, being handled by AAR. It says the review has been called to appoint an agency to handle the “overall customer marketing programme”.
Havas EHS currently handles the CRM business and has been invited to repitch. In April, Albion was appointed as its customer experience agency.
The rethink coincides with a shake-up of Comparethemarket.com’s data strategy, which has seen it implement a new database system, MongoDB, developed and supported by10gen.
Designed to improve the customer experience of its home insurance offering, the system collects customer details and then securely sends them to a number of different insurers. Once the insurers’ systems reply, Comparethemarket.com can aggregate and display prices for consumers.
“Ultimately we want every single customer to have an exceptional experience,” said Matthew Collinge, solutions architect at Comparethemarket.com. “Our business model has changed significantly, but trying to make changes on the old system meant we spent our time dealing with complexity rather than adding any value.”
Collinge said the new system delivers an enhanced customer experience, improved horizontal scalability and a vast improvement in the company’s time to deliver business value and customer insight.
Comparethemarket.com was set up in 2006, introducing the meerkat character – and sister site Comparethemeerkat.com – in 2009. Created by VCCP and voiced by actor Simon Greenall, the character has won numerous industry awards and even had a book published in 2010.
Other merchandise has also been created in tandem with the ongoing campaign, and, since July 2011, any customer purchasing car, home or pet insurance receives a cuddly meerkat toy.