In order to provide great customer experiences, brands must first understand their customers. Customer feedback surveys and social media comments offer valuable insights, but the digital age has paved the way for closer analysis on a far greater scale with big data analytics. Big data allows companies to analyze a mix of complex data sets from various sources to gain insights into customer behavior, leading to increased sales and stronger customer service. Here are five distinct ways brands can use big data to optimize customer experiences.Personalize the customer experience. Big data can be used to offer more personalized customer experiences in various contexts. For example, personal finance sites may track a customer’s spending habits to offer best practice tips for saving or rewards that may be redeemed. Online retailers often use big data to track customer spending habits in order to make personalized recommendations, while health management tools can track behaviors such as exercise habits or vital sign performance to offer encouragement and optimal tips for better health. Big data analytics can make every customer experience richer and tailor-made to the customer’s needs.Use geolocation data for targeted marketing offers. Geolocation tools represent just one of the significant ways big data is changing sales and marketing. Customers are increasingly becoming mobile, and those who opt in for mobile marketing offers can benefit from well-timed messages that assist them in making a purchase or entice them to buy. For example, if a customer is close to the location of a preferred retail store, brands may offer a special discount or notification that there is a sale currently on at this location. Once customers are in the store, brands may also offer customer service options to help them in their purchasing decisions, such as a live chat pop-up or SMS.Understand social media conversations. Brands should never take lightly what customers are saying about them on social media. Big data on social media activity can provide great insight into customer preferences and concerns. Brands, in turn, can diagnose and resolve customer service or product issues as well as improve products and services to better meet customer needs. Contact centers may also train agents to offer improved service on the most in-demand channels while staffing these channels appropriately to meet high demand.Analyze customer feedback across all channels. In addition to social media, brands should be careful to analyze any feedback customers provide, no matter how small. Customer feedback surveys, call transcripts, SMS exchanges, and chats are all important sources of big data that reveal how customers feel about a brand. A close analysis of such texts can provide brands with a comprehensive view of customer sentiments and lead to additional improvements, including better training for agents across different channels.Use big data to save customers time. Customers always wish to save time, and many will abandon a brand over a lack of efficiency. Big data makes it possible to save customers time in various ways. For one, brands can track carefully a customer’s preferred channel of contact to ensure that all outbound communications (such as delivery information, appointments, and marketing offers) are delivered on that channel. Customers will appreciate receiving information in a consistently reliable manner without having to check various channels for such information. Using big data to inform customers proactively can also save them time. For example, tracking deliveries to provide customers with real-time information prevents them from having to reach out for information. Similarly, brands can diagnose issues before they even arise, essentially eliminating a need for service in some situations. If a utilities company detects an electrical problem, for example, it may be resolved before the customer is affected by it and needs to report it.Big data analytics offers a wealth of possibilities for better understanding customer behavior. With a strategic approach, brands may optimize their sales, marketing, and customer service methods to offer truly optimized customer experiences based on a comprehensive view of customer needs. Learn about Vocalcom contact center software solutions for delivering excellent customer experiences.
