4 steps to unlock the power of your data

The data you collect is a valuable asset for your organization — if you make the most of it. 

To unlock all the potential the data holds, you need to 

  • Consolidate the information you collect  
  • Analyze it 
  • Transform the raw data into insights 
  • Share these insights across all teams 

There has never been as much available data as there is today. Consumers can inform themselves on all kinds of products and services, and companies can gather information from these actions and leverage them to obtain insights about their customers.  

The same is true for customer service operations, of course. Each interaction is a valuable source of information. In the past, it was complicated to access and store this information. But new, digital channels and automation make the collection of data a lot easier — so easy that organizations are confronted with another problem. They are faced with a flood of information that needs to be turned into useful data. However, a majority of organizations say they are unable to analyze or categorize all of their collected data. Yet nine out of 10 recognize that using this data would give them a competitive edge. 

With this in mind, two questions persist: how do you determine which information is relevant, and what do you need to do to leverage it? Here are four steps towards making the most of your data. 

1. Consolidate available information

Companies have at their disposal an enormous amount of customer data.  It comes from different sources: order data that is saved in your CRM, messages to your customer service, satisfaction surveys and maybe even website browsing if the customer was logged in. Your brand probably collects this kind of data and uses different tools to retrieve it. 

Let’s say that Adam Smith ordered a new TV on your website. He’s all excited and can’t wait for it to be delivered. He asks a question on the website’s chat regarding delivery. Once the TV has arrived, he calls to get assistance for installation. Then he answers the post-call customer satisfaction survey — he is delighted! 

You know a lot about Adam by now, but you still need to make sure to connect the dots. For instance, can you easily track survey results to Adam in your CRM? 

Now think about all your other customers out there. You have just about as much information on each of them. But you must be able to aggregate and consolidate the information to get the bigger picture and make the data profitable for your business.  

Is your organization able to do that? If not, you might want to consider tools that consolidate the data, organize it in one place and offer an aggregated overview of all channels.

2. Analyze your data

It’s good to know that Adam’s happy with his new TV, but that doesn’t change the way you do business. Now that you have the data in the right place, you might want to analyze it to see why Adam is happy and others aren’t. This might be related to the TV itself, or the prompt delivery. Or maybe it’s because your contact center staff is amazing and really made the difference for the customer. Knowing what triggered the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of your customers is essential. It shows opportunities for improvement and best practice that works and generally helps optimize the service you offer your customers. 

And this is only Adam’s data. When all information is in one place, you are able to analyze it on a more global scale and gain insights into general customer satisfaction regarding different aspects of your customer experience. If many customers contact your customer service for delivery problems, and if CSAT surveys show poor results regarding this point, you are able to identify this particular pain point thanks to the consolidation of your data.  

Data analytics have made huge progress over the last years. Today, there are tools for all kinds of interactions, be it calls, chat, email or social media content that help leverage the power of your data. By choosing the right partner, you can truly harness the business potential of data analytics.

3. Share with all teams

The data has been gathered in one place and analyzed. Now don’t forget to share the findings with the relevant teams. Make sure the data is available to everybody who needs it. 

Just as it’s essential to break silos when collecting the data, you need to do so to share the analyses and insights with all collaborators and teams to help improve processes on different levels. After all it’s the team in charge of delivery that needs to know if Adam’s TV arrived on time, and your customer advisors can use information from previous contacts to understand the customers’ needs and even anticipate certain requests. This improves performance and the service offered to your customers. 

“Freeing the flow of data through the enterprise is the key to being proactive, rather than constantly scrambling to respond to changing customer behavior and expectations.”  
Cris Kuehl, Global Head of Analytics & AI, Foundever

Different teams need different types of information. Be sure to use tools that enable you to give access to the right kind of data to different stakeholders!  

4. Leverage insights as decision-making tools

All these insights help operations, but are also very efficient decision-making tools. Knowing the customer and their needs helps you make the right decisions when it comes to new products and marketing campaigns. It also provides a more global strategic orientation once you have interpreted the data and adapted the format for use. If that sounds complex, there are organizations ready to partner with you to help with these tasks.

Moreover, as CX evolves, new sources of data are available. Digital channels and social media are used more and more by consumers to communicate with brands and reach out to customer service. They offer a wealth of information that can easily be collected (being already in a digital format), analyzed and turned into insights.  With social listening, you can even track everything that is said about your organization, which gives you a deep insight into your brand reputation and helps prevent or minimize crises. 

Harnessed in the right way, your data becomes a valuable decision-making tool at every level. 

Team up!

Data is everywhere. Transforming it into insights is getting more and more important as the volume of available information is growing steadily. It’s not an easy task, but there are tools and partners that can help you take action and create insights that significantly improve your brand’s performance.