Collecting customer data isn’t enough in the modern era — you also need to know how to use it. With the help of this guide, you can learn how to manage your customer data, along with five exciting ways you can use it to boost your success.
Customer data is like gold.
When you use it the “right way,” you can:
- Create in-depth customer profiles
- Increase your revenue
- Improve the customer experience
That’s barely scratching the surface, though, as there are countless other customer data-related benefits that are waiting around the corner. This is why the likes of Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and other big-name companies collect mountains of customer data, from interaction to attitudinal data.
How To Manage Your Customer Data
Firstly, you must know how to manage your customer data, whether you’re an SME or a big company. When customer data is managed to a high standard, you can then start extracting from it.
To manage your customer data and gain the best possible insights out of it, a customer data platform is required. This way, you can squeeze every last drop out of the customer data you have and grow your knowledge surrounding:
- Past purchase behaviors
- Personal preferences
- Preferred channels (e.g., some customers prefer online shopping to in-store shopping)
Without a customer data platform, your data will be muddled, disorganized, and not fit for analysis. On top of this, you won’t be able to combine all of your customer data from different touchpoints, such as email and social media, so you’ll miss out on hugely valuable insights.
So, what are the most exciting ways you can use your customer data throughout this decade? Here are the important details you need to know.
1. Start Sending Personalized Marketing Messages
Through customer data analysis, your business can start sending personalized marketing messages.
Doing so is possible because you understand customer preferences and behaviors across your main channels more clearly, from email to SMS. For example, if a customer has spent time on your website viewing a specific product, you can then send an automated email to them with a unique discount code for that product.
2. Provide Excellent Customer Service
Improved customer service usually starts with using customer data.
By analyzing data from your customer interactions, product reviews, and more, you can quickly identify critical areas for improvement, whether this involves opening up more customer service channels or simply keeping the human element in customer service.
3. Bolster Future Marketing Campaigns
Before you plan and launch any marketing campaign, you should always look at what the data is telling you.
Let’s say that you’ve collected lots of customer data and found that the vast majority of your customers are from younger demographics and prefer social media as their primary communication platform with brands. With this information, you can then launch data-driven social media marketing campaigns that are designed to boost engagement, increase conversions, and drive customer loyalty.
4. Improved Targeting
Customer data enables businesses to create accurate buyer personas and then target specific customers. The benefit here is that you can then experience higher conversion rates, as the customers being targeted are more likely to make purchases. For instance, you might start targeting customers in a specific age range, such as 18-25.
5. Create A Customer-Focused Culture
By shifting the focus to customer data within your organization, you can create a modern, customer-focused culture. Through customer data, employees will be able to get “closer” to customers and provide better overall experiences, which will then create a customer-focused culture where productivity levels are very high.
