We all know by now that data collections can be utilized to improve the customer experience. In fact, about 84 percent of brands will increase their spending on data-driven marketing with each new year. They’ve heard of the benefits, and they want to make it a reality in their own companies.
However, businesses are still struggling to analyze the data and turn it into actionable strategies. Managing data is one of the biggest issues that businesses face. Learning how to manage it better can revolutionize the customer experience.
If you’re struggling to make adequate use of your data, don’t point fingers at the IT department. Data in its raw form includes numbers and formulas that are pretty easy to collect. It’s interpreting the data that needs the most work, and that starts with marketing.
“Visionary organizations have realized that managing master data is a business issue, not an IT problem,” says the data management organization Triniti in a white paper. “By applying the concepts of a lean business philosophy to master data, many wasteful processes in the information supply chain can be identified and eliminated.”
A greater customer experience relies on better data management in this day and age. Here are some management improvements you should be making.
1. Identify reasons for your lost customers.
Data from HelpScout shows that about 78 percent of customers have bailed on their cart because of a poor customer service experience. Additionally, for every bad experience a customer has, it will take about 12 good ones to win that customer back.
This kind of data is invaluable for understanding what makes a customer angry and what’s required for their return. Collect this kind of information in your own corporation and use it to define a customer protection and recovery strategy.
2. Do first-hand information gathering to fill in the gaps.
You’ll never get perfect information from your data collections. There are too many variables that can lead to inaccuracies, and things will slip through the cracks. This data is still useful, however, and you can maximize its impact on your campaign by conducting interviews with actual customers about your products and their experiences.
“When conducting interviews, the goal is to get to know the different user groups,” says an article from The Next Web. “By looking at usage and behavior data in a third-party analytics tool, you can identify specific user groups and analyze the product features used most. If the goal is to improve the overall product, you need information from different categories. Alternately, if the goal is specifically to optimize a certain feature, you can subset user categories.”
Over time, this process will lead to far more accurate and applicable data for the benefit of your customers.
3. Use management platforms to track and monitor data.
Your team is only human, so you can’t possibly understand every tidbit of data the computer spits out. It’s also easy to lose information and interpret things inaccurately. However, you can use a resource like a data management platform to collect, aggregate, and export data.
Such a platform is excellent for collecting audience insights, organizing thoughts, configuring applications, retargeting your campaign, finding leads and prospecting new customers, optimizing your site, and receiving overall better ROI. Look into the different management platforms available to develop a stronger campaign and make the most of your data.
4. Make it more about the data than the method.
It’s easy to get caught up in the way or amount of data you collect. Instead, make it about the quality. Put your resources towards creating a stronger knowledge base that can benefit your company overall.
“Know your information and recognize that not all information is equal,” says an article from CIO. “Many organizations lack basic knowledge like who owns specific information, how important the data is or even whether it is personal or business in nature. You need to map and classify information to discover its relative value. Once you’ve done this, you can more easily prioritize security, protection and management resources for the information that really matters.”
Customer service and data management are now more intertwined than ever. Your biggest competition is already working on their data collection and utilization. Staying competitive and giving customers what they want through data is the best thing for your current strategy.
Hi Larry! I completely agree with you that data management is a huge key to understanding and implementing customer service strategies. The Social Age provides a plethora of information and ways to engage with the consumer, and companies need to take advantage of this. Like you stated, if a company isn’t willing to, then they should assume that their competition is. Using data management platforms will definitely help, because there is so only so much a person can do to track data, having these will help a company. Great read!