The term “big data” doesn’t sound particularly technical, but it’s one of the hottest buzzwords in this age of information. It’s actually fairly self-explanatory. Big data refers to the massive volumes of data, both structured and unstructured, that are available to companies through content marketing and other sources.
Experts estimate that these unprecedented amounts of data continue to grow approximately 50 percent each year. Discovering patterns in this data is how businesses are able to refine marketing strategies and become more responsive to customer needs. As an example, Netflix began as a lending library for DVDs and streaming media. They were able to mine subscriber data to develop the formula for House of Cards, their wildly successful first foray into original programming.
Here are some other ways companies are using big data to improve their customers’ experience:
- You can suggest products for a customer based on their other purchases. Amazon.com is the gold standard for this practice. They analyze a customer’s history to determine books, games and other items to recommend.
- Help customers by sharing their own data in a more useful form. American Express provides cardholders with a year-end summary of their spending by date, amount and category, giving them a valuable budgeting tool.
- Customer service can be more responsive with access to more data. Your associates can solve problems more efficiently because they don’t have to spend time gathering information by questioning the customer.
This wealth of data makes the personal touch all the more important. Using a business answering service means that your customers can speak with a live person anytime, even during peak times or after hours. Please contact us to learn more.
