If your company is like most, it’s collecting data at a breath-taking speed. But just because you have information lying around, it doesn’t mean you’re using it to its full potential. Think of unused and underutilized data as like a cluttered closet. You know there’s stuff you may need someday behind closed doors. However, if you don’t sort through and organize it, you won’t be able to leverage what you have.
You can also think of underutilized data as bank deposits on which you could gain a higher return. With the right investment strategy, you can optimize your return. In terms of optimizing data, those “returns” extend beyond the company’s gains to the customer’s wins as well. And by improving the customer experience, each side’s gains feed off each other. Explore how below.
Deliver Personalization Without Being Intrusive
Cold calls and door-to-door sales pitches have lower success rates for a reason. For one, these approaches catch people off guard. The person making the pitch might have aggregate information indicating the contacts on their list make ideal prospects. Yet, if you’ve ever received an unexpected sales spiel, you know that’s not always true.
Sure, maybe you’re a homeowner in an upper-middle-class neighborhood with manicured lawns. Summer’s heating up and the bugs are out. You need some degree of pest control, but you don’t want reps from bug control companies knocking on your door. If and when you decide it’s time to call the pros, you want to be the one reaching out.
Well, zero party data works similarly. It’s information customers willingly exchange with your company. Clients and prospects are the ones approaching you first. And your organization can use this info to personalize experiences. Everything from recommendations to permission-based communications is on the table.
You don’t have to follow customers or chase leads with secretive tactics. By being transparent and putting clients in the driver’s seat, it’s easier to build trust. Plus, interactions are more relaxed, creating scenarios where customers are increasingly willing to engage. After all, pushing people’s boundaries usually doesn’t end with a sale.
Gain a Better Understanding of Customer Needs
The American Customer Satisfaction Index indicates consumer sentiment levels are at their lowest in over two decades. Despite attempts to aim higher, orgs aren’t understanding consumers’ expectations. Clients are no longer comparing the experiences they get from a company with direct competitors. They’re comparing the experience they get from their wireless carrier to their perceptions of the grocery store down the street.
Developing a clear understanding of your customers’ expectations isn’t possible without data. The bar you’re trying to reach might not be the same from your market’s point of view. It’s why a few focus groups and survey responses won’t cut it. You need multiple sources of information you can impartially combine to reveal insights. Otherwise, you risk cherry-picking the data points that serve your internal biases.
Analytic tools are examples of more impartial aggregators. These tools take information from several data points, including customers’ behaviors and responses. You’ll discover insights you may have otherwise missed. Most importantly, you’ll develop a big-picture understanding of your market’s expectations and how to realistically meet them.
Anticipate the Future
There’s a well-known saying about history. It tends to repeat itself, albeit in slightly different ways. Still, there’s a reason past behavior is the most reliable predictor of future outcomes. Humans are creatures of habit, business cycles repeat like a soundtrack on replay, and trends emerge from recycled patterns.
While hindsight is typically 20/20, you need to look back and reflect on what happened to gain a clear vision. You also need to recognize patterns between what occurred then and what’s happening now. Data helps establish this clarity, including what your customers’ future needs might be.
Predictive data models can also take different environmental variables and combine them with consumer behavior info. The outputs from these models help your company prepare for what’s coming. You can make changes to ensure customers’ experiences are as seamless as possible, mitigating the risk of dissatisfaction.
For instance, a predictive model may reveal offering too many competing promotions will lead to product shortages. You can avoid this scenario by running the promos the model indicates won’t cause inventory issues. Predictive data guides optimized strategies so customers’ experiences match their needs and expectations.
Refine Marketing Efforts
There’s nothing worse than extending a ton of effort without seeing results. Take the quest to get in physical shape as an analogy. You believe you’re cutting calories and exercising more. But the scale isn’t budging, and the muffin top isn’t going away.
What if the extra time you’re spending counting calories and hitting the gym isn’t the solution? There could be underlying causes for the lack of results. The solution might be to correct hormonal imbalances, change your diet’s nutrient density, or focus on strength training.
Marketers run into the same issues if they’re targeting the wrong customers. Unfruitful efforts can stem from relying on assumptions or throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks. When you don’t have reliable data to harness, your marketing efforts become a waste of time. It’s one thing to experiment, but it’s another to not have a clear hypothesis. Effective marketing strategy comes from data informing you who to target with the right message at the right time.
Using Data To Improve the Customer Experience
The statistics on satisfying customer experiences are enlightening. Consumers are likely to spend more if they’re confident they’ll get a positive experience. Data shows 61% of customers will shell out at least 5% more due to good experiences. Prioritizing the customer experience really does impact the bottom line.
Without good data, it’s challenging to create the types of interactions consumers will appreciate. Building a robust pipeline of information isn’t enough, though. You need to know what kind of pipelines to build and how to best leverage them. Once you do, you’ll get better at delivering experiences customers rave about.
