You Must Know the Context

August, 24, 2017

 

Marketers, indeed any one conducting analysis for their organization, have become reliant on Big Data. Why? Well, there is a lot of data and following the adage of “the more the merrier” people generally tend to view more data as better for them to analyze.

“All our bases are covered”

“We know more now that ever before”

“Where did we get all this?”

In my experience with a client and great friend whose company focuses on identity solutions, I have learned that stored data often has many faults. These can include:

• duplicate entries (in some industries these duplicate rates are as high as 30%)
• incorrect entries (often leading to duplicates)
• incomplete entries (how can you analyze what you don’t have?)
• stale entries (old accounts that have not been active in years

This is just the database information that exists in most companies and is usually in the billing system or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool.  When you start to add data from other systems, such as SalesForce, and any market research data you see how overwhelming the analysis can become. This is one of the main reason why industry pundits talk about the need for Chief Marketing Officers to be data or tech savvy.

One piece I often see missing in the analysis is the understanding of the context in which the data was collected. If you only gain market research surveys from dissatisfied customers you are not analyzing a true picture of your customer base. If you are only analyzing surveys from satisfied customers you are missing important insights from those customers that did not have a good experience with you.

When you look at the data in your database you must understand how current and relevant the data is. you should:

• know when it was last scrubbed to remove errors and how and who did the work
• have confidence that the right tool was used to reduce or remove duplicates
• ensure records are properly combined to provide a holistic view of the customer. For example, is Tim Kist = T. W. Kist = Timothy Kist? Or is each one  a separate entry?

Just think about the impact on your projections if you have a 15% duplicate rate in your database that is not fixed. Your sales projections are going to be off by 15% with this customer group. Not a good situation when you are presenting your year end results.

Knowing the context of your data and how it was collected can provide you with more confidence in the data being analyzed and the results of your analysis. And with confidence comes trust that any business decisions made with this data are going to be solid. You will actually be analyzing the metrics that are important for your business.

This is hard work that is essential to help you better understand your customers and plan your future sales and customer programs. And it will help you increase and improve your opportunities for success. When doing analytics “context is king.”