There’s no two ways about the fact that big data is shaping the customer experience; however, “shaping” doesn’t necessarily mean improving. Big data certainly boasts the power to improve the customer experience, but only when approached the right away, today’s group of panelists agreed during, “The Relationship Between Big Data and Customer Experience,” held at ITEXPO East 2014 in Miami, FL.

Panelists included Brian Sadowski, SVP Information Technology, Apriva; Aaron Wellman, Product Marketing Offer Lead for Self-Service Solutions, Genesys (News - Alert); and Brian Spraetz, Solutions Marketing Manager, Interactive Intelligence The group was led by moderator Jon Arnold of J Arnold & Associates.

The need for big data is evident across an array of business departments. In fact, 100 percent of CMOs say that successful brands use customer data to drive marketing decisions, according to aggregated data from a Monetate infographic. However, 36 percent of marketers say they have “lots of consumer data” and “don’t know what to do with it.”

So, how can businesses use big data the right way? For starters, change your mentality about big data, Spraetz says. “In the past, big data meant taking unstructured information and making it analyzable. Today, it’s more of a philosophy.”

Additionally, try to avoid department resistance. “Big data means looking at data across the entire organization, not just within individual departments,” Sadowski explains. “We’re finally starting to take a look at big data on a comprehensive level, but some departments aren’t eager to hand their data off to other departments, and I think that’s one huge barrier to adoption.”

So, how can business owners get departments onboard with an all-inclusive approach to big data? For Sadowski, it’s incentives.

“There has to be something in it for them,” he says. “In most cases, these teams have project lists a mile long, and to dedicate the resources and mindshare to be involved means it has to be meaningful and worthy of their time and effort. It will be difficult unless there is a direct benefit to the department level. They have to be bought into the enterprise value; it’s a collaborative effort.”

Meanwhile, Spraetz believes that it’s all about the goal at hand. “I think big data is driven by the business objective. Big data will just sit there unless you have some clue of what you want to find out. The future of big data will lie in making it more actionable and ensuring that what you find will make an actionable impact on your organization.”