“Big Data” Is A Small Concept Unless You Can Apply It To The Customer Experience
- by Michael Hylton
There’s been a lot of recent talk in the industry about “big data”. Much can be said about the importance of big data and the results from it, but you need to always consider the customer experience when analyzing and applying customer data.
Personalization and merchandising drive the user experience. Big data should enable you to gain valuable insight into each of your customers and apply that insight at the moment they are on your Web site, talking to one of your call center agents, or any other touchpoint. While past customer experience is important, you need to combine that with what your customer is doing on your Web site now as well what they are doing and saying on social networking sites. It’s key to have a 360 degree view of your customer across all of your touchpoints in order to provide that relevant and consistent experience that they come to expect when interacting with your brand.
Big data can enable you to effectively market, merchandize, and recommend the right products to the right customers and the right time. By taking customer data and applying it to product recommendations, you have an opportunity to gain a greater share of wallet through the cross-selling and up-selling of additional products and services. You can also build sustaining loyalty programs to continue to engage with your customers throughout their long-term relationship with your brand.
