In the early days of humans versus computers in chess, we humansroutinely won. Those chess-playing programs were rudimentary bytoday’s standards. Chess-game programmers became better, andeventually grandmasters – including the world champion – lostto computers.

Then a funny thing happened.

In 2005, a team of two amateur players entered an onlinetournament that placed few restrictions on play. Computers wereamong the contestants – grandmasters, too. But the amateur team hadan edge over its competitors’ digital and human brains: specialsoftware they developed to help them play against computers, plus amethodology that helped them determine when to rely on theircomputer’s advice and when to favor their brainpower.

The amateur duo won the tournament.

While today’s most powerful chess-playing computers arevirtually unbeatable by human players alone, humans and computersin partnership not only have a chance – they can and dowin.

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The analogous question for your business is this: how can yourcompany get a winning edge by combining the power of data analyticswith brainpower?

It’s a question you could apply to nearly any area of yourbusiness. Here are three areas where your company stands to benefitthe most from a smart-data plus smart-human approach.

Use data to know customers and strengthen relationships

When your people can connect the dots between cause and effect asthey apply to customers, including marketing efforts and theirresults, your company knows what customer-relationship effortsequal the best ROI.

It all starts with truly knowing your customers – what their needs are,what they think of your company’s ability to meet them, and all thewhile, assuming there’s more to know.

How you obtain this data from customers — surveys, interviews,or any other query method you devise — doesn’t matter so much asdoes accumulating it on a continual basis. Asking customers what’simportant to them fosters a greater sense of collaboration.Knowledge-sharing arrangements may develop where you learn aboutfuture needs. Ideas for new products and services may comeabout.

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Obtaining more customer data leads to obtainingmore customer data. You can never know too much whenyou desire to engage customers in meaningful ways. At everytouch-point, and in your marketing communications, such analyticsshould be at the core of how you run your business.

Have data-driven pictures of customers—and opportunities

Big data might as well be a big mess if you don’t use it to drilldown revealingly into individual customer relationships. Closely examine thedata you’re collecting on a regular basis. Look for underlyingtrends and identify what steps you can take to exploit theirpotential.

But your data, internal and external, is only as good as it isclearly understood. Understandable data is actionable data.

Consider dashboards in general, or yours specifically. Theyshould be designed so your company can distill data into quick-readperformance metrics, as well as those for demand and engagement.Well-designed dashboards reveal all in “Aha!” visualizations thatcause good things happen.

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For example, your staff can track customer referrals and their influence on yoursales pipeline. They can track and evaluate customer retentionrates to isolate where improvement opportunities lie. They canaccount for cross-sells and upsells. They can identify candidatesfor case histories to highlight in upcoming proposals.

The best dashboards realize the potential of big-data analyticsin combination with big-brain talent. If your company is alreadyusing dashboards, are they as optimized as current data-miningallows? If your IT department can’t answer that question, chancesare IT consultants to your industry can.

(Photo: Shutterstock)

Which customers to grow with;which to avoid over-commitments with

The longer the customer’s history with your company, the morehistorical data you can rely upon in projecting their value — whileof course keeping that familiar securities investing caveat in mindabout how past performance is no guarantee of future results. Duediligence requires, well, diligence — the diligence of currentdata, evaluated and understood on behalf of informeddecision-making.

In practical terms, a given client’s long-term value to yourcompany is a dynamic, risk-versus-reward projection. It should becontinuously under review, even for clients with sterling credithistories. Checking credit in a variety of ways is best. Visitingthe customer, consulting public records, seeking information fromother companies that have dealings with the customer, obtainingfinancial statements and past-due reports — all of this dataaccumulation informs projections of customers’ long-term value. So,too, do macroeconomic trends and industry and sector trends. Evenanecdotal information can have value, depending on the source.

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Not every company has the risk-management staff, or expertise onthat staff, to perform every potential check on individual clients.Seeking additional expertise can fill in the gaps as well asenhance a company’s efforts exponentially. The bank you partnerwith is one potential source of information. Customers who knowother customers might be other sources.

Depending on the provider, trade insurance coverage can offer anoverlay of risk-management thoroughness greater than you might findanywhere else. With this type of coverage, your insurer has skin inthe game. For a trade insurer, monitoring your customers’ financialhealth is as important to them as it is for you. They’re providinginformation on your customers — with a guarantee on your customers.That puts customer value projections in a new light.

Knowing which customers are the ones to grow your business, intandem with avoiding over-commitments to customers not on solidfinancial footings, means keeping your company’s focus where itshould be.

Data-backed decisions make knowledge a chief asset for your company

Acquiring data on competitors will enable your company tounderstand what it’s up against when competing for business. Marketdata on customer industries can suggest sliding emphasis from oneindustry segment to another. Data can help you account for theoverall business environment, too.

In chess, you face billions of potential moves in a typicalgame. In the game of business, poor moves have real-world consequences. So,combine the most thorough, current data you can obtain with thekeenest brainpower available, both within and outside your company.Then, the moves you make in business will more often than not bewinning ones.

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