BENEFITS & CHALLENGES OF USING CUSTOMER DATA IN MARKETING- AUTHOR SULTAN NAZIR

 


In olden times there lived  an old man who was considered to be the wisest of all, because he knew answer to everything, this old man had a very simple life and lived in a village. Some boys from the neighbouring village thought of a trick to prove old man wrong, one of them would have a bird in one of his close first and ask two questions to the old man, one question being what is in his hands and second if the bird is alive or dead, the old man will answer the first question right as he was the wisest, if he said the bird was alive, he will crush the bird, but if he said it was dead, he will let go of the bird. In either case, proving the old man wrong. They went to the old man with cunning plan and asked the first question, and he rightly replied that the boy has a bird in his closed fists. When he asked the second question, the old man paused and then replied, "I don't know the answer to this questions," the boys protested, "but you are the wisest man alive, you know the answer to everything." To which the old man replied, "then the answer lies in your hand."

This story applies to many things, but the point I want to bring across is when it comes to customer data how a business or organization uses this lies in their hands.

How Is This Data Useful...on the positive side when this data is gathered and used in a proper manner it not only benefits one entity but many entities and customer as well, resulting in a win-win-win outcome. Please see the video below for a simply application of the data...

                                                                                                    Credits: CNBC

Challenges With Use Customer Data...With enormous scope and value of data, there comes challenges as well. Often we hear stories of data breaches to more sinister misuse of data. One such example of data breach was with fashion retailer TKMax which in 2008 had serious breach of data with millions of customer details were compromised. We also see other instances of misuse to create fake news or simply data use for manipulation. The point is with data comes huge responsibility and proper care and diligence needs to be taken when handling and using data. For example, European wide GDPR rules need to be followed here and respective rules of the country where the business is operating should be implemented. Check out Holly's Blog on how this data be handled. As this is an ever changing field, so one needs to be abreast of these changes and needs to monitored and applied on continuous basis.

Benefits Of Using Customer Data... Following are just few of the benefits of this resource that business can take advantage of: 

  1. Customer Segmentation... Consider the scenario of two businesses, one that exactly know their customers by age, sex, location, use of devices, timing, preferences etc as oppose to one that doesn't. Who do you think has the advantage?
  2. Relationship Building... This is proven that customers do business and maintain their loyalties with businesses with whom they have a relationship. In fact, the first transaction is not the sale but the trust and the first step for that is relationship. Knowing your customer through the data and behaviour is so vital to build and ongoing profitable relationship.
  3. Interests & Preferences... This goes beyond just the sale, this data can be used to check customer interests, get their feedback, know the latest trends and come up with customised offerings that convert customers into raving fans and advocates.
The Last Word.... In summary customer data is a huge advantage for a business, the approach to take is to include the customer into this, be transparent, educate them and let them know how this data be will be used for the betterment of everyone. In the end the customer has the power to decide both by the foot in the physical world and with the click in the cyber space. Coming back to the old man the answer lies in your own hands.

Author: Sultan Nazir

👉For more Insights and Interesting views, visit our blog at DeepDigitallifestyle





Comments

  1. Holly Meade DBS BlogMarch 7, 2022 at 12:42 PM

    Wow Sultan I genuinely enjoyed reading through this post - it's clear you are an expert in all-things digital marketing! I loved the informative video you shared aswell as the striking imagery. In particular the line that stuck out was " include the customer" as so many businesses do fail to properly include and consider the customer. Your blog shows that when done right, customer data is nothing to fear and as you say it can be used for the betterment of everyone. I really enjoyed this blog series and commend you on great effort put into these super informative posts. Holly

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ksenija KarpezoMarch 7, 2022 at 2:29 PM

    Sultan, it's a great blog! I liked that you put the emphasis on the fact that this is a constantly changing and developing area and it is necessary to keep abreast of these developments. And this is good, because it gives great opportunities to business and makes it more competitive. I found a very useful example from the vitality of the company that you cited in the article, it makes it clear what challenges we may encounter when collecting and using customer data.
    As always, I like your way of thinking and style of presentation, your texts are vital and easy to read. I also like that you look deep into the problem and know how to analyze information.
    Thank you! Ksenija Karpezo

    ReplyDelete
  3. Visit Croatia - Full of LifeMarch 8, 2022 at 9:40 AM

    Great stuff Sultan. Again you have shown great understanding of the topic you have written about. And again you have simplified for the readers that are not experts in the given subject. GDPR can definitely be a big challenge in the whole process so it is important to properly manage all data from the beginning to the end of the customer data collection process, to avoid any unwanted issues. Anyway yeah, as you have said at the end of your post, there is a great benefit of the customer data cause information and its analyses are crucial in today's INFORMATION Age. And businesses who decide to ignore its benefits would fall back in comparison to their competitors. Thanks, Sultan. Kind Regards. Ivan B.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownMarch 9, 2022 at 12:43 PM

    Hey Sultan, this is a really interstingpost. I have watched the video and I can see that data really gives the opportunity to target customers in a very specific way. I was curious about the kind of data mationed, "geo-loaction data" and fascinated by the possible use of this kind of information. After some research, I could see that location data can qualify as personal data in EU and it is subjected to the GDPR law and subjected to consent. Consent is the basic requirement for making data harvesting legitimate on mobile devices and this represent a challenge for many US based companies interested in using geo-loaction data. Regardles, i think this is a great resource and with the correct implementation can really impact on a campaign outcome.
    Many Thanks- Rory Dignam

    ReplyDelete
  5. DDillonMarch 9, 2022 at 1:14 PM

    Sultan, really good read. I've the storytelling intro.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The Big Marketing BiteMarch 9, 2022 at 3:20 PM

    Great post Sultan really well written. 👏🏼

    ReplyDelete
  7. Shane dunneMarch 12, 2022 at 8:05 AM

    Super blog. So we’ll put together. Well donw

    ReplyDelete
  8. UnknownMarch 14, 2022 at 12:16 PM

    Hi Sultan, You are right to highlight that data should be used in a proper man, it seems to be a concern to people that data isn't stored and used in an ethical manner. I really enjoyed watching your video it definitely gave me a deeper understanding and also was enjoyable to watch.n Storing data, in data lakes for large businesses is a 24/7 job there is huge risk like your point about TKMAX, also recently ourselves our client data was hacked and we were sent notification of this. Data is a commodity everyone seems to want and need. Keeping on top of this every changing industry seems an unfathomable task. I really enjoyed your blog as per usual your opening is unique and grabs you as a reader. Tks Diane

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment