How to improve your customer relationships with data
October 11, 2022
Over 45% of professionals agree that the customer experience is the primary factor behind business success.
This is because customers no longer prioritize price or unique features—they care about their relationship with a brand.
Unfortunately, most companies aren’t collecting the data to build these relationships.
So if you’re thinking, “How can big data improve customer experience?” don’t worry. This mini-guide will show you how data can improve customer service and how you can use data to stand out in competitive markets.
How data can improve customer relations
You might be asking yourself, “How could insights from customer data solve a problem?” Here are three examples:
- You understand customers’ wants and needs
- Data support is convenient
- You protect and grow your customer lifetime value
You understand customers’ wants and needs
Collecting and organizing customer data gives you an understanding of your audiences’ needs, wants, and problems.
This allows you to make marketing decisions based on real life—not estimations.
By knowing what your clients want, you can personalize interactions to suit their needs. Research shows that personalized emails receive six times more clicks than generic emails.
So, for example, if you find that some customers are currently going through financial difficulties, try offering exclusive discounts and promotions. Or, if audience segments use your product or service for different reasons, you can personalize ads to appeal to individual needs.
Data support is more convenient
Before customer data platforms (CDPs), it was a hassle to collect and organize data and use it to build customer relationships. You had to manually manage integrations, which required hiring staff and training them.
But with Lytics, you can gather and organize customer data and store it under one virtual roof. Lytics customer profiles also make data easier to understand. This gives you a 360-degree view of the customer experience.
You can build campaigns using customer data across multiple platforms like email, social media, and text messages. With this convenient and responsive approach, you strengthen customer relationships and promote brand loyalty.
You protect and grow your customer lifetime value
You can only profit if your customer lifetime value is greater than the amount you invested to land clients.
So if you’re struggling to turn a profit, collect and analyze data as it grows your customer lifetime value. This healthy retention rate brings in sales and ensures higher returns—and, ultimately, more profit.
Get started by collecting customer data, organizing it with a CDP like Lytics, and creating a personalized, omnichannel customer experience.
How could I use data to improve the customer experience?
Consider this five-step process if you want to use data to better your customer relationships:
- Collect and organize customer data
- Choose the right communication strategy
- Personalize customer interactions
- Build loyalty
- Ask for feedback and improve
Step 1: Collect and organize customer data
The first step is to collect the right client data. If you’re new to data collection, surveys are your best bet because you can ask questions and receive honest feedback.
If you’re wondering, “What kind of data would I need to collect?” stick to demographic, geographic, and physiographic data since it provides a well-rounded audience view.
This allows you to build retargeting campaigns around customer needs and even optimize product development. You could ask clients questions about your product’s weaknesses and focus on strengthening them.
But surveys aren’t the only way to gather data. You can try alternatives like:
- Interviews
- Focus groups
- Online tracking
- Transactional data
Step 2: Choose the right communication strategy
Once you’ve collected some customer information, run ads on platforms where your audience spends a lot of time. This could be:
- TikTok
Or, if your surveys say that most customers find you through search engine results, focus your marketing efforts on search engine optimization.
Step 3: Personalize customer interactions
But targeting your entire audience with one marketing campaign isn’t enough. To stand out, you’ll have to personalize customer interactions. This is where audience segmentation can help.
If you’re using Lytics, you’ll be able to recognize segments and create targeted ads that appeal to client needs.
A simple rule of thumb is to treat customers like individuals. This means running ads relevant to their segment, sending happy birthday messages, and offering exclusive discounts.
Step 4: Build loyalty
When you’re focused on building a personalized experience and a good relationship with customers, you’ll stand out. Research shows that 56% of customers stay loyal to brands that “get” them, even if a competitor’s price is more affordable.
Studies also show that retaining existing customers is less costly than attracting new ones. So this brand loyalty can help you reduce business expenses and increase returns.
Step 5: Request feedback and improve
The last step is to ask for feedback and improve.
It’s almost impossible to do everything right the first time. So continue conducting surveys and asking how clients interact with your product. Are there any weaknesses? What can you do better?
With these questions, you keep ironing out sticking points until users are happy with your product and customer experience.
Make data-backed business decisions with Lytics
Improving customer relationships is all about collecting relevant customer data, organizing it so it’s easy to understand, and using it to optimize the customer experience.
Companies using data to improve customer experience understand their audience better, which benefits every aspect of business from marketing to product development and customer support. If you’re looking to improve customer relationships, consider Lytics. The Lytics CDP makes gathering, organizing, and understanding client data easy, allowing you to boost customer lifetime value and profits.
