How to leverage customer insights to fuel growth and retention
Table of contents
The imporatnce of customer insights analytics
According to Microsoft, organisations that use customer data to gain insights outperform their peers by 85% in terms of revenue growth. This can be a game-changer for your future results, as it is easier than ever to find alternatives when customers feel undervalued. And it is 5 times more expensive for your business to acquire a new customer than it is to retain an existing one.
Robust customer insights analytics software that collects, analyses and interprets customer needs, pain points and brand sentiment can truly differentiate your business. It not only helps you to strengthen your customer base, but also drives growth and prevents churn.
While the statistics show the potential, success depends heavily on the specific data you collect and the questions you seek to answer. Let’s look at some specific examples to understand this further.
What customer data can you analyze and why
To start, one of the crucial steps is to gather data across multiple touchpoints. Your customers engage with your brand across various platforms and devices, making it essential to analyze their behavior wherever they interact. Employing an omnichannel analytics platform sets the stage for success. With it, you can examine conversations with customers occurring in chat on your website, within your app, on community forums, social media, emails, and feedback forms. This enables you to understand, for instance, whether customers in your your e-commerce business prioritize resolving issues like delivery date changes via phone or email, gauge their sentiment towards your brand on social media, and assess their likelihood of future purchases based on survey responses.
Such insights can empower you to optimize or automate processes and implement any necessary changes to enhance customer satisfaction and drive sales. For instance, if you discover that a majority of customers are calling due to changes in contractual data and these interactions exhibit a frustrated sentiment (with callers entering and leaving the call frustrated), you may identify two potential courses of action.
Firstly, it could indicate that your agents require further coaching on this topic. By delving deeper into their performance data, you can determine if the assistance they provide to customers is sufficient. Alternatively, it may reveal a recurring issue that doesn’t necessitate human intervention. In this scenario, frustrated customers might be unable to resolve the operation alone, suggesting the need to automate this process using AI.
In either case, analytics provide invaluable insights that can transform your business, reduce costs significantly, and enhance the efficiency of your teams.
Questions you should be asking
The reality is that you’re likely to uncover areas for improvement that you wouldn’t have considered without the extensive analysis of data. Nevertheless, before implementing customer insight analytics software and deciding on which data to focus first, it’s essential to set goals and think about the KPIs and questions you need your team to address to progress. This groundwork is crucial. Furthermore, analytics enable you to assess whether the changes you’ve implemented have yielded the desired results, empowering you to refine processes and enhance customer experiences even further. Let’s look at some examples to think about:
Let’s examine some examples of questions to consider:
1. What factors contribute to fluctuations in demand for specific products or services?
2. What sentiments do customers associate with your brand, and how do they differ across different segments/ interaction channels?
3. What strategies can be implemented to improve the ROI of marketing efforts?
4. How can you leverage customer data to identify cross-selling or upselling opportunities?
5. What are the primary reasons customers reach out to customer support, and what trends or patterns can be identified in their inquiries?
6. What are the common pain points or challenges encountered by customers during their interactions with your brand, and how can these be mitigated?
7. What training or coaching opportunities exist within the agent team to improve performance and customer satisfaction?
8. How can you identify and address knowledge gaps or areas where agents may require additional support or resources?
9. How can you prioritize and act upon customer feedback to drive meaningful improvements and enhance loyalty?
10. What are the emerging trends or insights gleaned from recent customer feedback that could inform strategic decision-making and future initiatives?
Find your answers within dashboards
For instance, with the Born Digital platform, you can customize your dahsboards to your liking so they fit to the needs of all your teams – no matter if it’s the frontline workers or your C-level. But there are definitely some feauters that are applicable in general and can be measured/analyzed. Let’s have a look at few examples.
Customer Sentiment Transition: Track changes in customer sentiment over time, including sentiment analysis at the beginning and end of conversations. This feature allows you to understand shifts in customer perception and satisfaction levels from the outset to the conclusion of interactions, providing valuable insights into overall customer experience and sentiment trends.
Agent Performance Metrics:
- Avg Handling Time: Measure the average time agents spend on each interaction, helping optimize efficiency.
- Avg Speech Pace: Analyze the rate of speech to ensure agents communicate clearly and effectively.
- Avg Gaps Ratio: Evaluate the duration between agent and customer speech to minimize pauses and improve engagement.
- Avg Agent Volume: Monitor the workload of agents to ensure balanced distribution and prevent burnout.
- Abandon Rate per Hour: Assess the rate at which customers abandon interactions, indicating potential issues with service quality or wait times.
- And so much more.
Interaction Summaries: Provide concise summaries of customer interactions, highlighting key points and outcomes for quick review and analysis.
Dominant/Minor Topics with Sentiment Heatmap: Visualize the frequency and sentiment of dominant and minor conversation topics across different seasons, hours, or days using a heatmap, facilitating trend identification and analysis.
Cross-sell/Upsell Opportunities (Call Adherence): Identify opportunities for cross-selling or upselling during customer interactions, ensuring agents adhere to established strategies and maximizing revenue potential.
Comparison of Team Performance by Department or Country: Compare the performance of teams, departments, or countries to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement, enabling targeted interventions and resource allocation.
Business results
Our customers clearly experience numerous enhancements, effectively translating insights into tangible business outcomes:
Data-based decision making: No more guesswork; instead, decisions are grounded in precise data insights, leading to more effective strategies and operations. Consequently, businesses can save significant costs by avoiding wasteful or ineffective initiatives.
Increased Revenue: By accurately identifying customer wants and needs through data analysis, sales and marketing teams can tailor their approaches, offering products with compelling messaging that resonates with customers, resulting in increased sales and revenue generation.
Operational Efficiency: Data analytics enables businesses to optimize operations by strategically scheduling team shifts, identifying peak activity periods, and automating processes where beneficial. Conversely, it also highlights areas where automation may not be optimal, leading to more efficient resource allocation and streamlined workflows.
Customer Loyalty: Utilizing data insights, businesses can provide personalized and timely interactions to customers, meeting their needs precisely when and where they arise. This availability and tailored service foster customer loyalty and satisfaction, driving repeat business and long-term relationships.
Enhanced Competitive Advantage: Leveraging data-driven insights allows businesses to gain a competitive edge by staying attuned to market trends, understanding consumer behaviors, and adapting strategies accordingly. This proactive approach enables businesses to differentiate themselves, attract new customers, and outperform competitors in the market.
How to implement a customer insights analytics software
In one of our articles, we explore key considerations for selecting an AI conversation analytics software. Choosing the right solution entails defining your use cases, developing a robust business case, understanding essential capabilities, and thoroughly assessing your options. At Born Digital, we’re here to support you throughout your AI transformation journey. Contact us today to learn more.