Business’s data with destiny - Achievement Awards Group

Data’s practical arrival might be a little delayed, but it’s coming. And it’s bringing some gifts.

Business’s data with destiny

The Loyalty Lighthouse lowdown:

A few years ago, data talk was all the rage. The media hype was tangible. Yet, it hasn’t quite arrived yet; not with the anticipated bang. Don’t be misled: it may be taking a little while, but it’s coming. And it will have all kinds of benefits for businesses.

A few years ago, it seemed that everywhere you looked
there was talk of data. It was in all the media, hogging all the headlines. But now it feels like the hype has receded somewhat. And, surprisingly, the promise of ubiquitous data hasn’t come to pass. At least not yet.

That may have rings of 30-something years ago, in the early days of the internet. Yes, it ultimately changed the world, but it took its time. Or at least it took longer than everyone thought it would.

That’s probably the case with data. There are flashes of it here and there, but it’s not yet everywhere. Well, nobody should be misled by what they see – or don’t see, as the case may be. Data is coming.

But one of the things about it not quite having “arrived” yet is that a lot of people still don’t know what it will look like. If you don’t work in or with data – and most people don’t – there’s a feeling that, sure, lots was written about it, but how will it manifest? How will we experience it?

We thought we’d turn away from the theory and toward the practicality. For this issue of The Loyalty Lighthouse, we tried to find tangible examples of how data is or could be used.

As with most things new and unfamiliar, there’s probably some fear, trepidation or caution around data. We hope that by making it all a bit more real, readers might understand why there’s so much to be excited about, especially for business.

In Data as detective, we look at things that data can show us that we otherwise might not, would not or could not know. It can give us clues and reveal truths that would otherwise be hidden or inaccessible, and that can help us solve difficult business problems.

For example, it can show us why our best channel partners are, in fact, the best – and then help us try to replicate that in other partners.

It can also tell us if other partners are falling out of love with us or our brands, and help us rescue or re-energise those partnerships.

It can tell us similar things about employees: are there signs that top performers are falling out of love with us, and might be planning to resign? There may well be. Put differently, Can data predict the future? Yes, it can. And with surprising accuracy. Spoiler alert: in one model, data could predict employees’ intentions to leave with 71% accuracy. Imagine the effect of that kind of prediction power. Imagine the cost savings. Imagine the benefits to morale.

And what about the morale and loyalty of customers? How can data help there? Well, one example is that it can radically improve customers’ experience. A contact centre game changer lays out how AI can turn incremental gains into 10X improvement by doing menial, time-consuming work better and incomparably faster than humans. And, contrary the common fear that “AI is going to take our jobs,” in this case it actually frees quality assurers up to do more of the meaningful work that supports contact centre agents and improves the customer experience.

These simple, practical illustrations of data’s applications really make its benefits tangible and seductive.

Which begs some questions. Like, why aren’t we seeing more of it, faster? Why isn’t AI being put to good use more widely? Why aren’t more businesses doing personalisation better?

You can read about some of the reasons why data hasn’t yet manifested in more common and everyday ways. But, like we said, it’s coming. And the delay shouldn’t be a reason not to get on the bus, or the bullet train.

We hope you find the reads enlightening and exciting. And we’d love to hear from you if you have any comments, contributions or questions about them. Send your mails to andrews@awards.co.za.

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