Power of Customer Analytics

Today’s businesses are swimming in data. But, as any swimmer knows, it’s not enough to just be surrounded by water – you have to know how to use it to your advantage. That’s where customer analytics come in. Customer analytics is the process of using data to generate insights that can improve your business, increase revenue, and drive customer retention. 

There are four main types of customer analytics: descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive. In this blog article, we’ll take a closer look at each one, and explore how you can use customer analytics to improve your business.

Descriptive Analytics

Descriptive analytics answer the question “What happened?”

They provide a snapshot of what has already transpired, such as how many customers made a purchase last month, what was the average order value, or how long it took for a customer to make a purchase. Descriptive analytics are important because they provide a foundation for understanding the way your customers behave. This type of data can be used to identify trends and patterns, which can be helpful in forecasting future behavior. To generate insights from descriptive analytics, businesses need to have access to data that is organized and structured in a way that makes it easy to slice and dice. This data can come from a variety of sources, such as customer surveys, website analytics, transaction records, and social media data. However, descriptive analytics cannot tell you why something happened, which is where diagnostic and predictive analytics become valuable.

Diagnostic Analytics

Diagnostic analytics answer the question “Why did it happen?”

They help you identify the root cause of an issue, such as why customers are leaving your site without making a purchase, or why orders are being delayed. Diagnostic analytics use data mining techniques to uncover relationships and identify causal factors. This type of analysis can be used to improve processes, optimize performances, and resolve problems. Diagnostic analytics can be obtained through surveys, customer interviews, focus groups, and other qualitative methods where customers can provide feedback about their experience. Alternatively, services like Opentracker can provide website data that can be used to diagnose problems so you can improve the customer experience and mitigate issues before they cause long-term damage.

Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics answer the question “What could happen?”

Based off of historical data, predictive analytics uses statistical modeling to generate insights about future trends and behavior. This type of analysis can be used to identify opportunities and risks, make decisions about resource allocation, and develop marketing campaigns. For example, predictive analytics can be used to determine which customers are likely to churn so you can take steps to retain them, or to identify which products are likely to be popular so you can stock more of them. To generate predictive insights, businesses need data that is clean, accurate, and complete. Having a team of experts onboard who are skilled in statistical modeling is also critical for this type of analysis. In-house data scientists can be costly, which is why access to our team of professionals is included in an Opentracker subscription so we can assist you in generating predictive insights and interpreting the results as your business grows.

Prescriptive Analytics

Prescriptive analytics answer the question “What should we do?” 

It’s not enough to know what happened in the past or what could happen in the future. To make data-driven decisions, you need to know what actions you should take to achieve your desired outcome. This is where prescriptive analytics comes in. Prescriptive analytics uses optimization algorithms to identify the best course of action, given a set of constraints and objectives. This type of analysis takes into account a variety of factors, such as costs, risks, and benefits, to help businesses make decisions that are in their best interest. With the right data in your hands, you can start to develop prescriptive analytics solutions that will allow you to automate decision-making and improve your overall efficiency.

No matter what type of business you have, customer analytics can be a powerful tool for driving growth and success. By understanding the different types of customer analytics and how you can use them, you can make better decisions, improve your operations, and move your business forward.

Opentracker offers a suite of tools and services that are designed to be user-friendly and scalable so businesses of all sizes can benefit from data-driven decision-making. We help you automate your customer journey reporting, uncover actionable insights, and make better decisions that drive real results. With direct access to our data analytics team, a dedicated customer success agent, and a dedicated database engineer, you can be sure that you’re getting accurate, actionable data you need to grow your business. 

Book a discovery call today to learn more about how Opentracker can help you turn data into insightful, actionable customer intelligence.