A Practical Guide To Unified Customer Data

A unified customer data platform (CDP) is one of the greatest tools an organisation can use to enhance its customers’ experience and remain profitable and efficient. However, without gathering all vital information across several digital platforms into one source, businesses risk losing touch with potential customers.

Consumers want to be more than just another business statistic. Therefore, the more personable and individualised the customer experience, the more likely they will return and use an organisation’s products and services.

So, how do companies retain customers and attract new ones? The answer lies within a unified customer data platform.

The basics of a customer data platform

An effective CDP collects first-party data from various sources, including social media, marketing campaigns, email subscriptions, and digital apps, into one centralised location. Therefore, the critical data marketers and business executives need to make operating decisions is more easily accessible.

A CDP takes readily available information from multiple sources and unifies it to provide a comprehensive view of the target customer and audience. This tool will automate manual tasks in other business tools, such as a customer relationship management platform (CRM), making it more efficient than the alternatives.

The benefits

Enhancing how an organisation collects and processes customer data can aid unity within a central platform and provide numerous benefits.

Some excellent benefits of unified customer data include the following:

• Remove data silos
• Build comprehensive customer profiles
• Offer personalised customer experience at every touchpoint
• Saves an organisation time and money on marketing efforts

Remove data silos

Data silos are instances where stored essential customer data is on a platform that is not accessible by all users. Therefore, data specialists must manually extract the data, sort through redundant or duplicate information, and share it with other departments.

Once an organisation unifies customer data using a common platform, all departments can access the information when needed. This shared availability aids in all outlets working together, from social media profiles to digital apps and e-commerce, streamlining a company’s efforts.

Build comprehensive customer profiles

Building a comprehensive customer profile is more efficient when the critical data is in one central location. A unified CDP provides the ideal method of gathering and storing the information a company requires when learning more about its customers, their browsing and purchasing habits, and demographic details.

For example, collected data may indicate that 70% of customers use an e-commerce link within a social media post, while only 30% of all sales come from a search engine inquiry. Therefore, an organisation can either focus on expanding its social media efforts or enhance its rankings for web searches to attract its target customers.

Offer personalised customer experiences at every touchpoint

Customers like to be understood and receive a personalised experience, even when shopping online for goods and services. The lack of brick-and-mortar stores makes the customer’s user experience (UX) even more critical in driving sales through digital media.

A CDP with relevant data allows an organisation to personalise the UX for its target audience and repeat visitors. In turn, customers feel more satisfied overall about their interactions and reward the company with brand loyalty.

Touchpoints can offer a unique customer experience based on their previous connection history, from saving customer profiles to recommending similar items.

Saves an organisation time and money on marketing efforts

Naturally, when an organisation streamlines its data collection and usage efforts, it will benefit from other operational channels, including its marketing efforts.

For example, rather than having employees gather and sort through erroneous customer data manually to share with others, a CDP provides a method of viewing information quickly and extracting critical reports from it.

Unified data can support organisational efforts for direct response advertising, personalised email marketing, and real-time solutions for e-commerce and digital app platforms to increase sales.

Implementing unified customer data

Although having critical data in one place is efficient, a CDP will not provide benefits if an organisation does not use it to its advantage. Therefore, marketing teams need to know what data is helpful and how to use it for real-time and future campaigns.

So, how does an organisation implement unified customer data to its advantage? Of course, not all companies will use the same approach to build brand loyalty, but these standard methods are beneficial in using this information.

• Offer customer flexibility
• Provide customer loyalty programs
• Streamline information and payment channels

Offer customer flexibility

Consumers use different shopping practices, including mobile devices, home computers, and social media apps. In addition, some organisations offer online purchases in addition to standard brick-and-mortar locations.

By offering flexible browsing, purchasing, and shipping methods, companies put the customer in the driver’s seat and let them choose the best way to receive its products or services. In addition, unified data makes the entire process simple and streamlined for the customer.

Provide customer loyalty programs

Providing customer loyalty programs helps secure repeat business and attract new customers. Therefore, for returning clients to take advantage of loyalty programs, unified customer data is a must.

This way, an organisation’s platform can retain previous purchases and contact information and customise future offerings in one central location.

Streamline information and payment channels

Unified customer data makes all information and payment channels easier to navigate for an organisation and its clients. So, rather than tackling numerous platforms when a change of direction is necessary, customer information residing in one location minimises errors and streamlines business processes.

Using unified customer data effectively

Developing a 360° view of customers’ needs and wants is straightforward when implementing a unified customer data platform. The digital market is highly competitive, and efficient methods of collecting and processing customer information are beneficial for marketing efforts.

Therefore, it is not a question of whether a company should use a unified customer data platform but which CDP option is best for the organisation’s goals.

We believe that CDP is about practically connecting the systems that matter, using this data to build a hub of customer intelligence, and providing the persistent data layer required to drive a valuable, long-term customer relationship. We also believe that great technology is critically important but never in isolation; great people delivering rapidly are also essential ingredients.

Learn more about Marketsoft Data.