Quite a bit actually! Here are the top four reasons why customer behavioural analytics is very much like the fictional private detective created by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:
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Both enjoyed a recent rise in popularity
Is it just us or has Sherlock Holmes cropped up everywhere recently? Whether the detective is portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. on the silver screen, brought to life for British television by Benedict Cumberbatch or completely turned topsy-turvy in the wake of Hackers-star Jonny Lee Miller’s American series ‘Elementary’ (in which Watson becomes an Asian lady), it garners a large following wherever it goes.
Similarly, customer behavioural analytics is a field that has actually been around for a while, but recently enjoyed a surge of popularity when it came to light that the principles thereof could be modified to suit modern business requirements.
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Both are often severely misunderstood
As with most things in life a little knowledge can be more dangerous than helpful. Sherlock Holmes is commonly thought to have been based on a real person, suffering from Asperger’s Syndrome, being completely addicted to drugs, having romantic feelings towards Irene Adler and solving every single case that crossed his desk in the wink of an eye. Actually none of these things are true if you go back to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s books.
Customer behavioural analytics is also often misunderstood – the most common misconception being that it can fix whatever ails your business. The truth is that behavioural analytics is not the fix, it’s the tool that allows us to find what is wrong so we can devise a plan to stopper the holes in your business approach.
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Both can take seemingly irrelevant information and arrive at marvellous deductions
Sherlock Holmes is perhaps most famous for being able to deduce amazing things from seemingly irrelevant information. One of his most famous deductions occurred in the ‘Silver Blaze’ adventure by Conan Doyle, when Holmes deduced that the perpetrator of the crime must have been someone familiar to the household, as the dog didn’t bark when the perpetrator approached. This simple deduction shows the extent of Holmes’ attention to detail and his realisation that sometimes the most important clues are the events that didn’t happen.
Similarly customer behavioural analytics and segmentation can take seemingly irrelevant data and allow us to understand when, how often, how much and what customers buy or do when they interact with your business. Customer interactions can be based on purchases, visits, logins, promotional responses or combinations thereof that you never previously imagined could be relevant.
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Both often require the help of a knowledgeable partner to get to the bottom of things
Sherlock Holmes did not operate in a vacuum – he often required the insights and know-how of his partner Dr John H. Watson to come to some of his most difficult conclusions. Customer behavioural analytics is also a field in which it helps a great deal if you have a knowledgeable partner that can assist you to get to the bottom of things, especially if they understand the nitty-gritty of a given situation a bit better than you do.
So there you have it – the top four reasons why customer behavioural analytics is quite a bit like Sherlock Holmes. Keen to solve your customer retention mysteries? Keep an eye on the Customer Link blog or get in touch for an obligation-free chat about what we can do with all of the valuable data that lies unused within your business records.
