3 Tips for Refining Customer Interaction Data Down to Actionable Insight
March 17, 2010 By Ann M. CannonAll that data sitting in your company's CRM systems is a valuable portal to knowledge about your customers. What do they like to buy? How often, and how much do they typically spend? How do they interact with you—over the phone, by mail or other channels?
It's a mountain of data; how do you make sense of it? Better yet, how do you leverage it to more intelligently communicate with your customers individually?
1. Use Analytics to Leverage Historical Customer Interaction Data
First, evaluate your current customer interaction channels. Does the customer have a choice of channels? Are you offering a single or multifaceted approach? With this information, it's time to leverage your historical data to understand how best to steer your communications via customer contact preferences.
Consider setting up a Web portal for your customers to opt in to their preferred interaction channels. This also allows you to deliver higher value to your customers by allowing them to be in control of how they are contacted. This also minimizes ineffective and potentially damaging messages that could be perceived as intrusive or inconsiderate of their preferences. Happy customers are profitable customers.
2. Deliver Higher Value Messages That Increase Customer Satisfaction
Again, there are several key questions to evaluate first:
- Are certain messages more effective via a specific channel?
- Are message scripts concise and easily comprehended?
- What's working?
- What can be improved?
A customer survey can be a great tool to fine-tune interaction strategies by taking the guesswork out of deciding what's working and what isn't. Surveys also allow you to analyze channel and message effectiveness on an ongoing basis, ensuring that your results are based on fact.
More than ever, customer service and experience are driving purchase decisions, while low prices are taking a back seat. According to a recent survey from Forrester Research that polled more than 4,600 consumers across 12 industries, customer service took precedent over low prices when consumers began forming business relationships. Want to know what matters to your customers and how you can provide them with the most value? Ask them. They'll tell you, and you'll both benefit.
3. Decrease Wasteful Spending on Communications That Are Deleted, Thrown Away or Go Unanswered
In addition to discovering what types of communication and delivery methods truly work, the next question is to ask what will work best for your business from a cost perspective. Are there easy ways to communicate the same message with the same or better effectiveness by opting for a less expensive and more flexible delivery channel? For example, you may save money moving from direct mail to e-mail or SMS/text messaging or replacing some live agent interactions with a customer self-service interactive voice response channel.
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