Collating and maintaining accurate, reliable data is crucial to understanding your customer, creating exciting and relevant data initiatives, and supporting your business goals.. so why exactly does customer data still present such an issue for brands?
Ever heard the phrase ‘single source of truth’? How about a ‘360-degree customer view’? Or perhaps the term ‘golden record’?
These buzzwords all describe data platforms that aim to deliver the same thing: a clean, accurate, and reliable source of data. But why is that necessary?
The more you know about. your customers, the more you can tailor your products and services to meet their requirements. According to an Accenture survey, 91% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with brands that provide relevant offers and recommendations. It’s not surprising, then, that 83% of consumers are willing to share their data to enable a personalized experience.
But while demand for personalization has skyrocketed, collecting customer data can be like cleaning a teenager’s bedroom: it’s messy, all over the place, and no matter how much you try to put a system in place, everything has inevitably fallen apart by the next time.
So why exactly does customer data still present such an issue for brands?
Disparate data sources make it harder to exploit trends
Nowadays, evolved technologies have made it possible to obtain customer data from all kinds of sources. Companies ask for customer feedback on emails, mobile apps, and web forms, while data can be collected via marketing automation, CRM systems, and purchase information.
When data is coming from lots of different places, it makes it harder for companies to package it up in a way that’s actually useful. Marketers may end up drawing data from one data source (ie. feedback via a web form) to produce their customer profiles while being unaware or unable to access data from another source (ie. previous orders).
This is why data management consultancies preach about having a ‘single source of truth’ for your data. Brands end up with reams of information from all over the place, but unless they have a single, consolidated source of data, there’s a chance they could miss certain data sets completely.
Inaccurate data weakens your pitch.
It’s not just having too much data from too many sources that companies need to worry about. Data can be duplicated, missing, mislabeled, or include typos galore, and companies might not have the resources or time required to clean it up.
While the odd mistake here or three might not be world-shattering, data build-up over time means that manual corrections become too laborious for most companies to consider, leaving them with poor-quality data that isn’t fit for purpose.
Plus, with data decaying over time, if brands are not regularly updating their databases, then they’ll be trying to create campaigns that are out of date before the train has even left the station.
Scaling up can cause a dramatic shift
Perhaps you do have a handle on your customer data. Perhaps you’ve polished your datasets to a fine sheen, organized them around your marketing goals, and even split them up based on factors such as demographics and customer behavior. However, the next time your company scales up or opts to move in a new direction, you might have to rethink your entire approach.
One example is when a company undergoes a merger or acquisition, in the process has to integrate a wave of legacy data and systems that bear little resemblance to its existing data governance model.
With a single customer view, the process becomes less daunting. With data collated in one accessible place, information can easily be layered into new systems with new data incorporated: without needing to scramble around for disparate data sets stored across the business.
Getting a single version of the truth (or golden record, or 360° view…)
Whatever you choose to call it, collating and maintaining accurate, reliable data is crucial to defining your customer, creating exciting data initiatives, and supporting your business goals.
At Amplifi, we have years of experience helping companies big and small define their customer data, collate the right information and obtain that elusive ‘golden record’.
When it comes to your potential data requirements, our solutions run the gamut, from Master Data Management, Product Information Management, and Data Governance to Data Quality, Integration, and Migration services.
To find out more about what Amplifi can do for you, download our guide How do you define your customer? or email us at [email protected]
How do you define your customer?
Download our customer data guide today.
‘A single source of truth’, ‘a golden record’, ‘a 360° customer view’…
Call it what you like, it always means the same thing: a definition of who your customer is, what they want, and how to effectively sell to them. Download our guide where we walk you through the process, from getting the information you need to make the right decision with data.
