There has been much attention and debate around the subject of Big Data. For some the collection and utilization of vast databases of user information is a controversial and touchy subject. However, there can be no doubt that for targeting advertising and customer service the benefits of Big Data can be used to improve the customer’s experience and to deliver them the quality content they actually want to see.

Big Data not only helps you bring in new customers, it allows for the collection of customer intelligence, which can be utilized to improve customer retention. Let’s look at five ways that using Big Data can help improve customer retention.

1. Understanding the Customer’s Needs and Desires

Collecting customer intelligence allows businesses to understand what their customers like to do and purchase. By analyzing what sort of products, services or media the customer consumes a business can better target and hone what the customer is looking for. For example, by observing what kind of multimedia the customer consumes a data engine can make suggestions based on what they might like, what other people with similar tastes like, and present the customer with the most relevant, targeted options tailored to their unique taste. Such systems have been widely implemented on some of the most popular websites on the Internet. The ‘suggestion engine’ is a powerful tool of Big Data. It helps to improve customer retention by constantly displaying to the customer the parts of a product catalog or the services available which are most relevant to their interests. This allows for a site to immediately provide relevant information to the user’s unique needs without the user needing to navigate through the search themselves.

2. Handling the Paradox of Choice

Online stores and businesses have the benefit of being able to handle vast databases of hundreds or even thousands of items. While having a vast selection is a great way to expand your potential market and engage more users, having such a huge amount of products offered can sometimes become confusing to the user. By collecting data about which products are being viewed and purchased, and correlating that data with other customer intelligence, Big Data can work to effectively reduce the Paradox of Choice. Instead of being overwhelmed by all the possible options, users can be directed to exactly what they are looking for – sometimes, before they even knew they were looking for it!

3. Specialized Offers, Sales and Discounts

Tracking how your customers are using services or buying products allows businesses to target those specific users with offers and discounts tailored to their individual tastes based on their past history. It can also allow a business to utilize customer metadata information like their location, or social data about what their friends like, to offer better deals and potential savings to the customer. If a business hosts an event in a specific location, or multiple locations across the globe, knowing where your customers are located geographically allows to send specific, targeted promotions for your event to only those users who are within driving distance, for example.

4. Reducing Spam, Increasing Relevancy

How many times have you opened your e-mail only to find a bunch of ads for junk you don’t want? Customers dislike spam and, frequently, any form of advertising can get chucked into the spam filter. Sending out ads on the Internet can therefore be a perilous endeavor; if a customer identifies something as spam they might block further communication from that source, or become disgruntled with the company that sent them the ‘spam’. By collecting large amounts of data on your customers, not only data about purchase history but also sometimes customer metadata (age, location, gender, occupation etc.) as well as social data and web browsing habits, you can utilize a variety of techniques to make sure the content delivered to the user is something they find useful or enjoyable. This significantly reduces the potential for a customer to perceive the ads as spam.

5. Engage New Potential Customers and Suggest New Things to Returning Customers

The vast nature of the Internet means that frequently it has to be navigated without any sort of road map or guideposts. Web surfers are confronted with the option of summoning virtually anything they can think of within their browser. With so much content available, it’s impossible for a user to even understand what all of their potential choices are. Big Data allows businesses to effectively target where their content needs to be displayed, especially if used in conjunction with Business Intelligence software. This helps users to discover what they were looking for as well as find new content they may have previously been unaware of. By generating content suggestions, Big Data algorithms help users navigate the vast web of potential products and services available to them. This has the desirable effect of educating customers on the options available to them while simultaneously keeping those options relevant and interesting to each unique individual.

It should be noted that these are just five ways that Big Data can improve customer retention and this simple list merely scratches the surface of the vast array of methods this data can be used to improve your business. By effectively utilizing Big Data via savvy business intelligence processes, companies are constantly improving their user experience. The multitude of possibilities for customer acquisition, retention and service is increasing by the minute!

Source by Chris R Bourne

"Promise only what you can deliver. Then deliver more than you promise."
– Author Unknown

Many customers hesitate to buy because they fear that they might make the wrong decision and regret it later. This fear dominates the purchase decision and may kill the selling opportunity alike.

One way to minimize this fear, or even eliminate it altogether, is to offer a guarantee. This is not as crazy as it sounds. Presuming your product or service is good and you have few complaints, a guarantee may help you sell more. For the prospective customer, maybe the guarantee will help minimize the risk of doing business with your firm.

Here is the trick: you probably already have an implicit guarantee. For example, if a customer calls you with a quality problem, do not you fix it or replace the defective product? Do not you normally bend over backwards when the unhappy customer calls? Of course you do, because it just makes good business sense to do so.

The point is that most of you already have a guarantee policy and just do not put it your e-mail promotions or your purchase agreements. Think how powerful it is to tell a prospective customer that you guarantee your work, your product, or your service.

Some consumer product based businesses offer guarantees that are "money back" regardless of the customer issue. This type of guarantee is a branding feature, which helps differentiate the business from the competition. I have found "money back" guarantees to be most successful when used for low-priced consumer products and services.

There also seems less impact and greater financial risk for money back guarantees when selling industrial products or high priced goods. For example, you do not see money back guarantees on Honda automobiles.

Satisfaction guarantees are often a better alternative for these products; promise to make things right, but you do not give away the farm in the process. Also, do not confuse a guarantee with a mere cancellation for convenience. I have seen guarantees backfire when a customer is given unconditional negligence privileges. This can be particularly injurious to long-term service contracts, when the full contract period is needed to ensure sufficient margin.

Finally, like most new ideas, you should test this guarantee first. Try out the guarantee on a customer or customer group. See what happens. With a successful trial, a customer-wide roll-out will go more smoothly.

John Bradley Jackson

© Copyright 2008 All rights reserved.

Source by John Bradley Jackson

Recently, I helped facilitate a global conference with one of my great clients. We had several guest speakers. Thomas Detelich spoke from Household Finance, one of the largest consumer lending companies in the world. He spoke of their need to be able to assess the activity and productivity of any one of their 5000 representatives instantly in order to maximize their productivity and be able to accurately coach them to success.

Michael Mendenhall, who is the global head of marketing for all of Disney resorts and theme parks around the world talked about the need to stay current on a daily basis with the hundreds of thousands of comments being made daily by resort guests and visitors worldwide in order to facilitate not CRM but "CMR – Customer Managed Relationships." They need to do this in order to deliver what guests really want, when they want it, and even before they ask for it.

Al Gore came and spoke about the huge environmental crisis facing our planet in the form of global warming and the need to take immediate action in order to avoid catastrophic consequences for all of humanity.

There was a clear theme. The word is URGENCY !! Those that are the most competitive have it. Great leaders have it. In time of crisis everyone has to have it. It is clear that with high urgency, stuff gets done … lots of stuff!

Think about it. When do most people get the most done? At the beginning of a project or the end? When do most people file their tax returns? Why do going out of business sales work? It's because most people do not have a sense of urgency until they are faced with a crisis or a deadline.

It's the weirdest thing, but folks who bumble along all of a sudden turn into superstars in the 11th hour. Just think what would happen if you operated with that level of urgency and productivity all the time ???

Have you ever been in a crowded airport doing your best to get to your gate or to baggage claim and momentarily get stuck behind someone, not only walking at half speed, but apparently in a daze about direction, purpose and life ???? Maybe it's just me, but there is a part of my little voice that wants to yell, "Hey … wake up, get moving or get out of the way!" Know what I mean?

Do not get me wrong. I was the kid who waited until the night before finals to cram for the test. I too put stuff off way too long sometimes. But I do think that the secret to my success and the success of others is that there is a natural sense of urgency to 'get it done!' Not everyone has it.

In a recent SalesPartners Certification program, teams were given five days to produce income. In the middle of the program, I gave all the teams two hours to create a new project and generate income in that two hour time frame. Guess what?

Most of them produced more money in those two hours than in the whole five days !!!

Why? Because there was urgency.

How do you create it, condition it in yourself, get it if you do not have it and better yet how do you get others to get it if they do not have it?

1. Control the environment. You have to create a space that supports the urgency without abuse. Celebrating wins. Have fun! Create games.

2. Operate on a team where there is lots of accountability to the group. To condition urgency, peer pressure and peer support are the fastest ways for everyone to get it. Remember it takes more than one to create synergy.

3. Have a Code of Honor that supports optimal performance. You are going to turn up the heat and you have to be sure that the rules are clear. The rules have to support the behavior that supports the goal, support the team and prevent people from bailing out.

4. Set the boundaries. Do not give yourself or others a lot of latitude to think or wander. Set the time frames, the requirements, the rules and even turn your projects into games that you can score.

5. Make it competitive. By doing this, it allows everyone to benchmark their progress against others. You are able to see where you stand in the running at all times and know exactly what you need to do to improve.

6. Set a deadline. This is the most important !! The closer the deadline, the higher the urgency. Set the goal line and make sure that everyone on your team knows it as well. Setting a deadline for yourself is no big deal, but if you have to answer to a group … that is a big deal. That is why the classic Monday morning sales meeting is so powerful. Everyone has to produce every week because they have to show their results to everyone else … every Monday !!

7. Repeat and immerse in the process. Use these criteria in your training, your work and in every project that has importance and meaning to it. If you discipline yourself to operate in this kind of an environment for say … 12 weeks … I guarantee you will begin to rekindle that natural sense of urgency that you had as a kid when you set your mind on something. You will be invigorated, you will need less sleep, you will feel younger, your fingernails will grow faster (do not ask me why!), You will become more attractive and most all you will get what you want faster.

You should have the same sense of urgency with wealth creation for your family, for your health, for your relationships.

But here's the kick and the most important point:

… You do not need a deadline if you have a mission !!!!!!

Those who are truly on a mission, have a natural sense of urgency. They have something they see, feel and are passionate about that they want to manifest. Their frustration lies in the fact that their ideas, vision and expectations move faster than the reality around them. They are therefore always pushing, sometimes impatient but always have urgency.

What about you? Do you need an emergency to have urgency or is your mission big enough to push you? Lots of folks talk about mission, but their actions do not reveal any urgency. I would maintain in those cases, the mission is not that big of a deal to them.

The truth is … the clock is ticking. There is a finite amount of time. I am not advocating being crazy about this, but how do you want to be remembered? If you are going to make your mark with your family, in your community or in the world … when are you going to do it?

Source by Blair Singer