In a world of differing opinions, we all agree on the importance of customer data for business functions. Data-driven companies are 23 times more likely to attract new customers than their counterparts. Because data is the backbone of practices such as personalization and customer experience management, it's easier to see why data-driven companies have a competitive advantage. However, it is not enough to collect customer data from different sources. The data must have the right structure and completeness to be valuable. Building a single customer view brings structure and completeness to customer data. Therefore, it is a prerequisite for success for customer-oriented companies.
WHAT IS A SINGLE CUSTOMER VIEW?
A single customer view is a comprehensive view of each customer created by collecting data in one location. A holistic view of the customer makes it easier to identify and understand customers. This single view includes critical customer information, including demographics and transaction history. It must also include behavioral data and records of past customer service interactions. When combined into one location, it creates a unified image that allows companies to deliver spectacular performance.
Creating this unified 360-degree view of every customer is one of the toughest challenges for most businesses. Most companies collect customer data, but the data is often spread across different spreadsheets and legacy systems. Unfortunately, very little can be done when you are in possession of such bad and siled data. In addition, a single customer can communicate with a company across multiple touchpoints and multiple devices. Huge information is generated as each customer navigates their respective journeys and piles up on the existing bad structure. That's why a single source of truth for customer data is crucial. With a powerful CDP, the otherwise complicated task of creating a single customer view becomes simple.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO BUILD A SINGLE CUSTOMER IMAGE?
After all, the advantages of working with a single customer view are numerous. For starters, it ensures that companies have clean data, free of duplications and omissions. With clean data available, it becomes possible to perform better analyzes that yield better insights. This enables companies to provide more personalized services and reduce irrelevant marketing.
Consequently, the customer experience improves thanks to the better customer service that the company can provide. By better understanding customers and their needs, companies can maximize every interaction. Customers can be identified regardless of the communication channel they use. What this guarantee is is consistency in customer experience. It will reduce the need for customers to repeat personal information every time they make a call to customer support.
As far as the company is concerned, a single customer view is crucial for cross-departmental collaboration. Sales, marketing, customer service and all departments can share and update information in real time. Instead of having separate records from the same person, each team has access to the same view. As a result, smoother workflows and more productive collaborations are becoming a reality.
STEPS TO BUILD A SINGLE CUSTOMER IMAGE
COLLECT DATA FROM ALL SOURCES
The first step to creating a single customer view is identifying all the locations where data is stored. Examples of such locations include CRM, website activity, customer support interactions, spreadsheets, etc. These resources can then be integrated with a CDP for seamless data transfer.
CLEAN DATA
Cleaning data is an essential step in building a single customer view. It provides access to accurate and reliable data useful to end users. Therefore, after transferring data to the CDP, delete inaccurate, duplicate or missing information.
UNIFORM CUSTOMER PROFILES
A single customer will often communicate with different channels using different devices. Sometimes they will also participate anonymously in these contact points. Therefore, it is essential to work with a CDP capable of identity resolution. This compares all identifiers – device ID, cookie ID, email address, etc. – to ensure that multiple profiles are not accidentally set up. In this way an accurate customer view can be created.
EXECUTE DATA GOVERNANCE
Setting up data governance is crucial to continue to get the best out of customer data. Not only does it ensure accurate and cleaner data, but governance also controls data usage across the organization.
RUN TESTS
Testing is important to ensure the integrity of the new data structure. Therefore, errors can be quickly corrected before data is distributed to team members.
In short, a single customer view is an integral part of the smooth operation of any organization. By following the steps above in combination with a powerful CDP companies can really unify their view of all their customers.
