Data-Driven or Data-Dependent: How do we combat data hoarding?

Everyone seems to be obsessed with data. Though it feels like the hottest new trend on the block, our interest in data and what it can do for us actually stretches as far back as the Palaeolithic Age 3.3 million years ago. The World Economic Forum reports that in 18,000 BCE tribespeople would “mark notches into sticks or bones, to keep track of trading activity or supplies”, allowing them to estimate how long food supplies would last. This is not a trend set to fade away any time soon.

In 2017, not much has changed in terms of our thirst for data. We are still collecting petabyte upon petabyte of data. What’s different is our motivations. It isn’t just about what data can do for the business anymore, but how companies can use it to help customers and address their painpoints better than ever before.

[advert id=”1612″]

T-Mobile’s Data Transformation

“Listening to customers is central to everything we do,” said Nick Drake, SVP of Digital for T-Mobile at a recent CMO Data Summit. “Every single executive in the company is tasked with talking to customers through any means that they wish to talk to us. Our phone numbers are public, our email addresses are public. We’re highly responsive on social media. And because we’re listening and talking to customers, it’s enabled us to knock down the things that they’ve most wanted us to change.”

Data has been critical for T-Mobile’s digital transformation. A complete overhaul of the T-Mobile website to allow it to support lightweight video means the brand can swap content in and out in real time, using data to determine what the consumer prefers. The result? Personalised experiences at scale in a format millennial consumers respond to.

And it’s a strategy that’s definitely working – ZDNet recently reported a 500% increase in web orders for the global telecoms brand.

Great Data Expectations: how much is too much?

While big data is empowering businesses like T-Mobile to better serve the consumer, expectations of how personalised brand communications should be continue to soar. This is piling pressure on businesses to gather more and more information about their customers. At what point do you stop collecting and start analysing?

Alarmingly, it’s already becoming clear that many are falling into the data dependency trap –harvesting far more data than they could ever use.

Google recently launched its Google Transfer Appliance service, which physically ships data to the cloud – somewhat at odds with the initial purpose of the cloud. Why is this necessary? It’s almost entirely down to quantity. On their blog, Google reports that if someone wants to transfer 10 PB of data to the cloud, this can now take anything from three to 34 years depending on bandwidth. Realistically, most organisations could never effectively utilise as much data as Google’s Transfer Appliance service is offering to ship.

Data points and Pointillism

As T-Mobile has proven, data can do a lot of good for optimising customer experience. Data hoarding, however, is expensive and pointless, especially when it mostly goes uninterpreted. It’s time for organisations to take a step back and rethink. Are we using the data we already have to its fullest potential? Do we look to data to find out what our customers want instead of just asking our customers? Do we hang on to data we no longer need?

Like brushstrokes on a painting, lots of individual data points can give you information about a customer, but only a human being can look at the bigger picture and communicate its emotional impact. Don’t be afraid to get some perspective.

GDS Group hosts experts to help experts. We strive to provide an atmosphere for our attendees that enables them to confidently lead their companies through major transformation projects. For information on upcoming events, view our Technology Summits and Executive Events. To remain current on our activities, visit GDS Group on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter.