In a bold demonstration of customer profiling in action, US Internet and mobile telephony service provider Sprint Nextel has informed around 1,000 wireless customers that their money is no longer good enough.

Those customers were deemed too expensive to support, because they called the customer services lines too frequently.

"The number of inquiries you have made to us ... has led us to determine that we are unable to meet your current wireless needs," reads a letter sent to the customers in question, according to the Wall Street Times newspaper.

"The amount of time being spent to resolve the same issues again and again was affecting our ability to service other customers," a company spokeperson told the paper. One such customer phoned the company’s call centre 25 times in a month.

The company, which is currently losing market share, recently tightened its restrictions on accepting customers on the basis of their credit ratings, in order to secure high-value customers.

This move is a high-profile example of how customer analytics can be used not only to identify a company’s most valuable customers, but also those that are damaging margins.

Further reading

The science of winning - advanced analytics for competitive advantage
Customers in the tank - customer analytics on the web