Analytics

BobL · ‎08-22-2013

In my previous blog in the Customer Analytics series, I mentioned a few examples of the various structured and unstructured data types that many organizations collect. Now, let’s turn to the survey results to find out what the most prevalent sources of customer data are. It’s not surprising that traditional data sources still dominate. Demographic and firmographic information that can be purchased from providers such as Experian and Dun & Bradstreet (or bundled with Alteryx Professional Edition) allow you to augment existing data you collect about your customers with hundreds of consumer- and business-specific variables, such as household income, presence of children in the home, and/or number of employees at a particular office. You can also divide your customers into specific segments based on a number of these different variables so you can tailor marketing messages toward key concerns for that segment, or identify other potential prospects for your product or service based on similar consumers who have purchased from you in the past.

Many organizations also rely heavily on primary and secondary research in order to get feedback on potential new products, pricing strategies, packaging, and other critical operational questions. And, the majority of organizations (and almost all B2C companies) reported that Point of Sale (POS) transaction data was another critical source of data, providing not only insight about what each individual customer buys, but also the frequency and location of these purchases.

But now we’re seeing the emergence of several new areas of insight, specifically in the area of social media. That’s not surprising when you consider that one post or comment by a well-respected or widely followed customer has the potential to influence millions to buy, or in some cases not to buy, and can have a big impact on your revenue.

We also found more companies starting to use information being captured by their customer service departments, specifically complaint data and recorded voice calls. Highly accurate voice transcription software is now available so that the spoken word can join written forms of communication, such as emails and surveys, to become yet another source of data that can be analyzed.

The bottom line is that data captured from every interaction we have with our customers has the potential to provide insight into their behavior, attitudes, and opinions. In my next blog post I’ll go into detail about the specific lines of business where this data is being used, and what goals they have set for customer analytics.