Editor’s note: Based in London, Claire Sporton is senior vice president of customer experience innovation at customer experience and marketing research firm Confirmit.
You’ve heard the phrase data-driven decision-making before. More likely, it’s starting to sound like a broken record. You want to make the right decisions for your team and your clients, so it’s no surprise you want (and need) lots of data to back it up. But even with real-time insights driving business intelligence (BI), you can’t just speak data-driven decision-making into existence. Chances are you’re overloaded with data, and some of it’s irrelevant, inaccurate or outdated.
There is another point to make. Whisper it … data isn’t always right. Approach data-driven decision-making with a clear understanding that those decisions are being made by actual people. And those people know things that data doesn’t. Whether it’s instinct or some piece of information that doesn’t live in your data lake, data can indeed help drive decisions, but there’s still a person at the wheel.
How do you get to a point where you have the data to steer decisions? Add customer experience to your BI toolkit. CX isn’t just for marketing and customer service teams. CX insights are a cornerstone of strategic decision-making. Below are five ways you can successfully integrate CX and BI data to empower all your employees to deliver better business outcomes.
- Bring data together. BI solutions should provide a true 360-degree view of the business by collecting comprehensive data from a variety of sources. If these solutions don’t include both customer and employee insights – particularly feedback – then you’re missing an important piece of the puzzle. Back in the day, customers received lengthy surveys (and sometimes still do) because business didn’t have enough data about their actual behavior. With information now readily available, the real task is to make the connections and analyze. Don’t forget to align the customer perspective with employee insights. Top off your efforts by bringing the data to life with quotes and videos and connecting with financial and operational data.
- Focus on actionable insights. Too many organizations view reporting as the destination instead of a steppingstone. Sure, reports and flashy dashboards get the ball rolling and can motivate leaders to make decisions. However, programs need to take the data to the next level to actually improve, rather than report on, the customer experience. How do you elevate CX insights? By using all the information to make data-driven, actionable decisions and operationalizing this process throughout the business. Corporate insights are only as valuable as the resulting measurable action and business impact. Focus on performance and you’ll be able to optimize decision-making at scale in a consistent, measurable and systematic way.
- Motivate the entire team. All employees must be connected to CX – after all, the customers pay their wages! Make sure other departments can visualize the data that matters to their team members. While data-driven anything is great, you must ensure that people have access to the right insights, in the right format, at the right time. With rich data in hand, team members must be encouraged to add that human insight, going beyond what artificial intelligence can infer. “Gut instinct” might not be scientific, but it’s still powerful and relevant. Insights should empower teams, not turn them into robots. A BI approach that leverages CX insights to provide all teams with the right information may sound like common sense, but it’s actually a strategic way to stand out from the competition.
- Include more voices. To drive better business decisions, you need to look at the entire customer journey. How do you do it? Ask for feedback from more than just the customer. Tap key stakeholders, employees, partners and suppliers. But be strategic in your ask: if you’re often looking for feedback that’s irrelevant or asking questions where you already know the answers, you’ll burn them out and miss out on valuable opinions. The entire experience ecosystem, combined with financial and operational data, holds the largest promise to create tangible business change. Companies need a complete picture, which means integrating, not just capturing, all these different perspectives.
- Keep innovating. Executives are notorious for over emphasizing short-term revenue growth or eagerly hopping on the latest buzz-worthy technology. Adding CX into the BI toolkit provides a clear link between business decisions and business outcomes, validating C-suite decisions. Innovation is constant when it comes to BI and CX solutions. With more new techniques available, it’s easier than ever before for businesses to find the right, customizable approach that fits with their overall goals. Stay ahead of the curve and push teams to uncover new ways to connect data – just make sure insights drive tangible action, not just more reporting.
CX is more than just a subset of marketing or customer service teams. It’s a strategic business strategy that provides organizations with the framework and tools to become truly data-driven. When paired with a comprehensive BI strategy, CX programs deliver rich feedback that drives faster, better decisions to improve the entire business. Together, CX and BI have the potential to create customer-centric, sustainable growth.