Growing Your Business through Data Analytics

Satisfied customers drive business growth. Whether retail, manufacturing or banking, repeat clients, customer loyalty, and even referrals to friends and family are testaments to the quality of a company’s products and services.

But what exactly determines customer satisfaction? How can businesses elevate customer experience, even broaden customer reach for that matter to achieve business growth?

Data – lots of data – and an efficient use of these information may just be the answer. Data on consumer needs, preferences, purchasing behavior, engagement and even attitude can be used in developing targeted marketing and communications campaigns. This then enables businesses to personalize the approach, language, messaging, frequency of reminders, channels and overall customer experience, which ultimately results in higher customer engagement, sales and returns.

But data alone won’t do the job for you. Data without analytics is nothing. Think a large pile of toys or building blocks with different shapes, colors and sizes, a whole box of them unconstructed -- they are nothing but random pieces of plastic. But when sorted, they can be anything your creative mind wants them to be. In the banking and retail sectors where demand for personalized experiences is on a steady rise, data and analytics have become more precious than gold.?

Turning data into useful analytics

?Data collected from the different units of your supply chain could be easily overwhelming if not managed properly and instinctively. Remember that information from one business process is only a part of data across the entire operation, and even that is just a fraction of information circulating across the banking and retail industries.

Collecting data is the foremost step, with sorting, managing and analyzing the information as the next crucial action items. A dedicated team for research and data analytics is a plus for any company. With this, you can monitor market trends and developments and act on them before they become a problem or a missed opportunity.?

The steady rise of new technologies such as AI and cloud computing has been paving the way to a more connected network of data sources within and outside an organization. We call this open innovation at TCS, an initiative we have been committed to for 15 years and counting. We strongly support collaboration and exchange of ideas with thinkers outside of TCS to gather diversified visions and innovations that can make meaningful impact for the future.

An integrated virtual platform

This is where the need for a single agile platform comes in. This is a place – virtual and cloud-based – where collated customer data as well as market insights can be harnessed by a company’s technology and can then be turned into useful analytics. This platform becomes the integrated place for all decision-making, growth and development-related tasks. When used effectively and intelligently, this can result in improved brand perception, better customer experiences and higher conversion rates.

Of course, not all platforms are created equal. Some perform better than others, especially in the aspects of adaptability and sustainability. A truly effective platform can be tailored to your company’s specific needs at a certain time and with the available resources. But always and regardless of platform adopted, people working with these technologies is the key. After all, what use is a state-of-the-art platform without the skills of an execution team?

Understanding customers and their needs and preferences is the foremost goal of harnessing data and analytics, with predicting their choices and actions as the by-product. In the age of AI, cloud and social media, who has the most data is not necessarily the most successful. It is the one who knows how to interpret and make use of these data effectively, responsibly and sustainably. ?