Better Customer Service Using Big Data

Big data is frequently discussed across many industries by more than just business owners, CEOs or IT managers. Big data and big data analytics are two critical elements of modern business that company leaders and their employees should understand if they want to make more informed decisions.

In addition to the highly data-driven business landscape, people’s needs and expectations are changing. Companies with superb customer service gain a competitive advantage over competitors with poor operations.

The power of big data analytics helps organizations take steps to improve their customer service offerings, ultimately meeting or exceeding the needs and expectations of existing and potential clients.

An Overview of Big Data

What exactly is big data and how is it different from traditional data?

Big data describes large, diverse datasets growing at increasing rates and proving highly useful in business. Datasets are so voluminous that traditional data processing software solutions cannot manage them properly.

Here are the “five Vs,” or essential qualities, that accurately describe big data:

• Volume
• Velocity
• Variety
• Veracity
• Value

Businesses that leverage big data can address or even prevent a range of problems that would otherwise be more challenging to solve.

Organizations collect, combine and mine three types of data — structured, semi-structured and unstructured — for advanced analytics applications.

Benefits of Big Data Analytics

After analyzing big data, gathering new insights on company operations and other critical business issues helps companies overcome existing problems. Some of these might be costly and cause potential obstacles.

Here are two main benefits of big data analytics:

Customer Attraction and Retention

Big data analytics gives companies detailed insights into customers’ wants and needs.

For example, organizations can review customer data and adjust their current sales or marketing strategies to increase loyalty and satisfaction. Big data can also highlight changes in client sentiment and predict future trends.

Increased Employee Productivity

Monitoring employee performance is essential for most companies. Thankfully, big data analysis can show leaders how individual workers perform and measure their productivity.

Big data can analyze important factors such as absenteeism rates, number of sick days taken, workload and output. Once this information is collected, supervisors can relay findings to employees and make improvements to bolster productivity.

Other benefits exist, but these two examples provide a glimpse into the world of big data and how transformative it is in the modern business world.

How to Use Big Data to Improve Customer Service

There are a few ways businesses can harness big data analytics to gain insights and take actionable steps to improve their customer service offerings. Here’s how.

Solves Customer Inquiries More Effectively

Contacting a customer service center is often time-consuming and headache-inducing for a consumer, especially when the representative cannot answer a question or solve a problem.

Lack of effectiveness and speed are two of the most common causes of customer service frustration. Qualitative and quantitative big data analytics let customer service employees identify their weaknesses, such as their familiarity with a product or service, and take action accordingly.

For example, a representative can spend more time learning about customers’ most common issues while using a specific product, allowing them to solve problems faster and more effectively.

Increases Personalized Offers

A business can achieve significant revenue growth by aligning customer behaviors and marketing messages. Personalized offerings are becoming increasingly popular among consumers. In other words, people want companies to see them as individuals rather than a source of profit.

Big data analytics helps organizations increase the number and quality of personalized offerings. For example, analytics can reveal critical customer information, like how much money they spend, what products they buy and which services they use.

These details help employees create and automate personalized marketing offers. Customer service representatives can also use this data to make recommendations based on buyer preferences, improving the experience and building loyalty.

Empowers Customer Service Representatives

Big data analytics are a major boon to customer service representatives. These employees are considered the face of the company, meaning they must have access to all the resources they need. Insights from big data are no exception.

Representatives working with results from big data analysis are in a better position to respond to inquiries more quickly and provide effective customer solutions. They will likely perform well if they have insights at their disposal.

Provide Superior Customer Support With Big Data Analytics

No matter the industry, virtually every organization relies on data, whether it’s sales, web traffic, customer, supply chain management or inventory data.

Data is becoming increasingly important for companies in today’s competitive business environment. The role of big data will continue to grow as more organizations recognize its positive impact on customer service and satisfaction.

About Author

Shannon Flynn

Shannon is a technology blogger who writes about IT trends, cybersecurity, and biztech news. She’s also the Managing Editor at ReHack.com. Follow ReHack on Twitter to read more from Shannon about other technology updates.

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