Georgia Business Radio Interviews Eric Haller, Experian DataLabs EVP and Greg Satell Author of Mapping Innovation

Eric Haller, EVP and global head at Experian DataLabs

Greg Satell authoer of Mapping Innovation

Key to innovating effectively is to discover a problem by listening to your customers and identifying the best approach to solve it

Innovation doesn’t have to be provocative to be effective. It’s not always about in-store technology or a mobile app. It starts with purposefully listening to clients. A new survey by Atomik Research conducted for Experian DataLabs released today to coincide with the second quarter Get To Know Your Customer Day shows that best way to innovate is to listen to your clients to identify and discover new problems and proactively find new problems to solve.

Author Greg Satell addresses this concept in his recently released book, Mapping Innovation: A Playbook for Navigating a Disruptive Age, highlighting the Experian DataLabs as a case study for innovation-starved businesses to model.

“Companies that innovate consistently have found a way to identify and discover new problems – they’re proactively finding new problems to solve by listening to their customers,” said Satell. “The successful companies have found a systematic and disciplined approach to do this.”

The survey’s key findings show that consumers want to be engaged with the brands they support. In fact, the survey showed:

· Over seven in ten adults think that businesses can encourage innovation by listening to customer wants and needs (73%) or by having open-minded management (72%).
· New ideas are mostly developed by collaborating with people we know (59%) and talking to new people (53%) – however almost four in ten (37%) find it helps to be in solitude.
· The vast majority (93%) respect businesses more if they are constantly changing to innovate.

“As Satell notes in his book, Experian DataLabs was designed to work with our customers to map out their problems, identify new opportunities, build solutions around those opportunities and develop new capabilities for the company,” said Eric Haller, executive vice president of Experian’s global DataLabs. “With an increasingly competitive market, Experian is committed to being inventive and agile.”

Millennials all in on customer-led innovation
The survey showed that those 25-34 years old are even more likely (98%) to welcome the opportunity to help their favorite businesses innovate compared to all adults surveyed (96%).

Survey Methodology
The Experian survey was conducted online within the United States by Atomik Research, an independent market research agency, between July 11 and 12, 2017, among 1,008 Americans over the age of 18. The survey is representative of the United States population age, gender, and region. Margin of error is +/- 2 percent. Research conducted was in accordance with Market Research Association guidelines and regulations.

Examples of Experian DataLabs Innovations

o Starting with a pilot program Experian launched in July, if you want to apply for a store credit card, you might be able to skip the long form at the checkout counter. Retailers and car dealerships will soon be launching programs that enable you to apply for a card simply by texting a code to the company—and within a few seconds, you’ll get a response back, saying how much credit you’ve prequalified for, so you can factor that amount into your shopping plans.

o That kind of rapid response prequalification is only possible through advanced analytics and machine learning in a safe, verified environment. Instead of filling out a written form, consumers will now just need to provide permission, via text, for the technology to run a credit check, right then and there. While this process certainly saves time, it also essentially reshapes the entire shopping process. If you see an ad for a car you’d like to buy, you can send a text before you leave your house to go to the dealership—and walk in already knowing the amount of loan you’re prequalified to buy that car. It’s a different way of shopping.

o Another example, small businesses – the classification of businesses that create nearly two-thirds of net new jobs in the United States – notoriously struggle to obtain loans to grow because of a perceived lack of data on their credit worthiness. Without access to credit, these businesses aren’t able to grow further, preventing them from hiring more people. DataLabs’ latest experiment concerned whether social media sites can help businesses obtain credit. By looking at social media sites we were able to help small businesses with credit verification.

For more info visit:

ExperianDataLabs.com

Eric Haller https://www.linkedin.com/in/emhaller

Greg Satell https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregsatell


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