Customer Data Equals Better Service

For companies seeking to offer better service to their customers as well as potentially increasing sales, properly accumulating and utilizing customer data is a must. Most businesses have a website, but is it being used as best as it can? If you have a frequent repeat-customer base on your site, it is very beneficial for you to be collecting, analyzing, and utilizing their data for better service and sales.

By analyzing buying patterns or preferences, other related items can be automatically suggested, leading to additional sales. Having areas like “customer who bought this also bought…” are also nice ways to promote items. Frequent-buyer specials or related item specials are also a big plus for return customers. Depending on the software package used by a company, many of these features can be turned on or purchased as add-on modules to boost store power. “Smart businesses learn about their customers and adapt offers to their preferences. They connect the data crumbs through transactions,” says Valeria Maltoni in a recent article on using customer data.

One of the biggest online companies out there is Amazon, which has pretty much mastered the art of data management. As Maltoni puts it, they are “light years ahead of any competition” in this area. However, with the proper software in place, and a sharp-minded CSR data specialist at the helm, collecting and using this information can benefit businesses of any size. Facebook has boosted its use of data too, in order to better target users with their ads. The New York Times reports, “Despite the streams of data Facebook has collected…the social network needs to know its users much better if it is going to become, as the company hopes, the Web’s most effective advertising platform. And Facebook is scrambling to do just that. In shaping its targeted advertising strategy, it is no longer relying solely on what Facebook users reveal about themselves. Instead, it is tapping into outside sources of data to learn even more about them—and to sell ads that are more finely targeted to them.”

Darrell Zahorsky gives some great guidelines for collecting the information, and refers to this data as a gold mine. Companies who have interactions with longtime customers have probably already started compiling some of this information. But if not, Zahorsky suggests not feeling the need to collect it all at once. Over time, accumulate bits and pieces until a data file is compiled for use. “Spend the time learning about your customers through various contact points: friendly follow-up phone calls, surveys, contests, and one-on-one discussions. Be non-intrusive and remember the whole point of collecting this information is to better understand your customers and provide more complete solutions,“ he says.

Online sales and service are becoming the normal way for most people to shop. Be sure you are taking advantage of it by having a data management system like this in place. As a CSR, be prepared to request and document this information as you interact with the customers. Be sure you are familiar with the technology and jargon of this type of data management when you are on a job search in this field. Being well aware of this technological side of the career can make you a more important candidate to have on the team.

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