Whoever invented the term “big data” succeeded in combining jargon with an intuitive understanding of what it means: data that is… uh … big. We know that data is a collection of facts from which we can draw conclusions, trends or even spin to our own ends. Add the word “big” and you open the mind-boggling floodgates of information generated everywhere from every source.

In fact, this definition of the term is as good as any:

“Big data is the term for a collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand database management tools or traditional data processing applications.”

When it comes to call center management, though, big data is more manageable conceptually. It’s really all the information you have already collected, plus other resources you haven’t figured out how to use yet.

What, if anything, does big data and its impact on the customer experience from the call center have to do with the “little data” provided by each customer contact? When you think about it, your marketing and finance folks would do anything to have such a data-rich source as the information recorded and gathered in call logs and tracking of social network hits and tweets.

The former (call center records) are mostly quantitative, and the latter (social networking) is strictly qualitative. You can measure lengths of calls and add numerical values to expressed levels of customer satisfaction from surveys for the quantitative data. The qualitative part gets into the big data realm of social media monitoring and tracking through multi-channels.

Big data also includes monitoring Facebook chatter, stalking tweets or even scouring e-mail responses and inputs from customers and activities that, in aggregate, contribute to our ability to assess how our customers like our wares and whether they would be open to cross- and up-selling. Are people saying nice things or are they griping and criticizing? What are you going to do about all that?

So connecting your customer engagement effort to take advantage of big data means that you need to:

• Discover new ways to evaluate the vast amount of data you already have. That means taking what can be measured and extrapolating it in terms of how it relates to the customer experience.
• Integrate what people are saying about you on social media into a multi-channel monitoring approach and take the necessary action to drive business processes towards customer satisfaction.

Does thinking about big data remind you of being force-fed with a fire hose? Take a breath. You’re mostly there, because the big data is out there beckoning you. Contact us and we’ll help you evaluate what your call center reps are doing and learn how your customers perceive their experience both quantitatively and qualitatively at your call center portal or through other multichannel gateways at the vortex of big data.