Data Analytics & AI Create A Modern Competitive Advantage

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Most companies capture more data on the activity of their customers — and potential customers — than they can handle. The question is not so much how to get more data, it is how to analyze all the data they are already collecting.

Oracle has warned that the ‘data deluge’ means that many executives are still making important business decisions based on their intuition or assumptions. They are still using the gut instinct that may have been used decades ago, because they just can’t find any insight into the huge volume of data they have.

The first step in challenging this situation is to understand the data you are collecting now, then to consider which results might be achieved from the data — what do you want to achieve? This can lead managers to defining a data analysis strategy that starts creating the insight that is needed.

The end result can be extremely valuable. Knowing what your customers want and need and when they are most receptive can lead to improved customer loyalty, the retention of customers who might be lost, and increased revenue by knowing exactly when to show them a special offer.

Consider the various important areas where data analysis can feed information into the decision-making process:

• Sentiment analysis: when your customers interact with your business can you detect their urgency, emotion, and satisfaction levels? Can you change the way you react to different customer interactions based on how the customer is feeling?
• Proactive behavior analysis: exploring patterns in customer behavior and predicting what they might do next. This can be extremely important for subscription-based businesses because it can predict who is going to cancel or churn. Can you offer a deal to these customers before they leave your service?
• Personalization at scale: with so much data on what your customers really like and when they prefer to interact with your company, why not react to this and offer them incentives to keep on shopping?
• Automated customer service: it is expensive to answer every call and text to the customer service team. Generative AI systems can offer a way to answer customer questions 24/7 in a much more capable and sophisticated way than previous automation systems could manage.
• Voice of the customer: what do your customers really think about your products and services? You don’t need to rely on surveys when you can monitor the online debate about your company and see what people are really thinking and saying without prompting.
• Building loyalty: all the above can help to reduce friction, it makes service work better, it make the interactions more personal and focused. Taken together all these improvements can generate much stronger customer loyalty.

Even companies with a data analytics strategy have often found that their processes have been overwhelmed with the sheer volume of data that is collected. This is why AI is now playing such an important role by helping to automate the analysis process and to find insights in data where they may not be obvious or visible.

The combination of data management, analytics, and AI can be an important tool that drives increased revenue and improves the relationship with your customers at the same time. Are you finding insights in your data or are you still deluged with too much data and no information?

IBA Group has deep experience designing data analytics systems and using AI to help generate insight. For more information on managing data analytics and AI in a way that moves you from being overwhelmed by data to generating insight with information, please click here.

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