Know Your Customer Through the Data

Without understanding your customers and their needs, your business has little chance of satisfying either. In the past, business owners simply got to know their customer over the counter of their brick-and-mortar stores as they conducted business. Although online sales have opened up a whole new world for both small business owners and large corporations, the anonymity of the Internet has made it much harder to get to know the customer mentality.

The Need for Reliable Online Analytics

Although online analytics and data reporting are among the prime IT needs in business today, it is still extremely difficult to understand the typical online customer. This task requires sophisticated capabilities that allow you to analyze large volumes of data in order to translate the information into relevant and manageable statistics. However, there are a variety of technical issues that impact online analytics.

Privacy Issues

Before you can analyze the data, it must be collected. In some cases, your customers may be blocking your efforts. Due to privacy concerns, many individuals and companies are disabling JavaScript or using other methods to keep their personal information to themselves. This scenario could mean that your database is missing critical information about your most technical customers.

Loss of Referrals

If you’re trying to track referring websites, redirected URLs may be interfering with your online analytics. Many online companies redirect alias URLs to their central site. For example, Acme Widgets could redirect www.acme.com, www.widgets.com, and www.acmewidget.com to their actual site known as www.acmewidgets.com. Due to the fact that the redirection process is faster than most tracking programs, the original referral site will probably be lost during the switch.

Non-HTML Referrals

The majority of online statistics are captured using a JavaScript feature called “TrackResults.” This works fairly well when the user is linking from another webpage, but you won’t know how the customer found your site if they click on the link in a PDF document, Excel spreadsheet, or some other type of document.

Technical Issues

Sometimes, a technical issue on your end can cause the loss of valuable data. Remember, there’s no way to go back and capture data after it’s been missed regardless of the reason. Some common problems include setting up the web analytics code improperly or accidentally removing it during an update. A variety of other technical issues can mean the code will not execute successfully even though it is present and valid.

Other Collection Methods

Although online analytics provide the best source of technical information about your customers, you can also collect some data in other ways. Many websites are turning to online surveys to simply ask their users for a little bit of feedback. This can be presented as a pop-up survey at any point during the online experience and usually only asks one or two pertinent questions. This is a valuable way to learn a few things that online analytics can’t tell you. The problem with this type strategy is that many customers will simply decline to fill out the questionnaire. To make it more tempting, keep it fast and simple. Many companies are finding that they can drive traffic to their site and get a higher response rate by offering a small discount or other offer to customers who answer their questions.

Getting to know your customers’ needs will help to ensure your online success. However, it is critical to know the issues that frequently compromise the integrity of the data. With this knowledge, you can adjust your figures accordingly to create more meaningful reports and sales strategies.