Half of the big companies already use Analytics to improve the customer experience

SAS, the market benchmark in Analytics, identified that half of the executives of large companies already successfully use data analysis to improve customer experience. Other 46%s are still in the learning phase, but are already in the process of applying the technology. The information is part of the report. “Blazing the trail from data to insight to action”, collected by Forbes Insights, in partnership with SAS. The survey consulted 105 executives from large organizations around the world.
 
According to the survey, companies that currently lead investments in Analytics (50%) are showing an enormous capacity to capture, process, scale and make data available to their organizations and the entire network of partnerships and suppliers. However, there is still a challenge in transforming information into insights to be applied to the business, and delays in infrastructure and processes required to sustain these efforts are an obstacle. 
 
For Fernanda Benhami, Customer Intelligence manager at SAS Latin America, there is a wide availability of advanced resources for capturing and analyzing data, offering new opportunities for brands to interact with customers. “Some technologies have brought superior results in the objective of transforming data into user behavior patterns and preferences, in order to offer sales and engagement projections”, he adds.
 
Real-Time Analytics and Channel Integration Improve Engagement
 
Among these skills is Real-Time Analytics, or the ability to act when transactions occur and customers interact with the company's channels. Approximately half of those surveyed have invested in these technologies to improve their customers' experience.
 
Regarding real-time analytics tools, respondents more advanced in analytics investments were more likely to direct their efforts to real-time sales monitoring (56%), versus less advanced (38%). Monitoring with the Internet of Things (machines and sensors) and real-time social media also stood out with twice as many investment 'leaders' putting efforts compared to start-ups on analytics.
 
In terms of general Analytics, consumer preferences and behavior patterns, in addition to sales projections, have been the areas of greatest investment among the companies consulted.
 
Another trend pointed out by the research is regarding the action of channel integration solutions, unifying the traditional and digital ones. 76% of executives said they integrate data from all customer interaction channels, with 47% already applying the data in real time. The industries that were most successful with this integration were Manufacturing, Industrial Products and (66%); and Technology, Software and Systems (50%).
 
Insights and customer engagement are highlights of success
 
The expectation with these investments in the consulted companies highlighted the need for assertiveness in forecasting customers' wants and needs (63%), as well as better engagement with them (60%).
 
As for the results already achieved, companies that invested in Analytics were closer to their customers. The most mentioned advantages include the increase in engagement with consumers (53%) and the improvement in obtaining insights (51%), in addition to internal advantages, which led to the strengthening of teams and offers.
 
For Technology, Software and Systems executives, generating insights and making faster decisions were the main benefits identified by 88% and 75% for executives, respectively. For the financial sector, 75% of respondents pointed to better customer engagement as the main result.
 
One of the main challenges is measuring the impact of Analytics efforts
 
According to the report, the challenges to achieve these results vary according to the maturity of the company in the adoption of Analytics. For more experienced companies, the ability to measure the impact of efforts is still the biggest hurdle to overcome. On the other hand, less experienced companies consider understanding the process of transforming data into insights as the biggest challenge.
 
Overall, the biggest constraints on operationalizing insights gained from data analytics in large companies are the difficulties in scaling success with departmental results at the organizational level, turning isolated insights into patterns to benefit the company, and finding ways to measure impact. directly from technology adoption.
 
Most companies, even the most advanced ones, do not consider essential departments such as Marketing and IT to be highly proficient in data analysis. In general, the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) area obtained the highest score, but was considered highly proficient in data analysis by only 32% of those consulted. The Marketing and IT areas, involved in depth in Analytics projects, were voted on by only 28% of the executives.
 
Another problem pointed out by many of the executives consulted was the deficiency in visibility and communication between departments and stakeholders, making it difficult to obtain insights from the data. There is still difficulty in making all this data available in a way that can be easily accessed by decision makers, in a single layer or format. Despite the majority claiming to meet these requirements, only 14% have more than three-thirds of the organization's information made available this way.