Monday January 27, 2025

4 min read

How to leverage your data with AI for business growth

Goldstar IT

Your business generates a wealth of data every day—customer interactions, purchase histories, service tickets, and even social media activity. But are you fully leveraging that data to discover new opportunities, streamline operations, improve customer satisfaction and grow your business? Discover how to leverage your data, and AI, for business growth.

With advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI), and powerful tools like Zoho Analytics, businesses of all sizes can now analyse their existing data to discover new markets, predict customer behaviour, and improve overall efficiency. In this article, we’ll explore how you can tap into your business data to generate new opportunities and how Zoho’s ecosystem of tools—like Zia GenAI, Zoho CRM, and Zoho Desk — can help you turn insights into action.

Step-by-step approach to unlocking the power of business data

Step 1: Understand the data you already have

The first step is to take stock of the data you’re already collecting. Businesses often underestimate the value of their existing information, such as:

Customer data: Purchase history, preferences, lifetime value, and feedback.
Sales data: Opportunities, win/loss trends, and seasonal patterns.
Support data: Ticket categories, response times, and common pain points.
Marketing data: Campaign performance, lead sources, and engagement rates.

These datasets often reside in tools like Zoho CRM, Zoho Books, Zoho Desk, and Zoho Campaigns. Integrating these platforms can provide a 360-degree view of your operations.

Step 2: Integrate and centralise your data

Data that sits in silos across departments is difficult to analyse or act on. A unified system like Zoho Analytics lets you centralise data from multiple tools into a single dashboard, enabling:

Cross-functional insights: For example, combining sales and marketing data to identify which campaigns lead to higher conversions.
Visualised trends: Charts and reports that show customer behavior patterns or seasonality in demand.

💡 Pro Tip: Use Zoho Analytics to set up automatic data pipelines from your sales, marketing, and support tools. This ensures your insights are always up-to-date.

Step 3: Apply AI to extract actionable insights

Here’s where you can leverage AI for business growth and make a real difference! Tools like Zia GenAI in Zoho Desk can analyse your data and provide:

Predictive analytics: Forecast customer needs or trends based on historical data.
Customer segmentation: Automatically group customers based on behaviour, preferences, or demographics.
Personalised recommendations: Suggest the next best action—like which product to recommend or which customers to target for a promotion.

💡 For example:
A retail business could use AI to identify which products are frequently bought together and automate promotions to upsell these items. A SaaS company could analyse support ticket trends to proactively address common issues before they lead to churn.

Step 4: Take proactive action

Once AI has provided insights, you need to act on them quickly. Zoho’s ecosystem makes this seamless with built-in integrations. For example:

Create automated email campaigns in Zoho Campaigns targeting a specific customer segment identified by Zoho CRM.
Use Zoho SalesIQ to engage high-value leads in real-time based on AI scoring.
Automate follow-ups and reminders in Zoho CRM to nurture leads or upsell opportunities.

💡 Pro Tip: Create workflows in Zoho CRM to automatically trigger actions, like sending a discount code to a customer whose subscription renewal is approaching.

Discover more about the range of Zoho applications we support

Industry-Specific Examples: AI in Action

1. Retail & E-Commerce

Challenge: Identifying top-selling products and designing personalised promotions.
Solution:

Use Zoho CRM to segment customers by past purchases.
Analyse sales data in Zoho Analytics to identify popular product combinations.
Automate upsell campaigns in Zoho Campaigns, offering discounts on frequently purchased bundles.

💡 Example: A clothing retailer uses AI to suggest matching accessories to customers who buy dresses, increasing basket sizes at point of sale.

2. Professional Services

Challenge: Growing client accounts and generating referrals.
Solution:

Combine Zoho Desk and Zoho CRM to track client satisfaction and identify opportunities for upselling additional services.
Use Zia GenAI to generate insights from client interactions, such as predicting which clients are likely to churn.
Automate follow-up emails using Zoho Campaigns, offering incentives for referrals or repeat business.

💡 Example: A consulting firm identifies clients with frequent support queries as prime candidates for premium service packages, increasing revenue per client.

3. Manufacturing & Distribution

Challenge: Managing complex supply chains and identifying sales opportunities.
Solution:

Integrate order data from Zoho Books with sales data in Zoho CRM to track high-value accounts.
Use Zoho Analytics to forecast demand and optimise inventory.
Create AI-driven workflows in Zoho CRM to send automated reordering reminders to B2B clients.

💡 Example: A manufacturer uses AI to predict when clients will need to reorder parts, ensuring timely follow-ups and boosting repeat sales.

4. SaaS & Customer Support-Driven Industries

Challenge: Improving customer retention and support quality.
Solution:

Use Zoho Desk to analyse common support ticket issues and automate responses with Zia GenAI.
Segment customers by usage patterns in Zoho Analytics and proactively send tailored tips or upgrade offers through Zoho Campaigns.
Monitor churn risk indicators and use Zoho CRM to trigger personalised retention campaigns.

💡 Example: A SaaS company reduces churn by sending personalised onboarding tutorials to customers who haven’t fully engaged with the platform.

Learn how Zia GenAI can supercharge your business strategy.

The Power of Combining Zoho Products

Zoho’s ecosystem of products is designed to work together seamlessly, helping you go from insight to action in a matter of clicks. By using tools like Zoho CRM, Zoho Desk, Zoho Analytics, and Zoho Campaigns, you can:

Boost cross-department collaboration: Sales, marketing, and support teams can work from the same data.
Streamline workflows: Automate repetitive tasks, freeing your team to focus on high-value activities.
Deliver personalised experiences: Create hyper-targeted campaigns and support interactions that resonate with your customers.

With the addition of Zia GenAI, Zoho’s native AI assistant, you can take this a step further by generating insights and automating processes tailored to your business needs.

Ready to Transform Your Business with AI?

AI is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity for businesses looking to stay competitive. By tapping into your existing data and using tools like Zia GenAI for business growth, you can uncover new opportunities, improve efficiency, and delight your customers.

If you’re already a Zoho user, you’ve likely experienced the benefits of working within a single-provider ecosystem. But are you truly maximising its potential? With tools like Zia GenAI and seamless integrations between Zoho CRM, Desk, Analytics, and Campaigns, there’s so much more you can unlock!

Take the next step in driving those benefits even further—transform your business data into actionable insights, automate processes, and deliver personalised experiences to your customers like never before. Why not book a meeting with our experts and discuss adopting Zoho’s Zia GenAI for your business growth.