The What, Why And How Of Customer Analytics Solutions

Have you played that age-old game “Would You Rather”?  You start the game by posing a question that has two choices — if you could choose only one food to eat for the rest of your life, would you rather eat ice cream or bacon? Would you rather live in a spaceship for a month or in a submarine? Would you rather be incredibly rich or incredibly smart? Those are some hard choices to make.

Trust us, those are the simpler ones from the lot. The best ones were the ones with superpower choices. Would you rather have x-ray vision or super strength? Would you rather be invisible or be able to fly? Answering this question involved much debate and consideration and it wasn’t really about the answer itself but why you ultimately chose one superpower over another.

These questions embodied the true goal of the game which was to get a better understanding of the person you were playing with. What motivated them? What were their likes and dislikes? How were they like you? How were they different?


Figuring out what makes customers tick — what they want and what annoys them, why they prefer some brands over others and how to get them to come back – is exactly what Customer Analytics Solution aims to do. These tools are much more precise when it comes to figuring out what motivates people than the children ever could while playing Would You Rather! By analyzing demographic, behavioral, psychographic and other data, Customer Analytics Solution offers you a superpower — reading minds (sort of!).  

Enough with the trailer - let’s get to the real movie now and introduce our protagonist for the day – Customer Analytics Solutions.

What Are Customer Analytics Solutions?

Customer analytics is a $4 billion dollar market that is expected to reach $10 billion by 2026. It’s basically the most lucrative game of Would You Rather that’s ever been played. Customer Analytics Solutions include any tool that collects and analyzes consumer data for the purpose of better understanding customer behavior and intent.

Customer Analytics Solutions can measure a variety of customer data including social media analytics, web traffic analytics, behavioral analytics and transactional data (sales, conversions, purchase orders, invoices, etc.). Platforms like Mixpanel combine multiple analytics sources to provide a nuanced view of the customer.
 
The machine mind is far superior to the human mind (well, most of the time). Companies use customer data analytics to avoid the guessing game of figuring out what resonates with their consumers. It’s mind-reading technology at its finest. Customer analytics helps businesses create more targeted ads, write customer-centric content and provide a better customer experience.

One of the coolest features of a Customer Analytics Solution is its ability to group customers with similar attributes into segments or cohorts to derive customer insight. Segmentation can be broad (e.g., men and women) or specific (e.g., dog owners who like squeaky toys or cat owners who like scratching posts).

William Shakespeare knew the importance of history and once said, "There is a history in all men's lives." The same would be true for this software as well. It's time to seek an insight into the history of Customer Analytics Solutions. Ready?
 

A Brief History Of Customer Analytics Solutions

 
The internet revolutionized the way customer interaction was taken by businesses. For the first time, customer journey could be easily collected from users who freely share it with companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook.

Customer analytics in the internet age started with Google Analytics. Launched in 2005, Google Analytics made it easy (and free) for businesses to monitor their website data. Now companies could better understand what their website visitors were doing and, crucially, what they were interested in. Google Analytics answered only the most rudimentary intent questions. Would customers rather go here or there? How do users find us? How long do they stay on the website? Why do they keep abandoning their shopping carts? The data spoke to what users were doing but not the why behind a particular behavior.

By 2010, companies, particularly retailers, began using more specific data analysis tools to get to the bottom of “why” customers did various things (or not) on their websites. They started connecting the dots between actions and intent, unearthing what consumers wanted even before consumers realized they wanted it (spooky stuff, we know).

Here’s a fun example. By monitoring purchase behavior in their stores over time, Target was able to customize offers and ads to individual customer preferences. This famously went awry in 2012 when Target sent a teenager coupon for baby clothes and supplies, which is how her father got wind of the fact that she was pregnant. Told you, spooky!

Over the past decade, platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Amazon have made it even easier for consumers to share their data. This data is then used by Customer Analytics Solutions that drive the backend of these websites. These sophisticated tools use Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to collect, combine and analyze data to segment customers and predict what they want (even before they know they want it). This, in turn, drives sales revenue and growth for companies across all business sectors.

Coming back to the present, let’s now move on to the ‘how’ of Customer Analytics Solutions.

How Do Customer Analytics Solutions Work?

 
Customer Analytics Solutions collect data for analysis, segmentation and measurement of customer activity and behavior. Using this data analytics, they provide in-depth usage reports to make the data actionable. The features vary based on the type of solution you’re using but include:
 

• Behavioral analysis and customer acquisition trend reports

• A/B testing capabilities for ads, landing pages or content

• Customer journey tracking to help identify customer preferences (and pitfalls)

• Subscription/ churn tracking, revenue (and recurring revenue) tracking and ROI analysis

• Customer segmentation including the ability to identify power users and high-value customers

 
Here’s a high-level breakdown of the three types of Customer Analytics Solutions:
 

• Collaborative Tools

  enable marketing, sales and other teams to share customer data and collaborate on an overarching growth strategy. Examples include tools like Salesforce and HubSpot and account-based marketing platforms like Marketo. They keep your marketing and sales teams on the same page.

• Analytical Tools

  include Google Analytics and Mixpanel out of the bunch. They essentially track website metrics, sales, social media performance/ conversations and other sources which can be used for media planning and buying, creative development and strategic decision-making.

• Operational Tools

  streamline business processes and workflows by combining siloed data, aligning IT systems and identifying problems and pain points, addressing them in real-time. Cisco DNA Spaces and SAP Manufacturing and Intelligence are examples of operational analytics tools.

Regardless of type, the goal of Customer Analytics Solutions is to avoid playing Would You Rather in the first place. There are so many variables associated with customer intent, you’d be playing the game for days and you’d still only scratch the surface of understanding your customer be it the existing customers or otherwise. Believe us, that route always ends in tears!

That’s only one of the many reasons we need Customer Analytics Solutions. Let’s look at some more of them.

Why Do We Need Customer Analytics Solutions?

Understanding customer intent is key to creating top-notch customer experiences. We know we keep using the word 'experience' over and over. This is intentional. Customers have a certain (very high) level of expectation when it comes to interacting with companies online. We’ll throw some statistics around that in a minute. For now, just trust us. Another reason why you need a Customer Analytics Solution? Your competitors are probably already using it!

A study by Forrester found that insights-driven companies outperform their peers. Data is so important that, as of October 2020, 60% of global companies have hired Chief Data Officers. Tools like Mixpanel don’t just reveal if your customer would rather have super strength or invisibility, they tell you why. Once you know the why behind what a customer wants, you can create personalized messaging that resonates with them. You don’t want to send the invisibility guy a coupon for 15% off home gym equipment and the strength guy an offer for 30% off all invisible clothing (imagine the horror!)

If you’re still wondering, do we really need such a solution – let’s talk a bit about what makes Customer Analytics Solutions so crucial for every business.

Importance Of Customer Analytics Solutions

It’s no news that customer behavior and motivation shift in response to changing needs and world events (duh!). Customer Analytics Solutions not only capture this change in behavior but also assist you in quickly adapting your strategies to it. Here’s how.


Customer Analytics Solution gives you the following superpowers:
 

• Preternatural Empathy

  Easily profile and segment customers into cohorts so content, ad creative and interactions can be customized.

• Unimaginable Success

  Save money on customer acquisition by focusing on prospects and customers who are more likely to convert.

• Team-wide Telepathy

  Gain powerful team collaboration and strategic planning abilities through accessible, sharable and actionable data.

• Super Speed

  Enjoy unprecedented agility by collecting real-time customer data and employing Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning to make predictions, unearth trends and tap into consumer sentiment via social media.

Customer Analytics Solutions take the guesswork out of managing customers and customer experiences. They help marketers and sales teams predict what motivates consumers by linking behavioral data to transactional data so you can unearth trends in real-time.

Thomas Jefferson once said, "I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past."  So, let’s not leave the future out.
 

The Future Of Customer Analytics Solutions

 
Customer Analytics Solutions are moving beyond sales and marketing teams to incorporate every department that interfaces with customers. Let’s face it, everyone’s tired of playing games like Would You Rather. The good news is that analytics software is growing, getting more sophisticated, accurate and agile. It’s also getting much cooler, incorporating things like AI, voice and mobile technologies into the vast pool of data that churns beneath the roiling sea of consumer sentiment.

Conversational AI platforms like Liveperson and Landbot.io analyze written and spoken conversations to provide instant, personalized customer service interactions. Social listening platforms like Netbase Quid analyze public conversations on social media, review websites and forums to better understand consumer sentiment. Some conversational marketing platforms like Spectrm.io use real-time text-based chat (via chatbots) to create personalized shopping experiences that begin before a user visits your website. This is just the beginning; the revolution that Artificial Intelligence can bring to Customer Analytics Solutions is beyond our imagination.

In The End

Remember those statistics we promised about consumer expectations?  Well, they’re pretty high. A study by Appnovation found that 89% of millennials expect brands, regardless of the business sector, will use technology to shape their customer experiences. As in-person experiences become more digital, 65% of US consumers say they prefer to have more of their brand experiences online.

Customer Analytics Solutions enable businesses to meet — and exceed — these high consumer expectations. Ask yourself this: would you rather guess what makes a good customer experience or know exactly what motivates your customers to do business with you? We know you chose the latter, which means you understand the need for Customer Analytics Solutions too. Guess our work is done here!