The document discusses the importance of a comprehensive data strategy in enhancing customer experience, emphasizing the integration of big data, transactional data, and ethnographic data to gain valuable insights. It illustrates how understanding the motivations behind customer behavior can inform strategic improvements, as shown through case studies of a leading eyeglass company and a European supermarket chain. Ultimately, it asserts that focusing solely on transactions or big data is insufficient for driving meaningful growth in customer experience.

1. suitecx
©2015,
suitecx Inc. November
30,
2015
Customer
Experience
Improvement:
Finding
the
Right
Data
Strategy
As
marketers,
we
are
all
focused
on
improving
our
customer
experience
and
generating
more
revenue.
Everyone
talks
about
how
important
it
is
to
invest
in
web,
mobile
and
social
media
analytics.
Smart
marketers
don’t
stop
there,
however.
We
have
started
to
gather
everything
we
can
about
our
customers
and
hand
it
over
to
the
“big
data”
folks
to
see
if
they
can
find
patterns
that
will
make
us
smarter
and
enable
us
to
improve
our
bottom
line.
Finally,
we
have
done
a
good
job
at
collecting,
cleaning
and
matching
data
to
assure
more
consistency
and
adding
incentive
programs
so
we
can
identify
a
larger
percentage
of
our
customers
across
devices.
With
all
this
investment,
however,
it
seems
we
still
haven’t
made
significant
improvements
in
truly
understanding
our
customers’
experiences.
We
wonder,
“what
is
it
going
to
take
to
drive
real
bottom
line
growth?”
Thought Leadership
Combining
approaches
to
include
big
data,
transactional
data
and
ethnographic
data
can
lead
to
insights
that
no
one
technique
on
it’s
own
can
provide.
Combining
these
approaches
to
include
big
data,
transactional
data
and
ethnographic
data
can
lead
to
insights
that
no
one
technique
on
it’s
own
can
provide.
Using
a
combination
of
data
types
eliminates
the
needs
for
endless
surveys
and
focus
groups
that
usually
add
very
little
insight
into
what
is
actually
happening
to
your
broader
base
of
customers.
This
combination
provides
a
complete
picture
of
the
customer
and
can
inform
the
creation
of
more
strategic
solutions
to
customer
problems.
At
SuiteCX we
use
all
three
types
of
data
to
discover
what
customers
are
experiencing,
how
to
they
feel
about
the
experience
and
what
they
consider
to
be
a
better
alternative.
We
look
at
the
“what”
(transactions)
and
the
“why”
(customer
motivations)
to
make
recommendations
for
strategic
improvements.
The
missing
element
to
all
of
the
above
is
why customers
behave
the
way
they
do
–which
may
often
run
contrary
to
what
the
data
might
predict.
Understanding
the
why
helps
marketers
make
better
choices
for
what
improvements
in
the
customer
experience
need
to
be
made.
That
missing
link
is
ethnographic
data.
Ethnographic
data
helps
us
understand
why
customers
do
what
they
do,
starting
with
a
hypothesis
and
then
observing
interactions
to
confirm
or
reject
the
hypothesis.
Transactions
Big
Data
Social
Call
Center
Browsing
Behavior
Survey
Responses
Email
opens
&
clicks
Reviews
Ethnographic
Data
Mystery
shopping
In
home
observation
Planning
observations
Product
usage
info
Family
culture
Thoughts
&
Perceptions
Current Data Usage by Marketers

2. suitecx
©2015,
suitecx Inc. November
30,
2015
About
SuiteCX®
Backed
by
over
120
years
of
combined
experience
in
customer
experience
consulting,
SuiteCX is
a
set
of
software
tools
that
allow
users
to
make
fact
based
decisions
and
process
improvements
that
are
grounded
in
the
customer
experience.
Customer-­‐centric
diagnostics,
touch
inventories,
journey
maps,
customer
storytelling
and
precision
marketing
are
all
components
of
this
groundbreaking
software.
Thought Leadership
For
a
leading
eyeglass
company,
we
observed
customers
while
they
were
in
the
store.
We
noticed
that
consumers
were
taking
pictures
of
each
other
as
they
tried
on
various
frames.
When
we
asked
them
why
they
did
this
the
answer
was
interesting:
“I
can’t
see
what
I
look
like
in
the
mirror
without
my
glasses,
so
my
friend
is
photographing
me
so
I
can
see
what
the
new
frames
look
like.”
This
totally
made
sense,
but
eyeglass
companies
have
been
asking
consumers
to
look
in
the
mirror
for
years
to
can
pick
their
new
frames.
As
a
result
of
this
research,
the
company
now
offers
a
computer
station,
at
which
the
customer
can
take
up
to
4
different
pictures
at
a
time.
They
can
then
see
the
new
frames
with
their
current
glasses
on,
and
they
can
also
share
the
photos
with
their
friends.
A
recent
Harvard
Business
Review
article1 gave
another
example
from
a
European
supermarket
chain.
The
CMO
could
see
his
sales
declining
but,
counterintuitively,
the
number
of
customer
trips
to
the
supermarket
were
increasing.
Using
ethnographic
research
to
better
understand
shopping
and
meal
planning
trends,
the
company
discovered
that
eating
habits
have
changed
dramatically.
Families
were
no
longer
eating
all
their
meals
together.
Instead,
dinner
was
eaten
in
different
rooms,
and
different
meals
(vegan,
gluten
free,
paleo
etc.)
were
being
consumed
by
family
members.
What
consumers
wanted
was
a
fast
and
convenient
place
that
enabled
them
to
shop
for
their
family’s
distinctive
needs.
Once
it
is
understood
why
customers
are
behaving
they
way
they
do,
marketers
can
then
go
back
to
the
big
data
team
to
learn
which
customers
are
most
impacted,
which
stores
they
frequent,
and
which
strategic
changes
will
have
the
biggest
impact.
Ultimately
the
investment
in
the
“why “(motivation)
adds
critical
insight
into
the
nature
of
the”
what.“
(transactions).To
achieve
excellence
in
customer
experience
management
and
remain
competitive
in
today’s
marketplace,
you
can’t
afford
to
focus
only
on
one
side
of
the
equation.
Type
What
is
it?
Typical
Examples
Who
uses
it
What
questions
does
it
answer?
Transactional
Data
What
customers
do
when
interacting
with
the
brand.
This
is
the
most
commonly
utilized
set
of
data.
Add
to
wish
list
or
shopping
cart,
purchase,
return, repuchase,
call
for
service,
pay,
join
a
loyalty
program,
redeem
points, use
coupons,
churn,
etc.
Marketing
Campaign
Planners
Merchants
What
are
customers
purchasing?
How
long
do
they
stay
a
customer?
What
do
they
usually
buy?
What
are
they
worth
to
our
company?
Big
Data
Extremely
large
data
sets
that
may
be
analyzed
computationally
to
reveal
patterns,
trends,
and
associations,
especially
relating
to
human
behavior
and
interactions.
Behavioral
data,
social
data
-­‐
listening,
posting,
interacting,
call
center
details,
browsing
behavior,
survey
responses,
email
opens
&
clicks,
product
reviews,
etc.
Analytics
Experts
IT
What
do
people
do?
What
is
happening
now?
Identifies
trends,
propensities
to
repeat
behaviors,
etc.
Ethnographic
Data
The
systematic
study
of
people
and
cultures.
It
is
designed
to
explore
cultural
phenomena, in
which
the
researcher
observes
society
from
the
point
of
view
of
the
subject
of
the
study.
Observing
people
in
their
homes
and
in
shopping
environments
to
see
what
they
do,
how
they
spend
their
time,
their
values,
their
expectations,
life
experiences,
etc.
Social
Scientists,
Ethnographic
Researchers,
Anthropologists
Why
do
people
do
what
they
do?
What
is
their
motivation?
What
is
their
ideal
experience?
Customer
Experience
Improvement:
Finding
the
Right
Data
Strategy
1
https://hbr.org/2015/11/big-­‐data-­‐is-­‐only-­‐half-­‐the-­‐data-­‐marketers-­‐need by
Mikkel
B.
Rasmussen
&
Andreas
W.
Hansen,
Nov.
2015