The secret weapon of your company lies in its post-sale data.

At our weekly evening, my wife and I usually order pizza for our kids from a food delivery app before we go to our favorite restaurant. On a Friday, the pizza seemed to have been dropped by the delivery man. It was out of the question that I serve it to my children. I contacted the customer service delivery application to replace the pizza, but it was said that it would take several hours. The best they could offer me was a credit on my account.

Compare that to our experience with Waze once we got in the car. Not only did Waze give accurate directions on our destination day and night, but it also provided the fastest route, thus avoiding an accident on the highway and a pothole on the road. It not only provided the basic service I needed – navigation – it anticipated what I wanted, providing a personalized experience to the opposite of my deaf and deaf pizzas delivery.

In 2019, the customer experience is king. Services such as Amazon and Apple have raised high expectations among consumers regarding the level of service and personalization they will receive. Many companies, like Waze, do not just meet expectations, but exceed them by proactively anticipating customer wishes. This differentiates these winning brands from their competitors.

But too many others, like my pizza delivery company, still can not. Is it because they do not understand the challenge? Or because they do not have the tools to do it?

Marketers have trouble using the after sales data effectively

Today, businesses are increasingly recognizing the importance of putting the customer experience first, for one good reason: consumers say they are ready to spend 17% more on companies that offer great service to customers. customer, according to a study conducted by American Express.

But guess what customers want is not enough anymore. Today, companies are trying to leverage the power of data to more accurately predict the desires of their customers. In fact, research shows that companies plan to almost triple their spend on badytics over the next three years.

Although I applaud this, the reality is that most organizations lack the data and technology expertise to make it happen. While many marketers want to use the data to improve the customer experience, many describe their current technology as "fragmented" and "inconsistent." Investing more money into the problem will not change anything unless marketers are better able to understand the data they collect. .

This was certainly the case for the food delivery application. In the weeks following the disaster of my delivery, the gaps in the use of the data they have on me have become blatant. I have received unrelenting emails asking me to evaluate and revise my experience – even though I had already provided negative feedback to customer service. I had clearly been added to a list of old customers, but not to a list of people with complaints regarding customer service.

And every 10 days, like clockwork, I received an automatic message asking me to use the $ 24.95 credit I had received for the crumbling pizza. The marketing activities of the company did not make the difference between satisfied customers and customers like me, who might need more conviction to come back. The company may not have collected data from my support interactions, nor used to inform their marketing activities – but as a customer, I expect my customers to understand me, regardless of the channel or the type of interaction. As a result, I became more and more angry. I spent eight months ignoring this credit, preferring to try other delivery services.

After Sales Data Can Create Deep Customer Relationships

When used correctly, after-sales data can help marketers identify new conversion opportunities, identify inefficiencies that can be solved, and brainstorm ideas for campaign or promotion ideas. Instead of simply trying to solve problems as they arise, companies must use after-sales data to provide proactive product recommendations or re-engage expired customers with offers they want actually engage.

Imagine if the food delivery application allowed drivers to quickly and easily record customer feedback at points of interaction. Instead of getting rid of my questions, the driver could have noticed my bad experience on the spot, which would prompt the company to automatically send an apology and a coupon for a free pizza next time. It is difficult to promote someone who is upset, but the speed of his response would have impressed me enough to give him a second chance.

When businesses use the after sales data effectively, they build incredibly deep and defensible customer relationships. By behaving like an attentive customer friend rather than a brand that tries to sell something to them, companies gain trust.

And this trust can pay huge dividends. For example, some 50 million Waze users do not just use the application to find it. Much of the company's annotated map data actually comes from the users themselves, who spend their time as map publishers. Some are so committed that they voluntarily volunteer 30 hours a week or more to add information, such as updates on the construction or closure of roads in the huge Waze depot, all without pay.

The data-driven customer experience is not just open to apples and amazons around the world. Focusing on after-sales data is a powerful way, even for smaller companies, of balancing the playing field and competing with the world's Amazons. No matter how often your target customers connect online and sort by the lowest price, if you use data to deliver an unforgettable customer experience, they'll come back again and again.

After sales data level the playing field

As more and more marketers are turning to the data to improve the customer experience, they will have to think more like Waze and less like the pizza maker. Marketers need to ask themselves how data can help them deliver an enhanced customer experience that aligns with the overall mission of their organization. Data needs to drive more personalized campaigns and campaigns, connecting customers with offers they are enthusiastic about, rather than generic messages that are easy to ignore.

Data-driven and service-oriented marketing is not a new idea. However, most businesses can improve the way they leverage after sales data and improve the customer experience along the way.

Shawn Myers is Director of Product Marketing at Oracle.