E-commerce grows more competitive every year as additional retailers–big and small-enter the online shopping sphere and have a presence online. All the noise means consumers may not stay on your site long if it isn’t geared 100% to meet their expectations. There’s a competitor right around the proverbial cyber corner just waiting to take your place.

Enter analytic technology, which helps figure out what people’s shopping habits are and what they most need from your site. If you can create an engaging shopping experience that meets customer expectations, the chances they’ll buy from you are much higher than if you just throw a site up and hope for the best. 

How Can Analytics Improve Customer Experience (CX)?

A recent look by McKinsey at whether or not improving CX is worth the investment shows that improving CX holds great value. Companies improving CX see increased revenues by as much as 7% and a rise in profits.

How can you make sure your CX has an impact on your business and how customers see you? It all starts by fully understanding your target audience. The best thing to do is look at how analytic technology improves the overall shopping experience and apply those principles to your efforts. 

1. Gathering Complex Data

Analytic technology gathers all the complex data you have on your customers and spits it out into reports you can understand and use to improve the CX on your website or in your customer service model.

You can even plug in customer complaints and see what things you must improve immediately if you want to engage your clients and keep them happy. A happy customer is one who refers others to your business and sings your praises. You’ll grow via word-of-mouth marketing. 

2. Get Personal

Studies show personalized ads are about 54% more engaging to consumers than generic ones. One of the best ways to ensure your ads hit all the high notes with your typical customer is by figuring out what drives their buying behavior.

You can use analytic technology to survey your site visitors and buyers. Ask the questions that will lead you to more individualized ads with the message your buyer most needs to hear.

You must know your customers well to know what pain point drives them to look for your product or service in the first place. You can then tap into the emotions behind their search and provide them with a solution if they purchase your product or service. 

3. Behavior Forecasting

With data analysis and smart computers, you also have the ability to plug in some data and gather forecasts on what people might do in the future. If your business is hot in December every year and drops off in January and February, what can you change to turn things around in the first two months of the year?

You can try different sales scenarios and let the computer run a simulation about how your target audience might respond.

4. Offer Experiential Events

Brick-and-mortar stores have an opportunity to offer an experience to customers. The minute someone enters the store, they should feel as though they’ve stepped into another world. You can utilize analytics to send them sales specials based on what they’ve bought in the past.

You could also analyze average demographics and offer things such as displays they’ll react to most favorably. Having a wealth of information about your shoppers at your fingertips gives you an advantage over competitors and levels the playing field with some of the big box stores. 

5. Map Your Touchpoints

CX technology should reach approximately $641 billion by the end of the year. One of the best investments you can make is figuring out each touchpoint where your customer or potential client interacts. Is the process smooth at each point?

If the site visitor clicks on a call to action (CTA) button, does everything work as expected? Does the click take the person where they expect? If you send them to a form, does it send correctly? How hard is it to fill out? At each point, ask how hard the process is for your users and if you can improve anything to make the experience better. 

6. Use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software

Have you ever tried to solve a problem with an item you bought only to wind up frustrated at how many times you have to tell the same story and get transferred to another agent and repeat it all again?

CRM software offers a couple of advantages you can tap into alongside analytic technology. First, you can track what people have called about before and predict why they are calling again. The agent has valuable information to make the service call run more smoothly.

You could also reach out proactively by anticipating when someone needs to reorder a consumable product based on their past buying behavior. A gentle reminder goes a long way toward keeping a loyal customer with your company. 

Automate What You Can

Use analytic technology to automate what you can. Don’t spend hours scouring through data when a computer can spit out a report in minutes. Automate the repetitive and time consuming tasks so you can spend more time coming up with brilliant campaigns that match your target audience.