Redefining your CX: The need for a data-driven strategy

The digital marketplace is a highly competitive space, and today, customer experience (CX) plays a critical role in driving market success within it. Delivering an optimal, frictionless customer experience not only helps you drive long-term sustainable growth for your business but also keeps your target audience coming back or even endorsing your brand via word of mouth. 

According to this Forrester survey, businesses that focused on CX had registered a compound annual growth rate of 17 percent as far back as 2016. As per a more recent study, the customer experience was predicted to overtake price, product, and expertise to become the key brand differentiator in 2020. Recent research from PwC has also revealed that 32% of customers who have a single bad experience are likely to turn customers away from a brand they like. While that might seem harsh, the reason why positive experiences become so crucial to customer satisfaction is down to a straightforward explanation: people expect to be treated well. And in the digital marketplace, particularly, people expect brands to connect with them at a deeper, personal level. 

But how can small and medium enterprises devise effective customer experience strategies that match such high expectations? Here, data can play a crucial role. 

As we know, at present, the digital world is inundated by growing volumes of data. Yet, irrespective of their size, businesses are barely starting to harness the potential of data analytics to turn these growing volumes into actionable insights. With the right data-driven CX strategy, small and medium businesses will be able to create compelling experiences tailored to the needs of their niche group of customers. 

So, let's take a look at the possible ways brands can leverage data to improve their CX strategy:

1) Use Transactional data to understand your customers better:

Transactional data primarily consists of records of orders, invoices, and preferred modes of payment, etc., of your customers. Such information can be vital to recognizing customer attributes and patterns, including frequency of purchase and budgets. Insights on these important customer attributes could help you augment your CX strategy by getting more involved in the customer journey. This could include suggesting products that your customers are likely to purchase based on their purchase history, providing customized offers, and so on.

2) Use behavioral data to deliver more personalized experiences:

Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) techniques, you can track behavioral data relevant to your CX. This would include data on how customers and prospects connect or engage with your assets online. Brands can leverage analytics to algorithmically determine the key drivers to your website or social media handles, along with parameters to fine-tune your content to generate maximum engagement. According to this user experience study by Wharton, 86% of mobile marketers reported that personalization increased engagement, revenue, conversion, and retention for their businesses.

3) Use customer service data to optimize your response:

Collecting customer feedback can be of great help in optimizing your CX strategy. Combining analytics with customer feedback can be particularly useful in helping you track what went wrong in case of negative experiences. This way, you will be able to get ahead of your competition by speeding up your response time and addressing CX issues preeminently.

According to this user experience study by Wharton, eighty-six percent of mobile marketers report that personalization increased engagement, revenue, conversion, and retention for their businesses.

As is apparent, data is no longer a nice-to-have asset to have for organizations but a necessity. With the right expertise and inputs at your disposal, you will be able to mobilize the data you collect to provide a smooth and seamless customer experience across all your digital assets. At Cogent InCights, we help you do precisely that by combining the powers of AI, ML, deep learning, and our top-draw talent. To find out more, you can get in touch with us at social.listening@cogentinfo.com.