Customer experience or User experience. Data and analytics. These are some of the trendy words but what do these things really have to do with improving the bottom line that is a great customer experience? We are encountering a neck-and-neck competition in the current world of digital marketing. 2021 has bought new methods of leveraging data to make smarter business decisions, as companies are quickly realizing – they produce measurable results. But if those efforts are not well calculated, well thought out, and well-aligned with your data management goals and functions, businesses of any size can find themselves drowning in this torrent of information.
You might be wondering if understanding a customer is so tough, the answer is No! Understanding your customer better isn’t that complex, but it does require a thoughtful analysis of where and how you can gather meaningful data. By better defining which aspects of the customer behavior or profiles are most crucial to your business, you can start to measure and analyze better ways to engage them and ultimately sell more.
A common question that most of you might have is why does customer experience (CX) matter? In the digital marketplace, today’s customers are even more demanding than ever before. Over half of customers today say that they have switched brands solely because of poor user experiences or customer experience. Companies who fail to embrace customer experience (CX) as a strategic path to growth won’t just be lagging, they’ll get left behind.
Art of Collecting Right Data for Customer Experience
Are you gathering the right type of customer data? Do you know, a truly effective database needs to recognize the type of data it’s collecting, as well as its value. So, let’s have a look at 3 most important types of data and how it is collected.
Customer Identity Data:
This is one of the most basic but very essential forms of data. By collecting the customer’s identity data, we are able to uniquely profile the individual with the basic information required to build a foundation, along with whatever contact details needed to reach out to them. Once the buyer persona is comprised, communication can be customized and personalized to their particular niche throughout their specific stage in the customer journey.
Typically, most businesses are already collecting this type of data when customers enter their payment details upon check out, sign up for a newsletter, or voluntarily hand it over in order to receive a product, service, or incentive.
Quantitative Data of Customers:
Once you are done with knowing the customer on an individual level, it’s important to understand how the customer is interacting with your brand and business with the help of measurable operational data, or quantitative data. Quantitative data is the data or information collected throughout the customer journey, right down to discovery details, numerous channel interactions, and conversion-specific steps that led to the purchase.
The aim of the quantitative data game is to understand the process of decision-making of customers as they interact with your company. What led them to discover your business? Which channel drives the most conversions?
Various channel-specific tools are available throughout the customer lifecycle and should be tailored to measuring your marketing goals and strategy.
Where to begin collecting quantitative data:
- Web Analytics Tools like Google Analytics
- Website cookies/mouse-tracking heatmaps on landing pages.
- Tracking pixels in emails/newsletters
- Recording historical purchase transactions
- Recording historical customer support communication
- Social media activities
Real-Time Customer Behaviour:
To better understand your customers, you need to get greater insight into how they actually behave. Surveys are fine and generalizations drawn from basic demography are still important, but brands today need to collect as much data as possible on the way that customers are behaving in real-time.
How long are they staying on your site? What links are they clicking on? What triggers them to share your content on social media? What are they uploading or downloading? What is the time when they are usually online? The holy grail that Data seeks to discover in industries of all shapes and sizes is needed anticipation. The businesses that are ahead today are the ones that can harvest, blend and analyze real-time customer data to recognize patterns and predict customer needs before they are even aware of them themselves.
Conclusion
Data is changing the ways in which businesses interact with customers, but you can leverage it more to not only improve your customer experience but also your business as a whole.
By building a better customer experience, you can make your business leaner, smarter and faster, and better able to adapt and survive in a changing environment and customer behavior.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chandrima Samanta
Content-Editor at MartechCube
Chandrima is a Content management executive with a flair for creating high quality content irrespective of genre. She believes in crafting stories irrespective of genre and bringing them to a creative form. Prior to working for MartechCube she was a Business Analyst with Capgemini.