Acxiom and Loyalty 360 released their joint research project, “Making Every Interaction Count: How Customer Intelligence Drives Customer Loyalty,” at Loyalty Expo 2012. The research focuses on how most brands “are not leveraging (customer data) as a strategic asset that helps create and maintain long-lasting relationships with their high-value customers.”

We know, from conversations with agency holding companies, that demand for data and analytics has driven growth — so brands are certainly investing in it. But the key distinction is that these brands are not using that data for customer retention or loyalty.

I haven't acquired the full study yet — just read the press release — but my initial impression is that marketing is more about customer acquisition; customer service tends to focus more on customer retention and loyalty. For better or for worse (usually for worse) these are typically two separate departments that don't do a particularly great job talking to each other or swapping data back and forth. Maybe that might change as social media looks to become an increasingly company-wide endeavor.