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Re: Analytics 101: Getting to Know Customers, One-by-One
Posted by: Colin Shearer 2004-08-26 16:28:02
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Micro marketing, one-to-one marketing, niche marketing. Whatever buzzwords are used to define it, the trend driving businesses today and tomorrow is the need to profitably serve smaller and smaller audiences. This focus on knowing thy customer on a one-to-one basis is fueled by advances in technology, global competition and the Internet. It also has been encouraged by resistance on the part of customers to unsolicited inquiries delivered through mass marketing efforts such as telemarketing and spam e-mail, which resulted in the "Do Not Call" legislation and the proliferation of spam blockers.
Re: Analytics 101: Getting to Know Customers, One-by-One
Posted by: krhoads 2004-08-26 16:53:07 In reply to: Colin Shearer
It is so important for companies that have a large customer base to do what they can to "get to know them" on an individual basis. But with so many customer communications entering the data warehouse everyday, it can become difficult to drill down to an individual and address their specific needs.
Unstructured communications (like emails, the "other" text areas on surveys, online feedback forms) are often overlooked as a source of information because they are so difficult to extract information from. But there are now some viable software options on the market that are really getting a grip on this type of data, allowing companies to analyze large quantities of unstructured text in real-time and returning information on customer satisfation, technical issues, up-sell opportunities, etc.
Unlike typical structured data such as the 1-10 responses on surveys, unstructured textual communications really give you the meat of what a customer likes and dislikes about your product or service. For example, when you ask a person "how are you feeling on a scale of 1 to 10" and they respond with a 1, you then have to be able to come up with the correct follow-up question to find out why they aren't feeling well. "Are you sick?" No. "Did you have a bad day at work?" No. And so on and so forth. Had you simply asked them "How are you feeling" and given them a open text box they would have told you in detail that they aren't feeling well because of A, B and C reasons. Now, if you could automatically analyze their response you would have some seriously valuable information on your hands that would allow you to respond to the customer on a personalized level. That's pretty powerful and, in my opinion, the next era of customer intelligence.
There are a few companies offering software for this type of analysis. They include: Island Data Corp. www.islanddata.com and Attensity www.attensity.com.
Unstructured communications (like emails, the "other" text areas on surveys, online feedback forms) are often overlooked as a source of information because they are so difficult to extract information from. But there are now some viable software options on the market that are really getting a grip on this type of data, allowing companies to analyze large quantities of unstructured text in real-time and returning information on customer satisfation, technical issues, up-sell opportunities, etc.
Unlike typical structured data such as the 1-10 responses on surveys, unstructured textual communications really give you the meat of what a customer likes and dislikes about your product or service. For example, when you ask a person "how are you feeling on a scale of 1 to 10" and they respond with a 1, you then have to be able to come up with the correct follow-up question to find out why they aren't feeling well. "Are you sick?" No. "Did you have a bad day at work?" No. And so on and so forth. Had you simply asked them "How are you feeling" and given them a open text box they would have told you in detail that they aren't feeling well because of A, B and C reasons. Now, if you could automatically analyze their response you would have some seriously valuable information on your hands that would allow you to respond to the customer on a personalized level. That's pretty powerful and, in my opinion, the next era of customer intelligence.
There are a few companies offering software for this type of analysis. They include: Island Data Corp. www.islanddata.com and Attensity www.attensity.com.
Re: Analytics 101: Getting to Know Customers, One-by-One
Posted by: garretc2003 2005-05-23 20:58:04 In reply to: krhoads
Totally agree that communications with your customer is key. With that said, all communications should be relevant to the consumer and should enrich your knowledge of the customer rather than communicating for communications sake. A good site that talks about this is http://www.crmtrends.com/crm.html - they also have a pretty good analytics section as well.
