An excellent post on big data and the customer experience over at the Harvard Business Review blog. Of note:

Expand the Value You Create for Customers

Improving the customer experience is a fine idea. But companies often take it to extremes. It’s always a good idea to look for new ways to create value for customers. But focusing only on doing so through your product or service is entirely one-dimensional. The hard reality is that your product or service, however great it is — however much it helps your customers get a job done or provide an enjoyable experience — is likely just not that important to their lives in the grand scheme of things.

via The Big Goal Behind All that Customer Data – Bill Lee – Harvard Business Review.