Could Business Intelligence Improve Customer Relationships?

Business intelligence (BI) has been around for quite some time, but the sector experienced a major revival in 2012, driven largely by the increasing need for advanced data analytics.

According to a recent Gartner survey, BI and analytics were voted the top CIO priority for 2013. Meanwhile, a separate Gartner study revealed that companies are collecting new types of information – unstructured data, or information produced outside of company networks and applications. Companies are increasingly using information from sources as varied as email, text messages, social networking sites and videos for their own benefit.

Correlating, analyzing, presenting and embedding insights from structured and unstructured information together enables businesses to better personalize the customer experience and exploit new opportunities for growth, efficiencies, differentiation, innovation and even new business models.

Providing consumers with top-notch online service could soon become a requirement, as a recent study indicated that online customer relationship management is extremely important.

The research shows that consumers are quick to abandon a purchase and jump to another website if they don’t receive the assistance they want, in the timeframe they expect.

According to a recent survey, 40 percent of shoppers already spend as much time using the web as they spend in brick-and-mortar stores. Of those internet consumers, 83 percent said they could use help while shopping online, while 93 percent of respondents suggested that real-assistance would be beneficial. Another 71 percent of said they expect help within five minutes.

Benefits of BI analytics

Business intelligence applications have the potential to improve companies’ online CRM capabilities. BI tools, including big data analytics programs, will likely revolutionize the relationship between companies and their customers. Many of those potential changes include:

• Improved customer experience: Through the use of big data, organizations will have a better understanding of customer interests, along with more accurate forecasting capabilities.
• Advertising strategies: Traditional marketing campaigns, like email blasts and fliers, may not be the preferred methods for too much longer. Companies are increasingly using big data to develop personalized advertising, which creates customer profiles based on an individual’s shopping history.
• Every day impact: Several types of companies, from healthcare agencies to transportation, will adopt big data solutions to make life easier for their customers.