Few events in world history compare to the excitement surrounding the discovery of California gold by James Marshall, in January of 1848. The famous discovery set off one of the most important migrations ever known. One of the largest gold chunks discovered at that time was by an indigent miner named Mr. Strain who in 1851 stumbled across a 50-pound nugget. It was found at the side of a small trail which ran up the hill to a popular gold mine. A mine that yielded only small discoveries for those that took the time to pick and sift through the rocks. Literally hundreds of miners had walked this trail but had failed to notice the nugget that lay just a few feet off the path.

Your Customer Feedback Is a Gold Mine of Information

In a similar way your customer feedback is a gold mine of information and as prospectors of the CX gold mine, we need to make sure our business doesn’t walk past the 50-pound nuggets. It is up to each practitioner to expose the chunks so they can be of value to the organization. Large strategy shifting discoveries are happening every day because of the ability to integrate systems and publish insight to managers and front line employees.

There Are Numerous Facets to Mining Your CX Data

I wanted to name four things you need to think about to ensure you not only find the “golden” or “not so golden” nuggets, but that you’re successful with your CX programs.

1. Implement a CX platform

Implement a strong technology CX platform to gather all sources of feedback. A place to gather, capture, analyze, and report on all customer feedback in one place– where issues and insights reside. Twenty years ago, the most important question a company could ask itself is whether they had a website. Today, that question is whether or not they have API’s. Some companies already have engineering resources and outlines for custom applications and just simply need access to data. The ability to move data freely between systems is becoming the bedrock for most corporate strategies and will be a fundamental element to the future of your CX program.

2. Integrate your enterprise systems

The CRM and marketing automation applications are two primary customer data intelligence hubs where a lot of training and resources are dedicated. By integrating your CX data into those applications it can then be used to improve front line service scripts or targeted marketing campaigns. Integrating systems allows for critical customer data that reflects perceptions, issues, and needs—can flow back and forth between the CX platform and many different enterprise systems such as SalesForce, Oracle Sales Cloud, Tableau, Adobe and Marketo.

3. Regularly assess your organization

Assess your organization against industry benchmarking and your own organizations strengths and potential weaknesses. This is where you will find internal insights and nuggets and expose where your organization and CX program should focus next.

4. Understand and take action

Predicting what different segments of your customers think and want and taking action on all the nuggets you uncover is key to the success of a CX program. It takes time to understand the data, but the companies that are putting the effort towards this part of a CX program have more loyal customers and are seeing positive business outcomes and growth. It is not only important to take action but to The nuggets immediately give the feedback to all the right people at the right time– executives, managers, front line employees.

The Impact of a Single Nugget

What began with the discovery of a golden nugget in the hills of California ended in the establishment of towns, cities, and shipping in the western United States. The economics of the country were forever altered because gold became more available.

By using a strong CX platform, assessing your organization, integrating the data from all your enterprise systems, and predicting and acting on that information you’ll not only be able to locate the “golden” or “not so golden” nuggets but also have increased success in your CX program. Who knows, maybe one of those nuggets you find will impact your organization as much as a single golden nugget did that was found in 1848.