Leveraging marketing data to achieve real results

Numerous companies, in the retail sector and elsewhere, have determined that they can strengthen their customer relationships by bolstering their human interactions with data. As businesses grow in size and scope, sometimes seeking to tackle national or even global markets, it becomes essential that they have comprehensive information about precisely who they're targeting with their marketing and sales efforts.

That's why businesses are willing to invest so much not only in information mining tools, but also in solutions for customer data verification that can help them ensure data quality. If they have clean information about their most prized patrons, they can use it to improve their relationships and work toward their goal of long-term customer loyalty. Simply having engaging conversations can help in this regard, but infusing data is better.

According to TechRepublic, though, there are a lot of inherent challenges in this. Companies become so fixated on the "big data" craze that they become overwhelmed, unsure of how to use customer analytics to achieve real results. Luc Burgelman, CEO of consumer intelligence firm NGDATA, told the news source that while business leaders recognize the importance of data on a basic level, they're still working to figure out how specifically it can improve their customer experiences. Moving forward, this will be a defining question.

"Our customers are able to witness real and consistent traction as a result of productively leveraging their big data, and with that traction, they're realizing that there's additional potential for their business - potential they didn't even realize existed until they began uncovering all of the customer, product, and operational insights made possible by effectively leveraging big data analytics," Burgelman said.

There's often a paralysis that comes with analyzing, managing, and actually acting upon customer data. But the moment a business is able to overcome this initial reticence, a great deal of potential lies on the horizon.