CX Lead: 4 Types Of Customer Data You Should Be Using

This article was written for The CX Lead by Greg Kihlström. You can read the original article here.

It's a cliché, but knowledge is power—and that's certainly the case when it comes to your customers and your ability to understand what they want, as well as when, how, and where they want it.

In a 2022 survey by Econsultancy and Adobe, 74% percent of leading marketing organizations consider themselves effective at collecting first-party customer data, and 68% are using this data to personalize experiences. 

In this article, we'll look at 4 key types of customer data and how you can leverage them to provide a better customer experience and take advantage of new opportunities to grow loyalty and customer lifetime value (CLV).  

What Is Customer Data?

Customer data is any information that you have about customers. 

It can be collected from multiple touchpoints and the goal is to produce actionable insights and ideas for experimentation. 

At the highest level, data comes in two types:

• Quantitative data – Data sets comprised of numerical values related to quantifiable metrics. An example would be the percentage of customers who have renewed their subscriptions this year.

• Qualitative data (or non-numerical data) – Observed and recorded from sources such as reviews, interviews, focus groups, and surveys. An example would be a comment like "great customer service" on your Google My Business reviews page.

Much of the data you collect will be first-party data i.e. personalized data that you collect yourself from your customers’ interactions and behaviors, or zero-party data, that customers provide you directly through form fills and other methods. You can also purchase second or third-party data collected by other companies on your behalf. 

With the advent of big data and AI, data collection is now becoming increasingly sophisticated with more granular insights. 

People's online activity is mapped into little data points ready to be drawn into your brand's orbit. However, as we've seen with the implementation of GDPR in Europe, it's important not to overstep the line here.

This article was written for The CX Lead by Greg Kihlström. You can read the original article here.