Internet of Things - Technology focus

McKinsey analysis finds that companies acting on journey insights have seen a 15-20% reduction in repeat service visits, a 10-20% boost in cross-selling, and a drop of 10-25 basis points in churn.

Companies may feel they need to study all the bits and bytes available to them. But research shows that three to five journeys matter most to customers and the bottom line. They generally include: some combination of sales and on-boarding; one or two key servicing issues; (1) moving and account renewal, and (2) fraud, billing, and payments. Narrowing the focus to those journeys allows companies to cut through the data clutter and prioritize.

For instance, a cable television player used advanced data analysis of multichannel customer behaviors to focus on where drop-offs in the journey occurred in two journeys—on-boarding and problem resolution—to address nagging customer retention and loyalty issues. The data team helped them identify key service troubles spots and ways to improve the on-boarding process. Those insights led to several policy changes, including creating a “learning lab” that effectively operated as a mini-company to trial and refine new approaches. The changes improved customer satisfaction scores by more than 20%.

Fanderl also shares that you shouldn’t wait for the data to be perfect. Companies often hesitate to take action for fear their data is missing or a mess. Successful organizations tend not to overthink all the details and instead just roll up sleeves and get to work. Most companies, in fact, already have the data they need. The challenge is pulling the data together. Companies need to figure out where that data is stored, and what it takes to extract and aggregate it so they can understand the customer journey across multiple touch points. Since data often lives in systems managed by various functions, bring the necessary operations, IT, in-store sales, and marketing people together to identify the touchpoints.