5 Data Tips for a Customer Driven Organisation
Many customer driven organisations invest heavily in technology and databases to ensure they capture all the relevant information and utilise the data for marketing and other purposes. The problem I see with that approach is that organisations look at it as the ultimate exercise for surviving and for estimating future growth. They tend to ignore the other layers which consider wider macro and micro economic factors and if not, they just brush through these layers superficially.
With the big data gold rush in this era, many organisations are trying to build a model or software to analyse customer information. I believe this effort can be better utilised in developing an engine which not only collects all the data related to its customers but also other relevant data and churns out individual customer specific recommendations to keep them engaged.
It makes business sense to invest in a customer data engine that helps in understanding your customer base, behaviour and value rather than assuming that an expensive system will do it all or isolated models are enough for what we do. Let us look at the 5 tips that may help you in developing a customer data engine:
1. Focus on what your customers do
Build metrics into the engine which measure and predict whether customers will stay or go, buy more from you and bring others to you. Identify behavioural patterns and grow your capabilities with your customer.
2. Know why your customers buy from you
Use the engine to identify what works for your business, is it the actual quality of the product? brilliance of your sales team? price point? or marketing message? Go from strength to strength on the factors that work and focus on uplifting other factors.
3. Measure performance of all business units through the engine
For a customer driven organisation, every employee along with the management team needs to be on the same page and also need to see proof day in and day out to ensure they are achieving the right outcomes/results. Build metrics into the engine to support the entire organisation and measure their contribution towards success.
4. Refine the engine with customer feedback and market factors
Its very important to incorporate feedback into the engine from listening channels and test your model for decision making. It is also important to understand the implications of external factors influencing your business.
5. Identify priorities and execute them based on customer journey
Planning, accountability and investment should be based on customer journey and its critical success factors as highlighted in the engine. Focus efforts on business deliverables that matter to your customers.
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