From the Silly Season comes Smarter Shopping
For retailers, the busy holiday season brings the opportunity for significant revenue, but also the added stress of making sure shelves are stocked to provide maximize returns. Which begs the question: how do you know what products should be stocked in which stores?
See my guest post on A Smarter Planet Blog to find out.
And Happy Holidays to all!
The Solution they want to keep Secret
I love sharing stories about success that my customers have achieved over the years through the use of business analytics technology. But there’s one solution I can’t talk about, because everyone that uses it wants to keep it a secret….from their competitors.
Shhh! You didn’t hear this from me.
Actions speak louder than Analytics
You may have seen me tweet this week about how unlikely it was for me to find inspiration for my blog at the supermarket. I was wrong!
With two sick kids and a husband away for the weekend, I was looking for a smarter way to do my grocery shopping. I decided to try out the new “Click & Collect” approach – that is to order my groceries online and pick them up in store the following day. Everything was going according to plan – the website knew who I was, and knew from their loyalty program the items that I purchase regularly and suggested I include them in my basket. It also made recommendations on products I might like based on items I had in my shopping basket. Feeling like the supermarket chain knew me and my shopping needs, I happily paid for my groceries and went to collect them the following day.
The problem was, even with all that analytics and insight, they forgot to act.
3 Caveats to Calling the Right Customer
The technology world is abuzz with rumours of the new iPhone 5. Not to mention the hoopla surrounding the court proceedings of Apple v. Samsung. Which begs the question, with all this free publicity, are Telecommunication providers making the most of the opportunity to attract new customers and lock existing customers in to new contracts?
Many would say “yes”. Think again.
Marking the Mystery Customer with Entity Analytics
Today, I had to drop into my local post office to send a parcel. Waiting in line I couldn’t help but notice the array of seemingly random items in front of me. Footballs, mini hammers, DVDs, children’s books – not exactly mail-related items.
It got me thinking – we talk about retailers using analytics to target customers with campaigns and offers they are most likely to accept. But what if you don’t know who your customer is?
You have 30 seconds to make the right decision. Your time starts…NOW!
A customer calls the help desk and gets routed through to you. They are not happy with the service they are getting from your company. You have to decide whether to make them an offer to keep them, or let them leave to a competitor. They may or may not be a profitable customer. They may or may not accept one particular offer over another. You may or may not have enough money left in the promotional campaign budget to make an offer. You have 30 seconds to determine the fate of this customer relationship and the impact on your revenue targets. Your time starts….NOW!
The Anti-Social of Social Network Analytics
Today I am sitting at home having a little pity-party as my entire family has succumbed to this season’s cold.
It reminded me of a TED presentation I watched a few years ago – ironically while in a taxi returning from a Cognos forum in the sunny Gold Coast. Nicholas Christakis was discussing how social networks can be used to predict epidemics.
Essentially he proposed that with the vast amount of information available to us about the friends, families and other members of society they we interact with – through Facebook, Twitter, community groups, schools, doctors etc. – we are able to apply analytics to identify individuals with high social influence and use that information to predict the likely spread of disease.
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