Quarterly Newsletter: Experience Next – Data as a Differentiator

DATA AS A DIFFERENTIATOR – FUELING GROWTH, INNOVATION & BETTER EXPERIENCES

When data is thoughtfully collected, well-managed, and widely accessible, it becomes the engine behind business growth — driving innovation, accelerating efficiency, enabling personalization, and powering AI.

In this quarter’s Experience Next Newsletter, we explore how data can propel your organization forward — and how collaboration across teams, especially with Customer Experience leaders, helps amplify its impact. From enhancing the way we design solutions to continuously improving how they perform, data is at the heart of progress.

Thanks for taking a few moments to explore what’s next.

All the best,

Nancy Cloutier, SVP, Data & Analytics

Data Governance is Not a Dirty Word

Everyone wants to be data-driven, but few realize that trust in your data is the true starting point. Without it, even the best analytics or AI initiatives are built on shaky ground.

The only way to build trust in your data is through data governance — the people, policies, and processes that make your data accurate, accessible, and reliable.

Data governance isn’t red tape; it’s your competitive advantage. Think of it as the dirty word no one wants to talk about, but everyone desperately needs.

[Read Our Complete Point of View]

But if you have time to read a little more…

Making Your Data a Strategic Asset – How to Achieve Real Data & Analytics ROI

Experience Next: AI’s Role in CX … just in case you didn’t read last quarter’s issue of the newsletter.

Stat one. Stat two. Stat three.

While we know experience and intuition are invaluable, without data, you’re still just making an educated guess – while the competition is confidently making decisions based on their gut AND the data.

As technology advances and the value of data increases, so does the need for solid data strategy and governance. And the impact of this fact grows exponentially when you consider the continually increasing power and data-demands of Artificial Intelligence.

Even though our Data & Analytics team and our Experience team approach challenges from two different perspectives, their objective is the same – using data to help our clients confidently make decisions that improve the customer experience and generate growth.

These two teams are respectful allies, fans of one another, and also dependent on one another to provide the best outcomes for our clients and their customers.

Just like our two teams working together, quantitative and qualitative data works together. Quantitative tells you what customers are doing, when, and where — it helps you identify trends in customer behaviors and zero in on opportunity spaces. Qualitative helps you get to the why and how — engaging with customers to understand and uplift the experience.

“We’re two teams working together for one purpose – to help our clients achieve their business objectives – which involves our team collecting and analyzing data to inform customer insights, and then using those insights to enhance the knowledge and expertise of our Experience team that is charged with transforming the CX.”

“Our CX strategies and solutions are stronger because our two teams work hand in hand to assess impact, size opportunities and test hypotheses. Leaning on that partnership through all phases of our work helps our clients make the right investments and de-risk innovation. It’s truly “better together.” 

Working across teams is critical to the success of any CX improvement. Rarely does true Customer Experience Transformation happen in a silo. The collaboration between our Data & Analytics and Experience teams is a great example of this in action.

There is no industry where data isn’t currently being used to improve employee and customer experiences, increase efficiencies, and enable growth.

Here are just three quick examples across industries to inspire you to think about how to harness your data for a better customer experience. When the experience is good, your customers want to use it, thus you collect more data and can improve the experience even more!

Sephora:

Sephora – the nation’s leading beauty retailer – isn’t just selling makeup; they’re crafting personalized experiences, all driven by data.

Sephora is continually analyzing massive amounts of customer data to gain deep insights to improve both their in-store and their online Customer Experience, as well as update their offerings to remain ahead of market trends.

Some of their most valuable data is collected through their Beauty Insider Program, enabling highly personalized marketing and product recommendations to their over 25 million members. And they’re collecting even more data to improve their CX through their virtual try-on technology and AI-powered skincare diagnostics.

Bank of America:

As with so many modern data-driven solutions, Erica – Bank of America’s virtual financial assistant – leverages AI and predictive analytics to improve the customer experience. The data collected during every interaction improves the experience for the next customer.

So far, Erica has engaged with customers over 2 billion times. (That’s a lot of data collected and leveraged.) Erica provides a solution to 98% of clients within an average of 44 seconds. Topics range from transferring money and finding transactions, to helping clients understand spending behaviors and manage subscriptions.

Walmart:

Last summer, Walmart announced they’re using generative AI to analyze over 850 million data points to improve the experience for both associates and customers.

This massive amount of data is helping customers find products more quickly (both online and in-store), improving product inventory and delivery, increasing sales through better product recommendations, and even enhancing customer service with personalized follow-up.

Walmart executives estimate that analyzing this massive amount of data, in the same amount of time, without AI, would require them to increase headcount by 100x.

It’s clear the world of data and the world of AI are increasingly intertwined. Simply put, AI multiplies the value of data and simultaneously increases the need for enhanced data quality and quantity. Think Circle of Life.

But what is the actual reality of AI? Is it all just hype or can it genuinely transform your business? Can AI offer tangible benefits NOW and what potential does it hold for you and your team’d future?

We explore those questions and more in our new report: What is the AI Opportunity? The Hype. The Reality. And The Potential