Using Analytics To Improve Customer Engagement

Organizations that turn data into insights are gaining competitive advantage through improved connections with consumers.

We've just released our new report at MIT Sloan Management Review!

The 2018 Data & Analytics Global Executive Study and Research Report finds that innovative, analytically mature organizations make use of data from multiple sources: customers, vendors, regulators, and even competitors. The report, based on MIT SMR’s eighth annual data and analytics global survey of over 1,900 business executives, managers, and analytics professionals, explores companies leading the way with analytics and customer engagement.

What do we find? From the report...

Our findings demonstrate a significant increase in the number of organizations that are using analytics to gain a competitive advantage and innovate — a key component of this shift is more effective use of analytics to improve customer engagement. Data and analytics allow organizations to use intelligence from feedback to tailor offerings that improve customer satisfaction. Several factors appear to be at work, including the use of a wide range of data sources, well-developed core analytics capabilities, and integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT) into processes. Companies that have businesses as their main customers (business-to-business, or B2B) are gaining the most benefits from this shift, in part because they are able to share data with customers in a way that directly strengthens their relationship.

• Competitive advantage from analytics continues to grow. More than half (59%) of managers say their company is using analytics to gain a competitive advantage. This is a higher percentage of respondents than in the previous two years.
• Analytics is driving customer engagement. Organizations that demonstrate higher levels of analytical maturity saw a marked advantage in their customer relationships. The most analytically mature organizations are twice as likely to report strong customer engagement as the least analytically mature organizations.
• Analytically mature organizations use more data sources to engage customers. Many organizations are already making use of data from customers, vendors, regulators, and competitors, but Analytical Innovators are more than four times more likely to glean data from all four sources. They also are much more likely to use a variety of data types — such as mobile, social, and public data — to engage customers compared with less analytically mature organizations.
• Sharing data can improve influence with customers and other groups. Sharing data doesn’t mean giving away the farm. Organizations that share their data with others (customers, vendors, government agencies, and even competitors) reported increased influence with members of their ecosystem. Sharing data can enhance a company’s influence with not only customers but also a broad array of other stakeholders.

For more details about how organizations as diverse as WinField United, Mall of America, RedFin, Bank of Montreal, Wescom Credit Union, Siemens, Devon Energy, Oberweis Dairy, SwissRe, American Eagle, Nielsen, Lenovo, and many others are using analytics, please see our report “Using Analytics to Improve Customer Engagement”.