This week, we’re introducing a new blog series, “Industry Perspectives,” to share insights from today’s top reporters, influencers and thought leaders. Our first post comes from Quentin Hardy and highlights a recent article he wrote for the New York Times. In “Big Data Shrinks to Grow,” Quentin writes about a big data paradigm shift that seems to be taking place. As companies are beginning to focus less on back-end technologies such as new types of storage or database frameworks, they are also rethinking how best to integrate human knowledge, algorithms and diverse sets of data into existing infrastructures.
Quentin highlights Kaggle and Palantir, two companies that are shifting their big data business models to accommodate industry-specific needs, such as oil and gas, and pharmaceuticals, respectively. He argues that these moves are indicative of a larger trend of big data companies thinning down and narrowing their focus.
So what is the message here for today’s contact center? In the contact center, data is power. And when contact center analytics is conducted correctly, this data can provide long-term benefits to not only our customer’s overall experience, but also a company’s business outcomes. What this article confirms is the importance of having the right data and thinking strategically about what data you should focus on. While it’s easy to view big data as a blanket solution to the myriad of problems that come across a contact center on any given day, we must use this information strategically to better understand customer behaviors, needs, and potential value. This understanding is essential to delivering not only a truly personal customer experience, but also one that is fine-tuned for maximum business impact.
