Lenovo understands the value of analytics  in its business success    

Sriram Gopalaswamy
Head of Commercial Marketing - Lenovo

 Data empowers marketers and gives them the power during pointy business discussions. In the views of Sriram Gopalaswamy, Head of Commercial Marketing - Lenovo, the most successful marketers are those who know the value of analytics.

“This goes far beyond measuring return on investment, share of voice, reach, engagement, market share or market growth – although all of these remain important. Our success mantra has been to increase our customer knowledge over the last one year, in the SMB segment. Many organisations pursue greater customer-centricity. Certainly, at Lenovo we see this as a high priority,” points out Sriram Gopalaswamy, Head of Commercial Marketing – Lenovo.

Due to its focus on building customer information and reaching out to customers with a dedicated telemarketing engine, Lenovo gained 5.5% YTY share in the SMB Segment in CY 2016-17 in India (as per IDC Shipment report). 

“An example of us moving to customer centricity is our own voice of the customer (VOC) project in India (and in Japan), in which we analyse customer comments in social media channels and forums, and share the insights with our customer engagement and product development teams. Every month this means we have around 700,000 customers giving insight on how to make our products and services better,” he says.

In a Forrester paper commissioned by Lenovo and SAP in January 2016, on average 70% of data within companies goes unused. Organization must continuously watch and listen to their customers and prospects. That means both data and analysis drive the definition of the customer engagement experience. “It applies to your products and services, the way you engage with your customers, and in the way those who talk to customers interact with them (from the CEO through to the customer care technician). Listening for opportunities to discover how customers experience the same from your competitors, or new entrants coming to market, is valuable in reviewing your own approach,” says Sriram.