When data culture is understood and prioritised, it leads to better business results and underpins customer centricity and customer retention.

What is data culture?

A data culture is the set of values, behaviours and processes that teams follow to support the collection, management and use of data in an organisation. It’s a way of thinking and working with data that is embraced by all members of the organisation.

A strong data culture is characterised by a commitment to using data to drive decision making as well as a willingness to experiment, learn from failures and continuously improve. Who benefits? Your business and your customers.

A strong data culture also involves establishing clear policies and practices around data governance, privacy and security. Ultimately a strong data culture is essential for enabling organisations to make the most of their data and use it to drive business value.

TAKE ACTION: Start building your business case. Identify who in your organisation needs to understand what data culture is and how it supports customer outcomes. This could be your line manager and/or members of the c-suite.

The Importance Of Data Culture

First and foremost, a strong data culture enables organizations to make better, more informed decisions using data. By embracing a data-driven approach to decision-making, organizations can gain a better understanding of their customers, operations and markets, and use this information to drive innovation and customer lifetime value.

Additionally, a data culture promotes transparency and accountability within an organization. By making data accessible and actionable, organizations can foster collaboration and open communication, and ensure that everyone is working towards the same (eg. customer focused) goals.

92% of C-Suite respondents attribute the “principal challenge to becoming data-driven” to people, business processes, and culture, with only 8% identifying technology limitations as the barrier.

NewVantage Partners Big Data & AI Exec. Survey, 2021

A data culture also helps organizations to stay competitive in today’s fast-paced, data-driven world. By investing in the collection, management, and analysis of data, organizations can gain a competitive edge and stay ahead of the curve, especially to retain more customers and grow their value.

TAKE ACTION: List 3 reasons why a stronger data culture will benefit your business.

The Impact of Data Culture on Customer Retention & Value

The ability to utilise data to derive meaningful and actionable customer insight is core to a strong data culture. Taking action by making decisions with confidence helps garner support across the business. With data-driven customer insight, organisations can increase customer acquisition, engage their customers and retain them too. As well as growth, organisations can also identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies, resulting in cost efficiencies.

When teams are empowered, decisions can be made with greater confidence and at speed. The impact is that team members work towards the same goals, they operate from an aligned understanding and focus on the most important outcomes, from better customer centricity to increased financial performance.

TAKE ACTION: Bullet point the top 10 ways your business can tangibly improve customer retention & lifetime value thanks to a better data culture.

The People-First Approach to Data Culture

The people first approach to data culture is one that prioritises the needs and concerns of team members and customers in the design and implementation of customer data-related initiatives. This approach recognises that the successful adoption and use of data depends on the willingness and ability of individuals to engage with it, and therefore focuses on making data accessible, understandable, and useful for them.

The people first approach typically involves involving a diverse group of stakeholders in the design and implementation of data initiatives, including employees, customers, and other relevant parties. This ensures that the needs and perspectives of these different groups are taken into account, and that the data collected and analysed is relevant and useful for them. i.e. if you’re building a customer marketing dashboard that brings together qualitative and quantitative sources, be sure that all parties are involved in its design, development and implementation.

Additionally, the people first approach often involves providing individuals with the tools, training, and support they need to effectively use data in their daily work. This can include providing access to data literacy training, user-friendly data visualisation tools, and ongoing support and guidance.

Overall, the people first approach to data culture is focused on ensuring that data initiatives are designed and implemented in a way that is beneficial for individuals and helps to drive business value. It’s about data and business stakeholders working together.

Creating a winning data culture involves several key steps.

Vision

First, it is important to establish a clear vision and set of principles for the data culture. This should include a commitment to using data to drive decision-making that benefits the customer, as well as a willingness to experiment, learn from failures, and continuously improve.

Diverse Stakeholder Groups

Organisations should involve a diverse group of stakeholders in the development and implementation of the data culture. This might include employees, customers, and other relevant parties. Involving these stakeholders will help to ensure that the data culture is aligned with the needs and perspectives of different groups within the organization.

Invest in data literacy & training

Organisations  must invest in providing individuals with the tools, training, and support they need to effectively use data in their daily work. This might include providing access to data literacy training, user-friendly data visualization tools, and ongoing support and guidance.

Fundamentals

Organisations should establish clear policies and practices around data governance, privacy, and security. This will help to ensure that the data collected and used by the organisation is managed and used in a responsible, compliant and ethical way.

Getting buy in: hearts and minds

Creating a winning data culture involves establishing a clear vision and set of principles, involving stakeholders, providing individuals with the tools and support they need, and establishing clear policies and practices around data governance, privacy, and security. It’s part of your customer data strategy, which is part of your business strategy.

Conclusion

Data culture is an important asset to businesses and is becoming increasingly important for businesses to remain competitive and successful, especially when customers have more choice and demand more at every opportunity. A data culture involves creating a data-driven mindset where decisions are based on data rather than intuition.

Creating a data culture requires a well-defined customer data strategy, a people-first approach, and systems and processes to ensure that data is collected, analysed, and used effectively. It can have a significant impact on business results, as data-driven decisions are more informed and accurate.

Data culture can also help businesses gain insights into their customers and markets, optimize experience and improve efficiency, remain compliant with regulations and laws, and measure the effectiveness of strategies and decisions.

Finally, it is important to avoid a few common mistakes when creating a data culture, such as a top-down approach, relying solely on data, data silos, and a one-size-fits-all approach.

Creating a data culture is essential for businesses to remain competitive and boost customer retention. If you are looking to improve your organisational data culture, contact us for help. We can help you create a data culture that will help you retain more customers and grow their value.

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