Netflix, Spotify, Walmart, and other giants haven’t bet on their billion-dollar fortunes by shooting in the dark.
These companies’ proactive analytics allow them to curate hyper-targeted services that offer a core feature to their customers: personalization.
The question is — are you still relying only on historical data to drive your business?
We’re living in the gold-rush age of information. Your customers are interacting with you through clicks and scrolls — all online. And when this information is proactively collected, cleaned, and analyzed, you can gain insights into consumer behavior, forecast future demands, build an optimized inventory, and best of all — make dollar dollar bills for your company.
In this blog, we’ll learn about proactive data analytics in depth: what it is, why you need it for your business, and real-world examples whose success you can follow with our help.
Let’s dive in!
What is Proactive Analytics?
The hallmark of proactive data analysis is its predictive and real-time capabilities. If reactive data is a rear-view mirror, then proactive data is a crystal ball for your business.
When customers are unhappy with your services, either they’ll complain or worse — leave silently. This is what’s known as the silent churn. So, how do you reach this quiet subset of your customers who jump ship before you can address their complaints?
You need proactive data analytics for this.
In analyzing historical data, businesses can answer the question, ‘What went wrong, and why?’
However, with proactive data analytics, you’re better positioned to answer, ‘What can go wrong, and can we do something now to fix it?’
In the first case, you’re at the mercy of the impact of market changes because there’s no way you can anticipate crises to course-correct, or upward trajectories to capitalize on.
In the latter, you’re future-proofing your business’s minor problems from becoming larger, defining ones.
Why Invest in Proactive Data?
Let’s say you stock your shelves with holiday candy in December based on what was popular in the last two or three years. But trends shift. People move on. Now, a new candy has been making the rounds on social media and flying off the shelves in other stores. However, since you’ve modeled your inventory on reactive data, the candy isn’t so much flying off your shelves as…crawling.
If you were to leverage proactive data analytics like Walmart did in 2007, you could, for example, forecast your customers’ most essential pre-hurricane items. Then, two things will happen:
- One, you’ll make more money with an optimized inventory
- And two, your customers will become loyal fans of your brand. They’ll think, ‘Wow, beer is exactly what I needed before the hurricane!’ (True story)
You’re probably wondering…
Reactive vs. Proactive Data Analytics: What’s the Difference?
The primary differentiator between reactive vs. proactive data analytics is planning.
This is not to say there’s a war between reactive vs. proactive analytics. For successful business intelligence, you need both.
But let’s learn about some key differences:
In collecting data for proactive analytics, focus groups and surveys can sometimes miss the mark. They might exclude certain customer segments or ask the wrong questions. Plus, buying market research reports can be costly, and they may not even be relevant to your specific audience.
And if you’re losing time? You’re losing money.
Luckily, we have just the fix for you! A web scraping service like Grepsr collects valuable customer information in real time at scale. We offer a codeless and automated service to optimize your resources and provide your business with clean, structured data.
Now that you know the difference between reactive vs. proactive data analytics, let’s find out how proactive analysis can turbocharge your business intelligence.
The Power of Proactive Data: Real-World Case Studies
Proactive data analytics is a strategic advantage in most, if not all 21st-century businesses across industries including entertainment, healthcare, finance, retail, aviation, real estate, and music streaming, to name a few.
Let’s take a closer look at some of them, shall we?
1. Netflix and House of Cards
In 2013, Netflix launched House of Cards without a pilot. The network ordered two seasons (at a cost of more than $100 million), even before the first episode aired. A big gamble for a show that might not succeed, wouldn’t you say?
As it turns out, this wasn’t a gamble at all.
Netflix analyzed “three circles of interest” across its 33 million subscribers to create a Venn diagram of proactive analysis —
- People had streamed David Fincher’s The Social Network from start to finish
- Audiences always reacted favorably to Kevin Spacey’s body of work (Remember, this was 2013)
- And the British version of House of Cards was already a hit
The company studied its historical and real-time data to make a proactive, calculated decision about content creation and distribution.
The result?
A total of 4 million new subscribers joined Netflix in the first quarter of 2014.
The Takeaway:
This example is a true testament to the power of proactive data analytics to gain valuable insights into consumer behavior, and therefore, successfully forecast demand and generate greater ROI.
For businesses both big and small, proactive data is necessary fuel to stay current in the market. And a powerful data-collection method? Grepsr’s automated web scraping service that guarantees high-quality data acquisition and hassle-free maintenance.
2. Monzo and Proactive Data Analytics in FinTech
Monzo is a leading challenger bank in the UK on a steady growth trajectory since its founding in 2015. The bank’s daily data including 650,000 users and 3,000 new signups helped improve its data-driven decision-making and overall customer experience.
How?
The Challenge:
For Monzo, a digital-first bank, storing and analyzing its ever-growing data, including transactional information, credit checks, and user behavior, was key. For decision-making across the organization, the company needed real-time analytics.
The Solution:
The company created a single source of truth for its entire business by using Google BigQuery. Detailed, real-time analysis was possible with BigQuery because of its speed and scalability.
The Outcome:
- Monzo identified the most common issues generating support requests and proactively addressed them. They cut in-app support requests by 50% over 10 months
- They also discovered that a small 5% of customers caused 60% of expensive international ATM fees. In response, Monzo made the informed decision to implement a £200 limit on free overseas withdrawals, making the system more cost-effective
As a result of proactive data analytics, Monzo was able to significantly reduce costs, optimize resources, improve overall customer experience, and solidify its business intelligence with a well-informed plan of action.
Similarly, web scraping through a trusted, managed data extraction service like Grepsr can transform your business strategy by shifting from a reactive to a proactive stance in data-driven decision-making.
3. Spotify’s Wrapped: Influencing Culture with Proactive Analytics
Do you wait for your Spotify Wrapped every year? Us too.
But have you ever wondered how they’re able to deliver a hyper-personalized year-end present to every single one of their consumers?
More than 550 million people worldwide subscribe to Spotify. This means that the platform has an enormous amount of information on consumer preferences, listening habits, and trends.
The Challenge:
In the early days, Spotify’s “Discover” feature relied on user input and manual curation to generate playlists. However, the accuracy and personalization of this approach limited its overall effectiveness.
The Solution:
Spotify harnessed the power of proactive data by investing in machine learning algorithms, natural language processing (NLP), and Big Data analytics.
The Results:
- Spotify has created a memorable — even enviable — customer experience thereby setting itself apart from the competition. The platform has such an incredible influence on the music industry that it can even predict future Grammy winners!
- The Wrapped feature is an annual cultural phenomenon. Over 150 million people wait to share personalized insights on social media. This not only generates significant buzz for Spotify every year, but also ticks another important checkbox: organic brand promotion
Today, Spotify commands a whopping 31% of the global market. By leveraging proactive data analytics, the company has accelerated its viral success, enhanced user engagement, and gained a significant competitive advantage, leaving its rivals in the dust.
Turn Data in Dollars with Grepsr!
Netflix, Monzo, Spotify, and Walmart prove the power of proactive data analytics with their enormous success — both in terms of customer loyalty, as well as market growth.
Are you ready to optimize your resources, predict your customers’ needs, and become a future leader in your industry?
It’s time to make the move from reactive to proactive data analytics.
At Grepsr, we can help your business charge ahead with data-driven business intelligence. Get in touch with us today to talk about your company’s needs!
