Do Organisations Have Too Much Data Or Too Little?

Many organisations today grapple with too much data, from too many sources, that’s not linked in a discernible way and yet, is used for taking decisions.

For example, in the quest for providing a superior customer experience, companies have outsourced the job of ensuring that their employees do their jobs to their customers.

There's an obsession with asking customers for feedback on every interaction.

There's a coffee chain that makes you fill in a feedback form every time you use their free Wifi, with the obvious aim of measuring NPS. All the questions are mandatory.

First I have to select which city and which outlet I am in. Why can't you figure it out? Then I have to answer how likely I am to refer a friend to this particular outlet. I haven't even placed an order yet. I then have to state if it was dine-in or take-out. But... I haven't ordered yet. If I have, why can't you figure it out? Because you don't want to invest in technology that eliminates asking me this question. I have to fill this up on every single visit. Does a daily NPS by outlet achieve anything? Does NPS achieve anything?

Similarly, being asked to rate every single call you make to customer service of any organisation. Why constantly place the burden of rating the employee's performance on me?

Data is critical but blind collection of data with no discernible difference to a customer is meaningless. Data saturation has a very real impact on CX. The better approach is to start with your core business objectives and the key questions you want to answer—and then go seek out the right data. Don’t collect data just because it’s there to be collected. That works for climbing mountains, but not for data that can give you meaningful insight.

Once you have the objectives, think about what you need to measure to help you achieve your objective. This will also help you identify gaps in measurement. Always have a data governance process to know that you are working with the right data sanctity measures and also letting all stakeholders in your organisation understand what data is being collected and why.

Don’t focus on quantity, but on quality. Always know the “why” and the “what”. Why do you need this data and what purpose will it serve?