When asked to evaluate how well they are using analytics to drive decisions and enhance the customer experience, perceptions at most firms in Europe, Asia, North America, and Brazil are very different from reality, according to new research from Accenture.

Accenture's Customer Analytics Survey of 800 directors and senior managers at blue chip companies in Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, Brazil, Canada, China, and Japan found that 55 percent of respondents felt their methods for segmenting customers and providing relevant experiences are either "ideal" or "very good." But, in reality, more than half of the organizations surveyed do not take advantage of analytics to help them target, service, or interact with customers, suggesting that many organizations might not know what is really important to customers and cannot measure their performance in engaging with them.

In fact, organizations are just as likely to rely on personal, on-the-job experience (which 23 percent of respondents described as "very important") as they are on hard data and facts provided by analytics solutions (which 22 percent called "very important.")

But relying on personal experiences alone or eschewing hard data in favor of them is very short-sighted, according to Julio Hernandez, global lead for customer analytics at Accenture. But Hernandez is careful not to pit experience against hard data, and in fact says companies need to rely on both in tandem. "Experience, while good and valuable, when coupled with facts, will make for better decisions," he says.

"You need to use both," he continues. "Because the environment has changed so much, some of what you've done in the past will not help today with all the new technologies, like social media and Web channels for interaction."

Even among organizations actively using analytics in marketing, sales, and service, most are not applying it broadly across the full spectrum of marketing and customer activities. This includes critical areas such as pricing (86 percent of respondents not using), product/service delivery (77 percent not using) and product development (59 percent not using).

Among the reasons for not using analytics to their full potential, Accenture found that often the data is not accessible or takes too long to get, decision-makers are not getting the information they need, corporate leadership does not believe the data provided, and not everyone has access to the same data. Corporate culture also poses a challenge.

Accenture's research found firms that are not as experienced with analytics are more likely to cite overall corporate culture as a major barrier (42 percent of respondents versus 33 percent of more analytically mature firms). The more analytically mature firms cite budget limitations (47 percent versus 29 percent), departmental culture (40 percent versus 29 percent of less analytically mature firms) and senior management support (45 percent versus 31 percent) as obstacles to better segmentation. 

Furthermore, less analytically mature firms are much more likely to perceive their data sources as accurate and reliable than organizations with more developed analytic capabilities. This might be because larger firms are conducting more regular and complex data manipulation and so are more aware of the shortcomings of their data and analytical capabilities, the report concedes.  

Accenture's research also suggests that most organizations analyze and segment customers according to their value to the organization rather than according to their own unique needs and preferences. The most commonly used metrics to segment customers tend to be company-focused, such as profit per customer (cited by 41 percent), lifetime value (27 percent) and  how much of a customer's total spending occurs with the company (24 percent). Whereas indicators of customer requirements, such as customer needs and behaviours, service levels received, and psychographics, are often used least. 

"Leadership creates the environment. When you have a strong leader up front asking the tough questions, that drives people to get the right answers. That can't be overstated," Hernandez says.

And, for Hernandez, one of the most important questions is this seven-word query: "Do you know or do you think?"