Blogger's Bits
Customer Data: A Catch-22
Bored? Try tackling some of your company’s data problems.
Tackling your company’s data problems may not be fun, but it will definitely make life more interesting.
In Joseph Heller’s classic American novel Catch-22, a character named Dunbar spends his days lying on a cot musing on his own state of boredom. Dunbar’s theory goes that the more bored a person is, the slower time passes, effectively making life seem longer. The obvious irony here is: who wants to lead a long-but-boring life?
(Coincidentally, this is a question I usually ask aloud right before ordering the cheesecake.)
We could ask ourselves a version of that question when it comes to using customer data. Who wants to settle for summary data, missing information, or inaccurate values when we could be enriching our data and, by extension, driving additional revenues? It’s pretty clear by now that the better our data, the more meaningful our customer interactions, but many of us are still sitting around in a state of complacency.
As with Dunbar, our inertia has consequences. Maybe we’re afraid to make the pitch for better data to management with has other things on their minds. Fussy shareholders? Crabby customers? Perturbed partners? Bet you can fix some of those issues with better data deployed faster for improved business action.
I know. It sounds like so much motherhood. We recently saw a specialty retailer implement coupon-on-demand capabilities based on who the customer was and what was purchased. Their data quality had been abysmal, but they understood they needed to deal with it before launching this new capability. We helped an international materials conglomerate waive delivery fees to the customers in the top decile. Again, they needed to clean and reconcile their data first. A major bank is now recognizing customers at the time of interaction with MDM. Again, poor data quality was initially a barrier, but not anymore.
None of these successes was immediate. They all involved data cleansing and reconciliation, and that’s still a work in progress, but they’ve all driven bottom-line improvements.
If you’re bored, try tackling some of your company’s data problems. It may or may not be fun, but it will definitely make life more interesting.
About the Author
Jill Dyché is partner and co-founder of Baseline Consulting. She is responsible for key client work and industry analysis in the areas of data governance, business intelligence, and master data management, and advises executives and boards on the strategic importance of investing in enterprise information. Jill’s first book, "e-Data" (Addison Wesley, 2000) has been published in eight languages. She is a contributor to "Impossible Data Warehouse Situations: Solutions from the Experts" (Addison Wesley, 2002), and her book, "The CRM Handbook" (Addison Wesley, 2002), is the bestseller on the topic. Jill’s work has been featured in major publications such as Computerworld, the Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek.com. In addition to being a member of the TDWI faculty, Jill writes the Inside the Biz blog on Baseline’s Web site. Her latest book is "Customer Data Integration: Reaching a Single Version of the Truth" and was co-authored with Baseline partner Evan Levy.
Jill is the co-chair and Evan is a featured keynote at TDWI's Master Data Insight conference, to be held March 8-10 in Savannah, Georgia. For more information and to register for a complementary conference pass, go to www.masterdatainsight.com.