suitecx©2015,  suitecx Inc. November  30,  2015

Customer  Experience  Improvement:Finding  the  Right  Data  StrategyAs  marketers,  we  are  all  focused  on  improving  our  customer  experience  and  generating  more  revenue.    Everyone  talks  about  how  important  it  is  to  invest  in  web,  mobile  and  social  media  analytics.    Smart  marketers  don’t  stop  there,  however.    We  have  started  to  gather  everything  we  can  about  our  customers  and  hand  it  over  to  the  “big  data”  folks  to  see  if  they  can  find  patterns  that  will  make  us  smarter  and  enable  us  to  improve  our  bottom  line.    Finally,  we  have  done  a  good  job  at  collecting,  cleaning  and  matching  data  to  assure  more  consistency  and  adding  incentive  programs  so  we  can  identify  a  larger  percentage  of  our  customers  across  devices.

With  all  this  investment,  however,  it  seems  we  still  haven’t  made  significant  improvements  in  truly  understanding  our  customers’  experiences.    We  wonder,  “what  is  it  going  to  take  to  drive  real  bottom  line  growth?”  

Thought  Leadership

Combining  approaches  to  include  big  data,  transactional  data  and  ethnographic  data  can  lead  to  insights   that  no  one  technique  on  it ’s  own  can  provide.  

Combining  these  approaches  to  include  big  data,  transactional  data  and  ethnographic  data  can  lead  to  insights  that  no  one  technique  on  it’s  own  can  provide.  Using  a  combination  of  data  types  eliminates  the  needs  for  endless  surveys  and  focus  groups  that  usually  add  very  little  insight  into  what  is  actually  happening  to  your  broader  base  of  customers.    This  combination  provides  a  complete  picture  of  the  customer  and  can  inform  the  creation  of  more  strategic  solutions  to  customer  problems.    

At  SuiteCX we  use  all  three  types  of  data  to  discover  what  customers  are  experiencing,  how  to  they  feel  about  the  experience  and  what  they  consider  to  be  a  better  alternative.  We  look  at  the  “what”  (transactions)  and  the  “why”  (customer  motivations)  to  make  recommendations  for  strategic  improvements.  

The  missing  element  to  all  of  the  above  is  why customers  behave  the  way  they  do  –which  may  often  run  contrary  to  what  the  data  might  predict.    Understanding  the  why  helps  marketers  make  better  choices  for  what  improvements  in  the  customer  experience  need  to  be  made.    That  missing  link  is  ethnographic  data.    Ethnographic  data  helps  us  understand  why  customers  do  what  they  do,  starting  with  a  hypothesis  and  then  observing  interactions  to  confirm  or  reject  the  hypothesis.  

Transactions

Big  DataSocial  Call  Center  Browsing  BehaviorSurvey  ResponsesEmail  opens  &  clicksReviews  

Ethnographic  DataMystery  shopping  In  home  observation  Planning  observationsProduct  usage  infoFamily  culture  Thoughts  &  Perceptions  

Current  Data  Usage  by  Marketers  

suitecx©2015,  suitecx Inc. November  30,  2015

About  SuiteCX®Backed  by  over  120  years  of  combined  experience  in  customer  experience  consulting,  SuiteCX is  a  set  of  software  tools  that  allow  users  to  make  fact  based  decisions  and  process  improvements  that  are  grounded  in  the  customer  experience.  Customer-­‐centric  diagnostics,  touch  inventories,  journey  maps,  customer  storytelling  and  precision  marketing  are  all  components  of  this  groundbreaking  software.

Thought  Leadership

For  a  leading  eyeglass  company,  we  observed  customers  while  they  were  in  the  store.    We  noticed  that  consumers  were  taking  pictures  of  each  other  as  they  tried  on  various  frames.    When  we  asked  them  why  they  did  this  the  answer  was  interesting:  “I  can’t  see  what  I  look  like  in  the  mirror  without  my  glasses,  so  my  friend  is  photographing  me  so  I  can  see  what  the  new  frames  look  like.”    This  totally  made  sense,  but  eyeglass  companies  have  been  asking  consumers  to  look  in  the  mirror  for  years  to  can  pick  their  new  frames.  As  a  result  of  this  research,  the  company  now  offers  a  computer  station,  at  which  the  customer  can  take  up  to  4  different  pictures  at  a  time.  They  can  then  see  the  new  frames  with  their  current  glasses  on,  and  they  can  also  share  the  photos  with  their  friends.  

A  recent  Harvard  Business  Review  article1 gave  another  example  from  a  European  supermarket  chain.    The  CMO  could  see  his  sales  declining  but,  counterintuitively,  the  number  of  customer  trips  to  the  supermarket  were  increasing.  Using  ethnographic  research  to  better  understand  shopping  and  meal  planning  trends,  the  company  discovered  that  eating  habits  have  changed  dramatically.    Families  were  no  longer  eating  all  their  meals  together.  Instead,  dinner  was  eaten  in  different  rooms,  and  different  meals  (vegan,  gluten  free,  paleo  etc.)  were  being  consumed  by  family  members.  What  consumers  wanted  was  a  fast  and  convenient  place  that  enabled  them  to  shop  for  their  family’s  distinctive  needs.

Once  it  is  understood  why  customers  are  behaving  they  way  they  do,  marketers  can  then  go  back  to  the  big  data  team  to  learn  which  customers  are  most  impacted,  which  stores  they  frequent,  and  which  strategic  changes  will  have  the  biggest  impact.    Ultimately  the  investment  in  the  “why “(motivation)  adds  critical  insight  into  the  nature  of  the”  what.“  (transactions).To  achieve  excellence  in  customer  experience  management  and  remain  competitive  in  today’s  marketplace,  you  can’t  afford  to  focus  only  on  one  side  of  the  equation.

Type   What   is  it?   Typical   Examples   Who  uses  it   What  questions  does  it  answer?  

Transactional  Data

What  customers  do  when  interacting  with   the  brand.   This  is  the  most  commonly  utilized  set  of  data.

Add  to  wish  list  or  shopping  cart,  purchase,  return, repuchase,  call  for  service,  pay,   join  a  loyalty  program,   redeem   points, usecoupons,  churn,  etc.

Marketing  Campaign  Planners  Merchants  

What  are  customers  purchasing?  How  long  do  they  stay  a  customer?What  do  they  usually  buy?  What  are   they  worth  to  our  company?  

Big  Data

Extremely   large   data  sets  that  may  be  analyzed  computationally   to  reveal   patterns,   trends,  and  associations,  especially  relating   to  human  behavior  and  interactions.

Behavioral  data,   social  data   -­‐listening,  posting,  interacting,   call  center  details,  browsing  behavior,  survey  responses,  email   opens  &  clicks,  product  reviews,  etc.  

Analytics  Experts  IT  

What  do  people  do?  What  is  happening  now?   Identifies  trends,  propensities  to  repeat  behaviors,  etc.  

Ethnographic  Data

The  systematic  study  of  people  and  cultures.  It   is  designed  to  explore  cultural  phenomena, in  which   the  researcher   observes  society  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  subject  of  the  study.

Observing  people  in  their  homes  and  in  shopping  environments  to  see  what  they  do,  how  they  spend  their  time,   their  values,  their  expectations,  life  experiences,   etc.  

Social  Scientists,  Ethnographic  Researchers,  Anthropologists  

Why  do  people  do  what  they  do?  What  is  their  motivation?  What  is  their   ideal  experience?  

Customer  Experience  Improvement:Finding  the  Right  Data  Strategy

1   https://hbr.org/2015/11/big-­‐data-­‐is-­‐only-­‐half-­‐the-­‐data-­‐marketers-­‐need by  Mikkel  B.  Rasmussen   &  Andreas  W.  Hansen,  Nov.  2015