A customer-centric focus is something many businesses are working to achieve in 2013. The goal is to ensure customer loyalty and operate more efficiently, growing overall revenue.
To achieve a customer-centric strategy, many businesses are looking to tailored marketing, one-to-one customer service, brand loyalty and insight-led collaboration. All of these customer-centric strategies rely on accurate customer information and strong analytical abilities. Without accurate data, an organization may not be able to generate actionable intelligence.
There are several common road blocks to accessing the data required for customer-centric initiatives. First, information is often siloed. There are different databases and records based on individual channels or departments. It is difficult for organizations to aggregate and manage information in one central place.
Next, there may be poor data quality. Overall in the industry, there is a lack of verification techniques and a large number of individuals who can change information. In fact, a recent Experian QAS study found that 94 percent of businesses believe some of their customer and prospect information might be inaccurate.
Finally, businesses struggle to match new data to an existing record. Often, information is placed in a non-standard format that is difficult to consolidate and analyze.
To correct these road blocks, organizations need to create a plan around accurate data for their customer-centric strategy.
To correct these road blocks, organizations need to create a plan around accurate data for their customer-centric strategy. This should include standardization rules, verification techniques at the point of data capture and enhanced searching capabilities.
Customer-centric strategies are extensive and require many elements, just don’t forget the data quality in your planning.