Improve Your Customer Experience: 3 Benefits of Data Management

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In order to improve your customer experience, you need to know what your customers want. But sometimes customers themselves aren’t even sure of their expectations. When this is the case, online data is the perfect way to understand your customers, their behavior, and their needs.

1. Looking Back to Look Ahead

Data management can help you get a better look at your customers and their interests. When your data is organized, you’ll start to see trends in their behavior. You’ll see their past purchases, prices they’ve been willing to pay, and even old communications.

Photo Courtesy of Rob Bye (Stocksnap)When you know what customers have wanted, bought, and paid for in the past, you’re more likely to predict what they’ll want in the future. Shoppers still long for the days when shopkeepers knew exactly what their customers were going to order before they even stepped foot in the store. Better data management can help your business recapture this experience. So many companies, like Netflix and Amazon, are already doing so.

2. Keeping in Contact

Your customers actually want to hear from you. About 69% polled said they want updates on services and products through email. However, they don’t want to be bombarded by emails that don’t matter to them.

When your data is organized, you can group customers and leads into different categories based on similarities and interests. Then, with this process streamlined, you can automate marketing campaigns and emails, sending customers the emails they want about the information they need.

Zoho CRM is also a great tool that can help you keep your data organized and your customers engaged with automated email campaigns. It also integrates with Reports so you can see real-time updates and stats on the power of those marketing campaigns.

An added bonus: because data management makes it easier to automate your marketing with tools like Zoho CRM, your efficiency will increase substantially. With marketing streamlined and automated, suddenly you and your employees will have extra time and resources available for other business matters.

3. Improving Interactions

How many times have you called a company’s customer service, only to be put on hold? How many minutes (or hours) have you spent bouncing back and forth between elevator music and a customer service rep that doesn’t have the answers you need about your service or experience?

Data management can help these interactions go smoother. Get chatting with customers and listen to what they have to say. If your data is organized, you and your employees will always know just how to respond and help.

You won’t have to ask questions you should already know the answer to (“What product did you recently purchase?” “How long have you been a customer?”). You’ll know when customers were last in touch with the company and what was discussed. Alleviating the stress that comes with customer service interactions is a huge benefit to both customers and employees.

Use (Don’t Overuse) Your Data

Data management is important, but don’t lose sight of what matters most: your company and its values. Your customers ultimately chose to buy your products or utilize your services because you provided them with a memorable, positive experience.

However, sometimes businesses focus so much on the data that they lose sight of the actual customer experience. Though they may appear that way in a database, customers aren’t numbers. Treating them as such turns the customer experience generic and leads to the loss of the values that made your business special in the first place.

On the other hand, some companies that collect data don’t use it enough. Only 23% of companies say they integrate their data in real-time (probably because the data hasn’t been managed properly and has become overwhelming).

Find a balance that helps you keep organized and boost your customer experience, without threatening the relationships that have helped build your business.

Keri Lindenmuth
Keri Lindenmuth is the marketing manager and web content writer at KDG. Like any writer, she is obsessed with books and owns too many for her bookshelf. She also enjoys traveling both near and far with her friends and family.

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