So, what exactly is a data-driven culture? Data-driven culture is nothing but a culture in an organization that empowers every individual to gain access to the humongous data of the organization that can be used to analyze and gain insight from, and assist in the day-to-day decision making process.
Simply put, it is letting data drive every decision and aligning the culture in a way to optimize insights – deriving the best maximum value of data analytics to drive business value. A survey by Forbes magazine that interviewed 311 executives found that 88% of the organizations have used data to understand their consumer better. And more than half of them confirmed that data makes them become more customer-centric.
Now, the question arises, why should organizations have a data-driven culture?
Data-driven culture allows smarter business decisions leading to sustainable organizational improvement.
- Such a culture narrows the focus, improving resource allocation to a great extent.
- All assumptions can be challenged using data analytics, leveraging business intelligence by leaps and bounds.
How does a data-driven culture impact the customer experience? In a competitive world, the challenge that marketers face is to gain access to data from across various locations. Most organizations lack the capability to collate and capture data across multiple channels to a single point so that marketers can derive actionable insights from it, then make informed and practical decisions to kick customer experience up a notch.
It takes time to establish a data-driven culture. Cultivating such a culture across the organization can seem to be a difficult process initially, especially in non-IT organizations where the employees are less tech savvy and need more training and on-the-job experience to get accustomed to the new technologies.
The following three steps will help you cultivate a data-driven culture in your organization:
Step 1: Put your metrics together to measure success
Determine the area you are targeting. Once you know what you are measuring – it can be marketing, sales, operations, or accounting success – it becomes easier to gather data. Collect data from all sources and platforms available, and use it to measure the success metrics. From top down you have to make every member of the organization understand the value of data.
Step 2: Select appropriate tools for data analysis
The market these days boasts of quite a number of reliable and powerful data-driven marketing tools that marketers can use for data analysis. These tools allow targeting customers and segmenting their capabilities, interpreting the trend, and detecting problems if any. However, one tool does not suit the need of every organization. Choose a tool that suits you best and make the most out of it.
Read: 7 hot data analytics trends
Step 3: Implement and feedback using an agile data team
To achieve success in using data-driven tools and technology, there needs to be a proper alignment between the people, the process, and the technology of an organization. This involves centralization of data and the use of dedicated data-driven tools for comprehensive analysis at the hour of need. For this, put together a team that understands the importance of data-driven culture and assists in fine-tuning the required strategies and objectives for success through proper feedback. When it comes to analyzing the required data, deriving actionable insights from it and making spilt-second decisions, an agile and data-savvy team comes in handy.
Read: 5 Steps to Master Big Data and Predictive Analytics
What are the benefits of doing the above?
- Data-driven culture leads to data-driven marketing, which in turn provides a 360-degree view of the customers’ expectations. Marketers can resort to prescriptive analysis and easily find the best solution to any situation, thus offering rewarding customer services.
A case in point is the popular music app, Spotify. They used their listeners’ data and created custom playlists based on each listener’s preferences. This has taken Spotify’s user experience to an entirely different level.
Read: How to Integrate Data for Digital Transformation Success
- Data-driven culture is not only beneficial for compelling customer experience but also equally insightful and beneficial for the organization.
An excellent example is that of Versace. Realizing that entry-level products such as sunglasses and wallets are the most purchased items, they developed a marketing strategy using the buying patterns and customer data to attract high-end customers buying larger items such as garments. The strategy paid off well leading to an increase of 300% average order value and 35% online sales.
- Marketers get a bird’s-eye view of the entire business and generate better opportunities to sell the right product at the right time to the right prospect.
GrubHub, the food delivery app, uses data in a smart way to know people eat what, when, and where. They analyze data and create engaging contests and quizzes to learn about the dietary preferences of the different segment of customers.
With a data-driven culture in the organization, marketers can explore various customer preferences, analyze trends, and respond to these factors by making smarter decisions to improve customer experience. They can then improve their marketing strategies and campaigns to target the right customer, yielding an increased ROI.
Contact us to learn more about data-driven culture and its importance.
