No time for customer analytics?
"No time for customer analytics" - Is it a serious business strategy?
"No time" or "too many other projects" is what we hear all too often from managing directors and marketing managers of medium-sized retail companies when it comes to the topic of automated customer segmentation.
However, Amazon, Zalando, Otto and other "big players" are taking this very time and deliberately investing in the topic of customer segmentation and AI. After all, it's been no secret for a long time that you can achieve multiple revenue increases through targeted marketing campaigns.
Here are a few typical approaches taken by SMEs that not only carry major risks, but also endanger a company's business and competitiveness:
- "We do segmentation manually"
Normally, we deal with hundreds of thousands of orders from many customers. Manual, error-free and effective analysis of this data is not only very time-consuming and expensive, it is simply impossible!
- "We do it when our ERP, CRM or BI system is performing better, or has been redeployed"
IT landscapes are constantly growing and changing, and complexity is increasing. Customers should be taken care of despite all these developments. Means (IT) and ends (good digital services) must not be confused.
- "Data science approaches are abstract and nebulous".
Analytical approaches need to be created in a Use Case-based manner. Customer segmentation and predictive analysis of customer behavior is one of the most important use cases for Data Science. Most algorithms have been known for a long time, they just need to be applied correctly.
- "I don't have a concrete business case"
Good customer retention leads to a significant increase in sales. All you have to do to achieve this is evaluate your marketing campaigns properly. A good basis for this is the introduction of targeted customer segmentation.
- "GDPR rules are complex and processing personal data is dangerous".
GDPR rules are indeed complicated, but they should not distract from working with the company's greatest treasure (customers).
