Customer data - what is it & why is it important?
Customer data is the most undervalued asset in the world - and like most businesses, you're probably under utilising yours.
We’ve seen the challenge time & time again - what customer data am I storing, where is it being stored, is it being effectively utilised & what are my gaps?
These are meaty questions that aren’t simple to answer & we often see customer data being kicked to the ‘too hard’ basket amongst the competing priorities of busy eCommerce & Marketing teams.
In some cases, the thought of using data to support a business objective isn’t even a consideration (yikes)!
As an example, does your business have a true read on your current retention rate (the % of returning customers across a specific period)?
If you’re scratching your head right now, we’re assuming the answer is no. Here’s what you’re missing without this single metric -
The ability to build out a robust retention strategy, as you don’t have a true read on what goal post you are trying to move.
Missed opportunity to understand the incrementality of campaigns & initiatives driving retention, as it’s difficult to understand how much you moved the needle without knowing where you started in the first place.
The gap from just one metric such as the above can lead to significant holes in your customer strategy. Put simply - you need to utilise your customer data in the formation and measurement of your business objectives in order to become truly customer centric & in the competitive landscape today, it’s not an option to put your customers last.
This is usually where businesses start to stress about the resource, cost & skills they’ll need to start reviewing what customer data exists in their business - rest assured, you don’t need a team of data wizards to get started!
At Customr, we recommend that you start by looking at what data you have available at a unique customer level. These data points will usually centre around your customers' transactions and engagements with your business. Once you have clarified the data availability, we’d do a deep dive of your data to form your current state of play.
As a first step, this would typically involve looking at your transactional & engagement data over the most recent 12 and 24 month periods to define a baseline for customer behaviour.
We’d then crack onto looking at data availability, connectivity to downstream marketing technologies, incremental revenue opportunities for customer growth and so on.
By first focusing on understanding your baseline customer behaviour, you’re ensuring that your eCom or marketing campaigns & business strategies are built from an understanding of exactly how customers behave in your business. Otherwise, you’re likely executing from a place of ambiguity & not delivering the incremental value you’re striving for!
Your customer data is your biggest business asset - there we’ve said it.
If you need help delving into your customer data then contact us below or email us at hello@wearecustomr.com.au and we'll take you through our fast and affordable Customr Data Deep Dive solution with a free 30-min consult.