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Web analytics as part of a customer centric organisation

There were many great presentations that I saw at the Emetrics summit in Washington DC a couple of weeks ago. There were presentations on all aspects of web analytics from strategic implications of developing a web measurement program through to the use of advanced analytical techniques to address specific issues.

One of the most interesting presentations I saw however wasn’t about web analytics at all. In fact it wasn’t really about the web or even about analytics. It was about customers. In fact, it was really about customer centricity. It was about putting customers at the heart of the organization and what that really means for your business. It was pretty thought provoking stuff from David Rance of Round. The main thing that struck me when listening to what David was that none of the output from our analytics work is of any value if the business is not organizationally and culturally prepared to do anything about it. Analysis without action is merely an interesting pastime.

In his presentation David used a baseball metaphor to describe the journey that companies go on in their quest for customer centricity. The journey was from “first base” to “fourth base” and the stages were as follows:

  • First base: The company is product centric, focused on maximizing efficiency through operational performance
  • Second base: The company has customer focus, centered on satisfying the customer by creating a consistent customer experience
  • Third base: The company drives customer value through the application of strategies for each individual customer
  • Fourth base: The company is customer centric and customers become stakeholders in the success of the business

The estimate was that there are very few companies that are truly customer centric and the vast bulk of companies are in the process of trying to move from first base to second base. To get to second base, companies must create this consistent customer experience through driving continuous improvements. To do this however they need to have all their capabilities aligned, pointing in the same direction. Which brings me back to leveraging the outputs of an analytics programme.

There is no point having a world class analytics tool kit with a world class analyst in place if the company is not equipped to deal with the results. At the same time you won’t get to second base without them. The opportunity for organizations is to embrace the culture of the continuous improvement ethos and empower the analysts to inform the debate and for executives and functional managers to be prepared to take action as a result.

Additionally all the capabilities need to be aligned. So, it’s not just about having great ideas for action it’s also about having the ability to execute on those ideas. For example, there’s no point creating sophisticated behavioral customer segmentation, if you don’t also have the right email system and the right expertise to leverage that segmentation in your outbound email marketing campaigns.

So the challenge perhaps is produce less output from our analytic programs but to make each piece of output have more impact. To think more in terms of value than in terms of volume. To produce insight that is actioned rather than weekly reports that are just read. To focus on the consumer rather than on the site. It’s easy to say but harder to do. But we need to constantly challenge ourselves about the impact of what we do as part of the journey to second base.

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