Activating Your Company Superpowers by Getting Data into the Hands of the Right People

It’s no secret that you should be using data to make decisions and enhance your customer experience; however, not everyone is sure of the best way to enable your organization to be data-driven. The first step is to take a more holistic approach to data accessibility. In many cases, it starts by centeralizing data and removing data siloes. It’s essential to have data scientists and technical roles utilizing your company’s data, but getting data into the hands of non-technical roles such as marketers, CSM, and in-store reps is just as important. 

The problem with data is that it only tells part of the story. Data is very good at capturing quantifiable metrics but can’t grasp the intangible qualitative bits that are often needed to understand the whole picture. It is vital to give people in non technical roles access to the right data, enabling them to use their domain expertise to not just make informed decisions but also to drive operations. For marketing this means data-driven segmentation and personalization. informed decisions but also to drive operations. For marketing this means data-driven segmentation and personalization. That’s the real superpower of unlocking your customer data.

Marketing Superpower- Super Speed

One of the things a CDP like Simon Data does beautifully is get data into the hands of non-technical roles so they can use their domain expertise to make data-driven decisions. We see this problem often in marketers wanting to get campaigns up and running quickly but need to rely on other teams for segmentation based on customer data. 

There are a few problems with this scenario. First, relying on teams outside of marketing to create segments means you are counting on someone who does not understand the customer and segment base as well as the marketer. It is difficult to make last-minute adjustments or changes based on the data. The marketing team creates a request, and the data team answers it in asked capacity. 
Another problem in relying on other teams is the speed it takes to answer these requests. No matter how quickly a data team can answer a segment request, it will never be as fast as having customer data in the right people’s hands to make decisions. Giving data access to the marketing team allows them to be more agile and get campaigns to market faster.

Customer Service Superpower- Intuitive Aptitude

Another perfect example of putting the right data into the right people’s hands is empowering customer success/support. Data models alone help to a certain point. They can tell you who is likely to churn, but contextualizing this data gives a true understanding of what makes a customer churn. 

However, you have to address the data access issue before a  CS rep can give context to who will churn. CS reps have the specialized knowledge to answer these questions; never the less, there tends to be an issue of data pooling from multiple sources and integrating into a single view that isn’t always quickly addressed. So, the first step is getting the right data into their hands so they can have a full view of their customer and their behaviors. Once they have the data, they can start contextualizing problems. No matter how good your data is, it will understand the customer as well as their CSM. Data is there to help CS get the extra boost to understanding their customer on a deeper level. 

In-store Rep Superpower- Omniscience

Customers’ expectations of in-store interactions have greatly increased. Not only do customers expect the same experience they receive at their home store at any other location they travel to, but now there is a layer of complexity. The expectation has become any store rep must know a customer’s digital and in-store history. Sageflo Archiver + Simon allows visibility into content viewed, online purchases, and all in-store activity in one place.  This access to data helps with three key things:

  • Relationship building: Get a clear picture of your customer instantaneously and maintain that customer relationship even if that’s not their home store.
  • Customer-centric approach: Allow any brand to create a high-end white glove customer experience  regardless of level
  • Brand loyalty: Both the factors above feed into what makes a customer loyal to a brand- going that extra step to make the customer feel special

Here’s an example of the types of experiences data access can enable. Have you ever received a coupon via email, but when you go to the store, you can’t locate the offer? These offers drive customers into storefronts and often only exist in the digital form. By getting data into the hands of in-store reps via Archiver, an associate can look up all messages sent to the customer and find the offer. 

Enabling unique omnichannel experiences from digital to in-store and having the customer feel truly known is a powerful experience getting data into the hands of the right people creates.

Conclusion

Putting customer data into the hands of the right people can be a powerful action that enables your organization to be more data-driven. Companies looking to be more data-centric are breaking down data silos and heightening accessibility. Therefore, it’s not just about having the right data, but how to use that data more effectively by getting it into the hands of the right people. What superpowers can you unlock by giving data access to your whole organization?


Learn more about Simon Data here.

Learn more about Sageflo Archiver here.

Posted by Mary Louke of Simon Data