Driving meaning from metrics

As featured on BusinessMirror: Driving meaning from metrics

As Insight functions grow and the ability to measure, understand and predict customer behavior becomes more and more sophisticated, many organizations find themselves with a proliferation of customer data signals at their disposal. Yet businesses can feel overwhelmed with the volume of data available, spending large budgets on gathering more and more information about the customer but realizing little value. This ultimately limits both the credibility of insight functions and ability of teams to deliver business impact and change from customer data.

Delivering connected insights that deliver value through supporting business decisions starts with strategy – the goals and customer outcomes a business is looking to achieve, and critically, how customer data and analytics will support delivering on those goals. Setting out a clear purpose and vision for the insight function by aligning the insight strategy to the organizations’ objectives is the foundation of delivering tangible value from customer knowledge.

Once there is a clear articulation of the role Insight function needs to play in supporting business decision making, the right processes, people and systems can then be developed. Data capture tools, analytical capabilities, reporting solutions and the governance and structure of the Insight team are shaped by the purpose and vision of the Insight function.

The creation of a common insight purpose is also a critical input to the formulation of an integrated insight ecosystem, where multiple data signals are organized and connected around a clear purpose and role. This element is critical to improve the effectiveness of customer data operations, remove duplication and provide a holistic and connected view of customer sentiment and behavior.

Building an end-to-end view of the customer enables businesses to derive meaning from metrics and subsequently, take action from insight.

The final piece of insight to provoke desired impact is to establish a process of continuous measurement and improvement to ensure insights are activated upon – measuring team performance and outputs with a clear set of success criteria centered around the level of business activation achieved by insight delivery. Evaluating the ROI of insight not only ensures the Insight function continually delivers on its purpose and vision but also builds credibility and trust across the organization, which of course is fundamental to making sure insight is used to support business strategy and decision making.

To learn more about how KPMG can help you connect and frame the wealth of customer data available to help you make better customer-centric decisions within your business continue reading on this article.