Does every company need a specialist data team? Does every team need a data expert? Should every employee be a data expert? There isn’t a single answer here as every business has its own needs, but what is key for leadership to understand is what their business needs to get out of data. Ensuring every employee at every level of the business has access to the data they need, and that the right tools and skills are in place to make that data actionable, should be non-negotiable. At an organisational level, this must go hand in hand with efforts to ensure data quality and literacy across the business.

Ultimately, the first foundation any organisation needs to build to get the most out of digital behavioural data is the business culture. Leadership needs to emphasise and encourage understanding of the importance this data can have so employees at every level can point to data to back up their decisions. Leadership should explain their own decisions in these terms, demonstrating by example the potential data can unlock when used in the right way.

Spend time understanding the fundamental foundations behind collecting and using digital behavioural data, and, if any of those are missing, assess what needs to change to get them in place. This simple step will pay dividends to any business looking to take advantage of the possibilities digital behavioural data offers. The risks of not doing so, and drawing the wrong conclusions about how customers are behaving, are countless.