Customer data has been around for decades and businesses have been using it to understand their customers’ behavior, improve product offerings, and better meet the needs of customers and the employees who serve them. 

But, until now, big data has only been available to big businesses — think IBM and Microsoft — those who had the marketing spend to hire data scientists and research firms to create and compile hefty databases. But, now, with the introduction of new software programs and lower technology costs, this business-boosting data is available to small businesses as well, allowing them to compete with the industry "big boys."

Benefits of Big Data

A decade ago, growing a business presence online focused on search engine optimization and email marketing. While these strategies are still valuable for growing businesses, the latest trends focus more on your customers and how your business interacts with and understands them throughout their buying journey.

The most successful businesses now know that customer engagement and experience is crucial in this ever-changing digital environment. And since your customers have access to millions of sites, platforms, and marketplaces online, understanding their behavior and how they experience your product throughout their buying journey is difficult without gathering data. 

By understanding your customers’ behavior, you can better meet their needs with your products, increasing sales and loyalty.

How else can big data benefit your small business?

• Cut costs – Family-owned Realtors, Twiddy & Company, cut costs 15% by analyzing their data. They uncovered invoice processing errors and were able to automate service schedules by comparing contractor maintenance charges against its 1,200 other vendors.
  
  
• Increase revenue – What are the demographics of the people visiting your site? Your competitor’s sites? Do your customers like your products? Do they buy your products and never use them again? When is the last time your customer visited your site? What are your customers saying about you online? Getting answers to these questions and adjusting your strategies accordingly can propel your small business forward.  
  
  
• Save time and increase efficiency – Data solutions can help you analyze where you are spending your time and assist you with automating your time-consuming processes. Use data to determine how long it takes for a product to get to market or which processes are repetitive. Review your employee programs to determine if they are still effective or if they can be improved, replaced, or eliminated. Use data to get more control of the time your business invests, and improve efficiency. 

Low-Cost Big Data Solution - Interactive Voice Response

One tool small businesses use to gather data from their customers is surveys through interactive voice response. Surveys allow you to get your hands on one of the best sources of data — your customers. And using a state-of-the-art tool like interactive voice response, your survey participants can easily respond with one simple key press on their phones. 

Do you want to get started gathering business-building data from your customers? With a platform like CallFire, you can send surveys to all of your customers within seconds and analyze the data from our comprehensive dashboard. Pull out gold nuggets of data you can use to improve the relationships with your customers, make your company more efficient, and cut costs. CallFire was one of the first companies to enter the industry, and we have been partnering with small businesses ever since. If you would like to give interactive voice response a try, sign up for a free account here.