Customer experiences and MY personal data

Many customer experiences teeter on the brink of fuelling big data today and whether you realise it or not your personal data contributes to this process.  Right now while I am using my smart phone to update my blog the mobile network provider know where I am, where I have been, how I got here, what book I read on my smart phone on my journey and which app I am using for my updates. My network provider are not the only "spy" into my digital world the app provider themselves know exactly what and where I am doing and on what exact type of device. All of this information is feeding the big data machine every minute of every day. But the data is mine. It is created by me about me. It is my greatest asset. For more epic customer experiences this helps companies deliver even more to me and have real customer insight into knowing me and what I want before I approach them which is fantastic news but we must all think more about how comfortable we are with this. In reality your only opt out option could be a hut in the woods as data about you is being collected constantly everywhere so better to tune into it and work out how best to turn it to your advantage and enable your own epic customer experience. 

Knowing your customer

How well do companies really know and understand their customer base?  Certainly there is strong evidence of companies selecting a target market and working to deliver to meet the generic needs of this customer base but how much more than this do they really do?   Am I classified by my age, sex, job and location alone?  Does this explain that I like to do outside of these demographics?  My buying behaviour is more driven and influenced by these outside factors than the obvious ABC1 male type indicators.  Companies need to work hard using all the available "big data" floating around to understand for their customer base what are these common extra curricular behaviours that they can appeal to that really meet the hearts demands and not the minds that the basic demographic suggests. Epic customer experience means knowing me....really knowing me.