The study found that 43% of European and North American companies either obtain little tangible benefit from their information or no benefit whatsoever (23%).Despite the wider trend, the study revealed some areas of significant success. One of these is the way in which marketing teams in manufacturing and engineering companies are using valuable company information to enhance customer engagement and service.
Richard Petley from PwC said: “Every transaction or interaction with customers and prospects is a potential source of valuable market intelligence and customer insight that can provide opportunity for innovation and improved customer service. The true benefit of this information comes from getting it into the hands of those employees with the right skills to interpret the insight and act upon it.”
On average one in four companies allow their marketing teams to access high-value company information – a figure that rises to one in three in manufacturing and engineering. The sector also has greater confidence in marketing’s ability to make good use of this information.
When asked whether they had experienced any benefits as a result of harnessing the value of their information, manufacturing and engineering firms were the most likely to point to improved customer retention (experienced by 80%), the attraction of new customers (79%), improved sales to existing customers (83%) as well as a reduction in customer complaints (80%). All these results are between four and six percentage points higher than the average.
The manufacturing and engineering sector is also the most likely to say that the drive to manage information for competitive advantage comes from marketing.
Elizabeth Bramwell, director at Iron Mountain, said: “Our research with PwC shows that, far from being traditionalist and product-focused, the manufacturing and engineering sector is leading the way in giving customer-facing professionals access to high-value information. As a consequence, companies in this sector are reaping benefits many other firms are missing out on.”
The study questioned 1800 senior business leaders, divided equally between Europe and North America, in mid-sized and enterprise-level organisations.
