Consumers leave behind a massive wake of data as they interact with your brand. They review and rate your products on eCommerce platforms, they interact with the chat bot on your web properties, they reach out to your client service team through email and social media platforms, and they want meaningful direct responses to their feedback.

Modern retailers have a huge opportunity to understand the needs of their customers better than any of their predecessors that came before them.

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But these opportunities come with increased demands on brands. Consumers want brands to communicate with them on their terms (time, channel, and message) and they want consistent experiences regardless of which channel they choose to interact and shop with a brand. Consumers want permission-based communication and curated messages that provide value in the way of recommendations, promotions, or that appeal to their values and ethics. They want to know that they’re a respected part of the brand’s strategy and they want to see the brand take action when they take the time to provide their input/opinions. Consumers also want products and services personalized to them as individuals.

In order to meet these increased expectations and direct communication from consumers, retailers need to implement the technology and processes that enable them to manage the volume, variety, access, and governance of consumer data. Retailers need integration of insights and AI necessary for perceiving intent and to prescribe targeted responses. Brands need to centralize access to the vast amount of data siloed across IT, marketing, sales, call centers, and 3rd party sources to be able to really know their customers behaviors, wants, and needs.

Advances in big data technology around 2010 made it possible for the brands with deep pockets and advanced IT skills to tap into this constant stream of consumer feedback and respond quicker to the wants and needs of their customers. But over the past decade, with the maturity of Microsoft Azure Platform as a service offering, these opportunities that were once reserved for the biggest and most tech savvy brands are now within reach of almost any retailer, big or small.

The key to tapping into the voice of the customer is through the ability to mine, wrangle, and uncover insights from a mountain of unstructured data.

In the webinar below, Terry Crist demonstrates how you can quickly implement a scalable solution that can help your brand gain insights that will enable you to respond faster to the ever changing needs and desires of your customers using Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services and Azure Databricks.

 

BlueGranite’s expert data and analytics consultants can help you get a grip on your data and propel you toward success. Contact us today with questions or for help.