Big Data is a big topic. In all the conversation about the potential for data to reveal key customer insights, broad statements and big promises are far more common than specific examples of the real-world answers a business might hope to gain.
There’s a reason that the word “data” is plural. An individual datum reveals very little on its own; it’s the connections, intersections, and overlaps of data that form the actionable patterns and trends.
Yet customer data is often still “siloed” into separate sources: direct customer feedback, employee performance measurements, web and mobile analytics, customer service interactions, standardized reports and evaluations, and social media impressions, to name a few.
Together, all of these data points can shed an entirely new light on the customer experience, but businesses are still learning how to effectively and efficiently connect the dots. Customer data is hardly self-explanatory, and legacy systems weren’t designed with this kind of interconnectivity in mind, leaving those insights trapped in silos.
For an example, consider financial service institutions. An article in BAI’s online edition rightly points out how these businesses are flush with transaction data generated by customers using credit cards, debit cards, checking accounts, ATMs, and mobile payments on a day-to-day basis.
This resource alone can tell the institution the number, types, locations, and frequency of transactions; the devices being used to complete these transactions; the breakdown of service and card types; and withdrawal/deposit amounts on a real-time basis.
Not only does this summarize the customer experience, there’s a direct connection to daily operations like cash inventory and technical support for digital tools (think: error code reports from a malfunctioning ATM).
Without systems in place to gather all of this customer data and deliver it in a digestible and useful format, to the correct teams, and in real time, valuable customer intelligence stays trapped in the Transaction Data silo.
Data is a living organism.
It consumes, it grows, it morphs and takes on new shapes, dimensions, and patterns. Each source of data depends on the others; by keeping customer data in silos dictated by their sources, a business risks starving itself of the vital information it seeks to gain by gathering data in the first place.
At CSP, we believe in the indispensable value of customized data delivery solutions designed around each business’s unique goals and customer experience. Don’t miss out on trapped data – talk to our customer intelligence experts today.
CSP can be reached by phone at (402) 399-8790 ext:101, via our website, or on Twitter @csprofiles.
