How to Properly Use Customer Data

September 6, 2022

Using a Smart WiFi system to gather data from your customers is a great way to create effective marketing campaigns and learn about customer demographics. However, your business should not feel entitled to using the valuable and sometimes personal information you gather to achieve better sales outcomes.

Consider the benefits of customer data, common misuses, and how to use it to your advantage.

What is Customer Data?

The easiest way to define customer data is the demographic, social, or personal information obtained and stored by a business about its customers.

This can refer to a wide variety of data, and some examples of this information include:

The ages of your customers
Birthdays
Website login information
The frequency with which they visit your business
Racial or cultural data
Email addresses
Gender
Income

All this data is precious for marketing purposes, but every business must ensure it remains safe while in its possession.

What are the Benefits of Customer Data Management?

Customer Data Management (CDM) refers to gathering and storing customer data with an emphasis on the ethical acquisition of the data and responsible storage.

CDM comes with numerous benefits, including:

Customized marketing campaigns
The opportunity to upsell your services and products
Developing customer loyalty and retention
Data centralization
Learning about the customer’s journey and experience

Each of these benefits makes obtaining customer data very tempting, but the information must be used appropriately and securely stored for the process to be ethical.

How Businesses Misuse Customer Data

Businesses can misuse customer data in a variety of ways. You can avoid ethical and legal problems by ensuring your company does not misuse customer information in any of the following methods:

Using data for purposes other than those outlined in customer use agreements
Taking data out of its intended storage environment
Giving too many workers access to information
Using personal data for numerous businesses at the same time
Selling data outright
Not properly securing customer data

These are just a few of the ways that businesses misuse customer data. These practices have a high cost on customer trust and can even put your business at legal risk.

Misusing customer data has high costs, and your business does not have to pay them. Secure the data by making it need-to-know, requiring security checks, initiating alerts for data access, and ensuring you have transparent processes within your business to access data.

Use Customer Data to Your Advantage

The data you obtain from customers is highly actionable in most cases. Every bit of information your customers entrust with you can be used to your advantage. Consider some of the best ways to utilize customer data to your advantage.

Learn which social media your customers prefer and market your business there. You’ll save money and stay on the cutting edge.
Increase sales by using a more direct, personalized advertising approach. For example, provide existing customers with unique, time-gated coupons to influence sales.
Provide a better customer experience by delivering and considering customer surveys.

These are three great methods for using customer data to your advantage, but they are hardly the only ways to reap the rewards of safely keeping and using the information. This information is precious, from developing new marketing directions to bringing in new customers.

Are you ready to start improving on the three main areas of your customer data? GoZone WiFi is here to help. GoZone’s Smart WiFi platform can assist in collecting valuable consumer data through your guest WiFi network.

Collect data seamlessly across guest WiFi, social media, email marketing, and more. Get better use out of your customer data with GoZone’s Smart Email and Coupon Builder. Protect your data by providing a separate guest WiFi hotspot that keeps your backhouse network away from potential hacks.