Deriving information into actionable insights
The world is being inundated with data, today more than ever. Think about the sheer number of emails that clog up your work and personal email inboxes daily.
During a mere 60 second timeframe, Google receives 4.2 million search queries, U.S. consumers stream 694 songs, send 350,000 tweets, spend $283,000 shopping Amazon and consume more than 404,444 hours of content on Netflix. In 2021 alone the average time spent on digital media per day was 485 minutes.
To process such large volumes of data — which includes structured, semi-structured and unstructured data — advanced analytic solutions have become a necessity. In fact, it’s nearly impossible to deliver superior customer service (CX) without data analytics because the ultimate CX relies upon data. But data overload can reduce a business’s capacity to function effectively, leading to the inability to make decisions at all.
With data analytics, however, large amounts of data can be used to enable well-informed business decisions that drive success and superior CX. The thing is, many of your customers simply don’t have the tools to ingest, process and make sense of large sets of data, meaning all that great information could be going to waste.
Steps involved in analyzing data
Arrow has the people and processes to efficiently and effectively analyze that data, which involves:
- Determining how data is grouped before separating it by many variables, such as age, gender, nationality, or income
- Collecting data from various sources that include online searches, computers, cameras, purchase histories, loyalty programs
- Organizing it on virtual software (leave those paper spreadsheets behind)
- Cleaning and scrubbing it to eliminate duplicated, incomplete or inconsistent information
- Creating that single source of truth
Data helps improve CX as it enables personalization at scale. If you collect such data but have no time to do anything with it, you’re leaving money on the table.
4 ways data can be used to improve CX
Today’s consumers have the luxury to find your competitors with a click or two. But by wisely using their data, you can help prevent this from happening. If you want to deliver personal offerings to make your customers happier and ensure they remain loyal to your brand, data analytics are key. Some ways data can be used to improve CX include:
- Tracking behavior: Do certain consumers visit your website a specific time of the day? What items do they purchase, and have you been able to use that data to upsell? Are they part of a loyalty program and if so, what incentivizes them? Analyzing data helps identify what’s behind your customers' patterns, enabling you to deliver personalization.
- Providing personalization: Like a missile seeking its target, analysis of data can ferret out hidden patterns, letting you know your customers wants and needs better and to respond accordingly. What good is a generic offer? By knowing what a customer is looking for, you can provide them with a deal, coupon or other offering based on past purchases or recent search queries.
- Building loyalty and retention: Research shows it costs five times more to attract a new customer versus keeping one. Customer loyalty, therefore, is huge and data analytics help you to understand the trends that drive better products and services that keep them coming back to you.
- Predicting patterns: Using predictive analysis, data can be used to not only get a grasp on what your customer wants and needs now — but on the future as well. What products are they leaning toward? Where and how are they trying to grow? By predicting their next step, you can put products or solutions in front of them that they might not even know exist.
Data here, data there, data everywhere
You understand your customers' pain points regarding data and analytics. Oftentimes, they have limited access to data because of resource constraints. Or their data is siloed because of a lack of integration. Maybe they’re looking for data scientists but are having a hard time finding them because of the shortage in supply or simply lack the funds to hire their own.
If any of these pertain to you, remember that Arrow has the resources to analyze vast amounts of data. We can connect you with vendors and solutions that ingest, organize, normalize and extract key data to make actionable insights happen. We employ data analytics tools that present information with dynamic and customized dashboards that allow you and your customers to thrive in today’s competitive landscape so you can grow and succeed.
In today’s world where digital transformation is happening at warp speed, a steady stream of data and the resources to analyze that data to create the ultimate experience is a must-have.
Where you lack time or resources, Arrow can help. We have an expansive vendor line card, the experienced personnel and the knowledge to take the data you collect, analyze it and make sense of it for you and your clients.
Data truly is the “new oil.” It’s integral in creating the ultimate CX, which all of us are trying to attain.
Want to learn more? Find out how Arrow can help.
This article was originally published in May 2021 and has been updated for relevancy.
