Published on December 7th, 2019 | by Ali Dino
0Big Data is The Secret Tool to Customer Experience, and Here’s Why
Despite the fact we’ve gone digital, customer experience remains one of the most critical components to successful businesses and brands. In fact, experts expect customer experience to be the most vital factor and the biggest differentiator between competitors, overtaking product and price. Beyond that, companies who invest in customer experience see their revenues grow 4-8% above the average market’s growth rate.
It’s no secret customer experience, and customer service is essential to business success. However, it’s not always simple to maintain. It’s challenging to know what customers are thinking, why they’re leaving, and what you’re doing wrong. Before the advent of big data and data analytics, trying to decipher customer behavior was tantamount to throwing darts at a dartboard blindfolded. You could try your best, but hitting the target was difficult.
Now, big data gives us unique insight into customer behaviors, patterns, and trends, so that business owners and brands don’t have to guess anymore. Instead, companies everywhere can gain meaningful insight using the power of technology.
What kinds of customer experience things can you learn and do with big data? Is it really the secret tool for customer experience? Let’s break down some of the things big data can do.
Recognize Customer Behaviors and Trends
The most critical piece of the customer experience chain is understanding how customers are feeling. Collecting comprehensive data on your customers and analyzing it allows you to do just that. When you first look at any analytics software, it seems like a bunch of inconsequential numbers. But, if you dive deeper, these numbers offer pertinent information about your customer’s behaviors.
You can start to notice how your customers behave on your website and social media, and how they react to product launches, ad campaigns, and more. Comprehensive data analytics offer unparalleled insight into customer behavior and trends. These trends translate into the ability to know and understand your customers on every link of the chain. From the marketing to the purchase, thorough data analytics allows you to see inside how and why your customers and fans behave the way that they do.
Once you understand your customers, improving their experience becomes much more straightforward.
Gives Insight to What’s Working
Along the same lines as recognizing behavior, analytics allow you to see what initiatives are working and which aren’t. Sometimes the best intentions don’t lead to ideal results. Whether you’re adding in an email, personalization, or new customer service reps, your analytics can show you what is working. Moreover, it can show you what activities are worth the time and money investment.
Personalized and Predictive Marketing
Personalized and predictive marketing is the future. While customers are still a little wary about companies having and using their information for marketing purposes, it’s an incredible tool. Big data is what allows companies like Netflix and Spotify to make personalized recommendations to their users. It’s the same thing that enables giants like Amazon to show you other products you might like, based on your previous shopping habits. It’s also why you sometimes see ads for things you feel like you’ve only thought about in your head.
Big data allows companies to personalize the shopping and marketing experience and predict what their shoppers are going to want in the future. This type of insight Is the type of secret sauce that will set your company ahead of the competition in the realm of customer experience.
Increasing Customer Retention
No one likes to lose customers. Just like you can assess what’s working and what isn’t working, big data allows you to peek into the reasons that customers are jumping ship. It also can show why the clients that stay choose to stay. Through deep demographic and behavioral insight, you can even start to recognize the types of customers that might become your best customers and ones that might jump ship.
Knowing which customers are likely to leave and which are expected to stay can help you identify a customer experience strategy that prioritizes retention.
Predicting the Future
Having access to big data analytics is like having a personal fortune teller. Using all the information and data points available, you can easily predict your customers’ future behaviors. Additionally, you can predict which products will be successful, what your future revenue should look like, and more.
With these insights, it’s easy to predict your customers’ behavior. You can foresee how they’ll respond to actions you’ll take, which makes customer-centric decision-making a breeze. Who doesn’t want to be able to accurately guess which products their customers will respond to or which posts on social media will work the best?
If You Want to Improve Customer Experience, Big Data is Key
Clearly, big data and data analytics can offer significant advantages to the customer experience. These bonuses are just the tip of the iceberg, too. The hardest part about big data is getting started and knowing where to start. There are several established data analytics consulting firms out there who can ensure you’re on the right track.
Additionally, the internet is packed full of resources to learn how to use the various software solutions available for aggregating and analyzing data. So, if you aren’t sure where to begin, do a little internet searching or reach out to an expert. Big data is too powerful of a customer experience asset to ignore.