Customer Intelligence
The crystal ball of customer behavior.
Customer behavior is a much stronger predictor of your future relationship with a customer than demographic information ever will be. You have to look at the data, the record of their behavior, and it will tell you things. It will tell you "I’m not satisfied." It will tell you "I want to buy more, give me a push." It will tell you "I think your content is boring." Know your customers and give them what they want is the fundamental principle of marketing.
This principle is simple in theory, but increasingly challenging to put into practice. Short of being a mind reader or having a crystal ball, it's difficult for marketers to know what's on a customer's mind today, or anticipate what the customer may need or want tomorrow.
The challenge doesn't stem from lack of customer data. The fact is, customers and prospects are giving us information about themselves all the time. Through every response, customer contact, event, transaction and Web site hit, they reveal something about themselves.
Databases are chock full of these useful tidbits, and call centers and other customer management systems are overflowing with details about customers and contacts. The challenge is that raw data does not have value per se; it needs to be turned into useful information.
That is where analytical technology comes into play. A philosopher once wrote that finding the patterns in the randomness of life is the way we create beauty and make art. A similar statement could be made about analytics, which find patterns in the randomness of data so that you can discover valuable information and gain insight.
