We are in the age of data. If you open any newspaper, at least half of the news is about data. Whether it's the soccer news, talking about statistics; whether it's the pandemic, talking about cases; whether it's the economy, talking about percentages of rise and fall. We are living in a time when, in any sector and any company, key data are collected to make decisions. Decisions that are no longer based on anecdotes, but on numbers. Numbers that help us to get it right.
And as companies, what data do we have to make good decisions? We could classify them into three main groups: customers, business/operations and employees. All three groups of data help us to act, to improve our strategy. But of the three, there is one that we can make the most of and most companies still don't: customer data.
What can we do to get to know our customers better? How can we know what strategy to follow with them? How can we use data to know how to sell more? How can we find out the key points of our customer relationships and what we need to improve? In order to answer these questions, these steps are necessary to help us have customer data that will allow us to really take action:
Make an inventory of all the sources of information you have about your customers.
We often tend to think that we barely have any customer data, but in the end there are many sources of information that we do not consider or take into account. Some that we cannot forget:
Data we have on our customers, either in a CRM or in a database. Operational data of their relationship with us (time as a customer, last purchases, last contacts, etc.) or data related to their more personal segmentation (age, location, etc.).
Information we collect in the different interactions we have with customers, especially those that are recorded. For example, if we have telephone interactions with customers, either to manage information or incidents, this is still information that we can use to learn more about our customers.
Customer surveys. It is increasingly common for companies, large or small, to ask their customers about their satisfaction or experience. If you already do it, those results and answers are still data, information that will also help us.
Information from social networks. Customers are increasingly interacting with companies through these channels, whether through Instagram, Google reviews or even Twitter. Those comments they leave us are also very useful information that we can incorporate into our feeds.
Review what customer data you don't have and would like to have.
To get there, it is advisable that, together with a team that knows the customers well, you make a list of what things you would like to know about your customers and, with that, look for what source of information can give it to you (either you have it or you can implement it). For example, if you need to know how your customers interact with the web, what path they follow or where they get lost, there are tools for that (e.g. Hotjar). You can also consider, if you do not already do so, to start conducting customer surveys. To do this, it is advisable to know beforehand what information you want to know and write a good questionnaire that goes beyond asking for general satisfaction. If you need more clues on this point, we talk about it here.
Decide where and how to unify all the information you have and the information you would like to have.
To do this, you can resort to very simple tools -such as an Excel spreadsheet where you can dump the information-, even a database or, most conveniently, use one of the voice of the customer tools that already exist in the market; these tools allow you to join different sources of information, collect customer data through surveys or social networks, create the database by joining the information, create dashboards to track this, etc. These tools are designed to facilitate this objective of joining and visualizing data.
Drive the data
In addition to storing and linking everything, the key is to drive the data. A single piece of data alone can describe a situation, but if we join and cross-reference the data with each other, we can obtain very valuable information that helps us to diagnose and act. For example, with a single piece of data we can say that 30% of our customers are between 20 and 30 years old, but if we put it together and cross it with more data, we can say that these customers also rate us with a 7.5 and that they miss the fact that we personalize our solutions more. In order to be able to act on this data, it is always recommended to analyze the data, either with more basic tools such as Excel, with statistical analysis tools such as SPSS or, going further, with R or Phyton.
Distribute the information obtained periodically in your company.
It doesn't have to be every day, or even every month, but it is important that both the people who deal directly with customers and the rest of the areas know how we are doing, what customers are asking for or what they are congratulating us for. This will make the data and information useful and move the organization to make decisions. The investment made to achieve this is really worthwhile.
Working with data means being in constant movement and updating.
Our maxim should always be that, the moment we start not getting information that helps us to make decisions, we must turn it around and question everything again. Go through the process and review what you are missing.
Customer data is always useful, but if we want it to really help us make decisions, to know what we need to do to sell more, to recognize the keys for each group of customers, we must not forget that there is strength in numbers and turn that data into real information.
And as companies, what data do we have to make good decisions? We could classify them into three main groups: customers, business/operations and employees. All three groups of data help us to act, to improve our strategy. But of the three, there is one that we can make the most of and most companies still don't: customer data.
What can we do to get to know our customers better? How can we know what strategy to follow with them? How can we use data to know how to sell more? How can we find out the key points of our customer relationships and what we need to improve? In order to answer these questions, these steps are necessary to help us have customer data that will allow us to really take action:
Make an inventory of all the sources of information you have about your customers.
We often tend to think that we barely have any customer data, but in the end there are many sources of information that we do not consider or take into account. Some that we cannot forget:
Data we have on our customers, either in a CRM or in a database. Operational data of their relationship with us (time as a customer, last purchases, last contacts, etc.) or data related to their more personal segmentation (age, location, etc.).
Information we collect in the different interactions we have with customers, especially those that are recorded. For example, if we have telephone interactions with customers, either to manage information or incidents, this is still information that we can use to learn more about our customers.
Customer surveys. It is increasingly common for companies, large or small, to ask their customers about their satisfaction or experience. If you already do it, those results and answers are still data, information that will also help us.
Information from social networks. Customers are increasingly interacting with companies through these channels, whether through Instagram, Google reviews or even Twitter. Those comments they leave us are also very useful information that we can incorporate into our feeds.
Review what customer data you don't have and would like to have.
To get there, it is advisable that, together with a team that knows the customers well, you make a list of what things you would like to know about your customers and, with that, look for what source of information can give it to you (either you have it or you can implement it). For example, if you need to know how your customers interact with the web, what path they follow or where they get lost, there are tools for that (e.g. Hotjar). You can also consider, if you do not already do so, to start conducting customer surveys. To do this, it is advisable to know beforehand what information you want to know and write a good questionnaire that goes beyond asking for general satisfaction. If you need more clues on this point, we talk about it here.
Decide where and how to unify all the information you have and the information you would like to have.
To do this, you can resort to very simple tools -such as an Excel spreadsheet where you can dump the information-, even a database or, most conveniently, use one of the voice of the customer tools that already exist in the market; these tools allow you to join different sources of information, collect customer data through surveys or social networks, create the database by joining the information, create dashboards to track this, etc. These tools are designed to facilitate this objective of joining and visualizing data.
Drive the data
In addition to storing and linking everything, the key is to drive the data. A single piece of data alone can describe a situation, but if we join and cross-reference the data with each other, we can obtain very valuable information that helps us to diagnose and act. For example, with a single piece of data we can say that 30% of our customers are between 20 and 30 years old, but if we put it together and cross it with more data, we can say that these customers also rate us with a 7.5 and that they miss the fact that we personalize our solutions more. In order to be able to act on this data, it is always recommended to analyze the data, either with more basic tools such as Excel, with statistical analysis tools such as SPSS or, going further, with R or Phyton.
Distribute the information obtained periodically in your company.
It doesn't have to be every day, or even every month, but it is important that both the people who deal directly with customers and the rest of the areas know how we are doing, what customers are asking for or what they are congratulating us for. This will make the data and information useful and move the organization to make decisions. The investment made to achieve this is really worthwhile.
Working with data means being in constant movement and updating.
Our maxim should always be that, the moment we start not getting information that helps us to make decisions, we must turn it around and question everything again. Go through the process and review what you are missing.
Customer data is always useful, but if we want it to really help us make decisions, to know what we need to do to sell more, to recognize the keys for each group of customers, we must not forget that there is strength in numbers and turn that data into real information.