Why customer centric services need a big data mindset

The age of big data has ended the days in which storage capacity limited us from fully benefiting from the data value chain. Increasing volumes of data have become available and there seems to be no end to the types of behavior and events that can be turned into data. This development is known as datafication and it enables data-savvy companies to take valuable actions and shake up existing markets. The perfect big data business case.

Datafication also has opened up a new way of developing products and services. Before, companies typically decided themselves what their next step would be. They would more or less dictate the development of products and services, and push them to the market. Products are available whenever the company makes them available. But nowadays, consumers no longer accept this. They want to use products and services whenever they feel like it. And they also expect everything adapted to their personal circumstances. They pull data and resources upon request. Thanks to datafication they can.

Driven by innovation

The number of successful examples of this new ‘pull’-approach increases every day. Take Tesla. This carmaker is driven by a great sense of innovation. They put a lot of effort in the ability to receive data about the maintenance and use of their cars and use it for updates to the car (which for instance results in over-the-air firmware upgrades). And as Tesla aim to make their cars even more connected as they already are, they plan to use a Hadoop cluster to get more user feedback for further improvement of user experiences.

Mutual benefits

The availability of data and the capacity to make use of it allow companies to automate more and more processes. The need for time-consuming human analysis decreases. As a result, numerous processes can be executed much quicker and thoroughly than ever before. For consumers, this results in better and more personalized experiences. In the Tesla example, car data can be used to optimize the maintenance process. Reducing costs for both Tesla and the consumer. Another example is Netflix, that opened up the opportunities for film and TV enthusiasts to watch a show or movie when they wanted to. The effect was a revolution in the land of home entertainment, with on-demand content becoming a standard. No more waiting for shows to air, but viewing media at any given moment.

Rearranging worlds

In a similar way, Amazon rearranged the world of computing services by introducing a pay-per-use policy for server and computing power. With the launch of Amazon Web Services, clients no longer have to do a ‘static’ investment upfront and wait for approval. Within a few seconds, you can switch your servers on and off via a user interface to add or reduce capacity.

Trust

The world did not become data-minded overnight. It took quite some time for companies to learn to trust data and to see the opportunities it offers. Furthermore, trust is also a major consumer-side concern. But as long as people get a good offer for their data and their information is treated with care, they are willing to share it. And that fact creates space for new concepts. Like Kabbage that offers consumers and companies the possibility of closing online, on-demand loans, without any human interference. Instead of an audit by a financial expert, Kabbage closes loans based on the personal or company data (e.g. from eBay, PayPal or Shopify). It is a complete new way of calculating someone’s solvability, but who is to say it is not feasible?

Creative opportunities

The common factor in all these examples is the product being developed and delivered using user-generated data. It embodies a change to a pull-based development strategy that adapts seamlessly to customer behavior. And that opens new doors for analytical and practical creativity. Who can surprise consumers with new data-powered concepts that fit their needs perfectly? Of course this delivers great value for consumers. And for companies the benefits are immense, as development costs can be reduced massively because companies are no longer in the dark about where to start innovating. Also imagine the cost savings as a result of flexible use of resources, only when actually needed to provide a service to a customer.

Ecosystems

This trend will keep developing for at least decades. Only on-demand technologies will survive. It is a crucial way of thinking for every company – especially technology companies. However, the required data will not gather itself. First of all companies need to build communities and the infrastructure to collect user information. But they need to extend their reach also, by creating transparent ecosystems of pull-based technologies. Partnerships, developed to solve current consumer problems and to prevent future ones. This way, products and services will be created tailored to needs that people did not even know they had. We are only on the verge of data-powered development. And it is unbelievably exciting to be a part of it.