5 Ways Your Team Can Take Advantage of Big Data

Big data has never been more accessible to smaller companies. You don’t need a vast data-gathering operation in place any longer. If you want your business to become more serious and professional, it’s time to take advantage of big data. Here are some of the ways your team can utilize big data.

1. Analyze Customer Demand

Big data can be used to find out what customers are buying right now. The problem is that small companies may not have the number of customers necessary for it to count as "big" data. However, the beauty of big data is that the data doesn’t need to be yours.

Use someone else’s data instead. There are lots of publicly available databases on everything from what contractors are paying to the number of errors caused by delivering certain services. You will have to do some analysis to discover what customers what, but it’s well worth the time and effort.

2. Analyze What Customers Want Next

Big data can also be used to help develop your next set of products. Figuring out what customers want in this sense has never been easy or simple. For too long, it’s been a case of relying on a small in-person focus group or simply guessing and hoping.

Your business can change all of that by using big data. Ensure that your company makes the right impression by using big data. It can be used to discover what problems customers have, what issues current products have, and ultimately, what customers value most.

Let’s use an example of a company that makes vacuum cleaners. It uses big data to find out that customers constantly complain about the lack of sucking power produced by the market leader’s vacuum cleaner. It also reveals that the main priority for customers is the sucking power of their vacuum cleaner.

So, what did the company learn? It knows that its next product must improve on the sucking power and that it shouldn’t be focusing on marketing too many other aspects because customers value other things.

3. Analyze How Your Products Are Being Used

Keep in mind that when you launch your first campaign, that is not the end, but the beginning of a journey. Use big data to find out what your customers are doing with your products once they get them. You may need to find out whether they’re using them right and whether they’re having any problems.

This can be delivered in a variety of methods. Send them a message a few days after they buy the product. Ask them to fill out a survey in exchange for a small reward. Over time, you’ll build up a database of your own — and this is an asset that will serve you well going into the future.

Another benefit of discovering how your products are being used is that you can also use this data to find out what your buyers value the most.

4. Make More Informed Financing Decisions

According to research from U.S. Bank, 70% of businesses fail due to poor cash flow management. They don’t retain accurate financial data, which leads to numerous problems. Fortunately, using big data to manage finances makes it easier to minimize wasteful spending, identify the need for additional cash flow and get quicker access to business funding.

5. Analyze Social Media

Social media is a free source of big data that everyone can use. The problem is that social media data is unstructured and can take a lot of time to make sense of. Crawling through social media means that you have no choice but to pick up little snippets of information.

These days, companies are making sense out of social media and building their business presence, by making sure that they use social media analytics. There are lots of different software options on the market for compiling conversations and flagging useful comments.

Take a hotel chain as an example. The chain monitors social media and what their customers are posting and sharing. They find out that their customers prefer bed comfort over anything else since that’s what was most mentioned. They also find out that keycards demagnetize when they touch a smartphone since that’s what was most complained about.

Social media analytics are helpful for saving these comments and working out how big certain problems are for you.

Conclusion

Big data is a big issue for businesses. You need to be able to use big data in order to provide a better experience and ultimately increase your sales. There are numerous ways you can both obtain and use big data. Take advantage of it today and change your business!