4 Key Considerations When Selling the Concept of Big Data

Making big data work for SMEs is about improving profitability, retaining customers and achieving an edge in the highly competitive SME market.  Improvements in Customer Service and the ‘Customer Experience’ is therefore the biggest selling point of Big Data and should be the primary focus when presenting the concept to customers.

1. Make it visual – Big Data may sound intimidating to some, so the answer is to show data in a visual format such as dashboards and wallboards. The visual display needs to join up and consolidate as many sources of customer data as possible within a single tool, such as full customer details, their last orders, previous email communications, their last call and who dealt with the call. Adding a seamless link to call recordings enables users to hear what was discussed in any conversation.  In the past, these recordings would have been held in a separate system and would only be integrated when there was an issue. Now the information can be at hand before an escalation or complaint. It can be used to help employees achieve an understanding of the customer to the highest possible level, which in turn will enable them to deliver better customer satisfaction.
2. Make it relevant – Combined data on a dashboard or wallboard needs to display key performance indicators that can be customised to the specific needs of a user, specific to their business workflow. Delivering the right information in the right format at the right time, to the right people is critical when selling big data.  This helps users to predict customer behaviour and improve service, in order to excel in customer service and improve processes.
3. Gain intelligence through data consolidation – Using communications as an example, call metrics such as missed calls data are far more powerful when you look at the whole picture of how many of those calls remain unreturned, how many times they tried calling, who spoke to them last, what was said in that conversation… Consolidating metadata provides much deeper intelligence and insight, resulting in more relevant, more productive and ultimately more satisfied customers.
4. Understand your customer – Understanding the information to hand, what other information can be brought into the mix and how it contributes to business productivity are key. Data that can be tapped will vary from organisation to organisation, and systems to systems; for example, a communications platform may include quality of voice (vital to VOIP providers), another may have in-built Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) capabilities, which is perfect for SMEs with customer facing teams that are not ready to embark on contact centres but want to understand agent activity.  Gain a thorough understanding of what information is accessible to your customer.

Using APIs, data from multiple sources can be gathered from various sources, analysed then relevant data presented on dashboards or wallboards.  This allows further customisation, presenting an opportunity to create specific big data solutions tailored to particular vertical sectors.