Don’t drown in your numbers!
It used to be that metrics were hard to find in marketing. Beyond the obvious metrics of revenue, margin and response rates, few metrics were analyzed, because marketers couldn’t obtain them. In the absence of data, marketers focused on creative, positioning and market research, where strategies could be developed and actions taken.
Now, while creative, positioning and market research are still important, there is a whole new world of numbers to deal with. From web site metrics to social media to email response to widespread voice of customer (VoC) programs, marketers find themselves swimming in an ever-deepening ocean of numbers.
Yet with all these numbers, it seems sometimes like we know less and less. The problem is that we do not tie the numbers we analyze to the actions we want to take with the business. As a result, too much time is spent analyzing data that will be nice-to-know, rather than developing insight that can improve customer relationships and drive the business forward.
In my experience, there are 3 key questions you need to ask to ensure you are focusing on analysis that will be meaningful:
1. Can you take action? If not, then do not pass go, do not collect $200 
2. Can you measure the results of the actions you take? What gets measured is what matters.
3. Can this analysis be used to improve customer experience, especially for your best customers? Retained best customers represent the bulk of the profits and are the lifeblood of your business.
Bruce Temkin tells one story, about data from Voice of Customer research, that is usually reported and seldom used. Enjoy.
Amplify’d from experiencematters.wordpress.com
Take Customer-Insightful Actions
In my recent post 10 Customer Experience Resolutions For 2011, item #6 was: We shall make customer-insightful decisions. This resolution is to make sure that companies stop thinking about voice of the customer (VoC) programs as a source of data or metrics. The main value of a VoC program is to affect what a company does; to make it more customer-centric.
So companies should organize their VoC programs to optimize the decisions and actions that it drives. To that end, I’ve identified a number of areas where companies can take action on VoC insights.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/aohhc
