What good is marketing insight without action?

The enormous amount of ink being spilled around Big Data often includes the phrase “amazing insights.” At the same time, there’s plenty being said about the need to know and respond to your customers in the timeframes that matter, aka customer loyalty management (CLM).

While these ideas seem intuitive, too often, the ways we gain insights into customer loyalty aren’t directly connected to the action side of the equation. This happens either because the technology that supports insight-to-action or the skills/individuals required to do this efficiently and effectively are artificially separated…or both.

The latency or customer blindness this creates is what differentiates great CLM from the mediocre. So what can be done to make insight turn into actions?

Model-Driven Data

Models are great tools for bringing together diverse data sets and preventing insights and actions from “falling through the cracks.” A great model brings together data from several sources, feeds analytics, makes predictions, enables test-and-learn scenarios, and allows the organization to adapt as data, channels, and other factors change over time. In a nutshell, models support an organization’s ability to be dynamic and responsive.

Meaningful Analytics

Just as important as the model is the ability to spend less time on reports and dashboards while increasing the transparency of program performance. That can only be done when the marketer’s toolset can dynamically segment and show purchase propensities. Segmentation isn’t a new idea, but the ability to adapt segments and prediction to what’s happening in real time is very ‘new-generation’.

Fast Execution

As we move closer to the moment of decision, thanks to mobility and faster data, our ability to know, predict, and then respond must also be fast. A customer is only on the website until they’re not, in the store until they’re not, and waiting for your interaction until they’ve moved on to something else…or engaged with your competitor.

Models, analytics, and execution are core components of today’s capable customer engagement platform. Any less is too slow and lacks coherence within the brand and worse, across to the customer. Are you ready?

This post first appeared on the Loyalty Lab blog and has been lightly edited.

Editor’s note: We’ll be in New York for Interop on October 1st, hosting the Big Data Workshop. We hope to see you there.