Make Better (Data) Choices: Unified Customer Profile Checklist & CDP

With the following unified customer profile checklist, you can find insights to improve your overall customer data collection strategy. Because you don’t know what you don’t know. So, it’s worth exploring how your current customer data strategy, data collection, and customer profiles compare to what a CDP can do.

Data collection practices to improve

Use CDP to address these data collection weaknesses and improve customer profiles:

• Too many data siloes
• Inconsistent data collection
• Failure to manage data volume
• Undefined strategy for data use

You may be thinking, “my company does deliver a personalized customer experience based on customer data.” Unfortunately, you may be suffering from too much of a mediocre thing.

A majority of organizations have a minimum of 11+ systems of siloed data, which inhibits them from delivering exceptional customer experiences consistently. They’re unable to meet the real-time expectations of customers because they don’t have the agility to better understand customers and deliver better outcomes. Delivering hyper-personalized experiences across channels and touchpoints has been a long-standing goal for marketers, but can your customer service solution,  commerce platform, and strategy do the same?

They also have inconsistent data collection practices. Data collection shouldn’t just be collecting every data point. A company should have a strategy and purpose and use for each data point they collect from their customer to create a unified customer profile. Inconsistent data collection can lead to fragmented views of the customer, but also potentially regulatory risk.

Lastly, they’re unable to manage data volume. Many organizations are unable to scale to organize and properly or effectively store the data they collect. Existing solutions within the organization might be able to capture and hold the customer data, but not be able to assign the data to the appropriate customers at scale.

A unified customer profile checklist

To help you assess your current customer data strategy, we’ve created the following progression for you to consider.

Do you collect customer data at every touchpoint?

1. Do you collect data from each interaction including all online and offline touchpoints in real-time?
2. Are your data collection practices consistent across the brand?
3. Do you know the purpose of all the customer data you collect?

Do you associate customer data with a foundational identity?

• • • Can you identify your customers with CIAM across all channels and devices? Attributing data to a foundational identity allows for data unification through CDP and a unified customer profile.

It’s possible to grow an LOB with a customer profile strategy

A customer data platform (CDP) doesn’t just benefit your customers by creating a foundation for connected, hyper-personalized customer experiences. It also benefits your employees.

Offer customers transparency and personal data control for profiles

• Do you have a data privacy strategy in place? Customers are demanding to control their data in order to trust you, and governments around the globe are passing legislation to ensure this happens. Customers are willing to give you their data if they understand the purpose of your data collection and use. They also want to control the data they share. A good rule of thumb is if you are creating a unified profile for a customer, they should be happy with the profile and how you build it.
• An enterprise consent and preference management (ECPM) solution improves your relationship with customers by allowing a “self-service” preference center for your customers to manage their relationship with your brand. Giving your customers control and access to update their profile, account information, consent, and preferences isn’t a “nice to have” – it’s a must.
• Bonus: an ECPM helps address data privacy requirements in legislation and regulations. It can also keep your business audit-ready by acting as an enterprise-wide repository of captured consent. The more customers understand that ethical management of data is a part of your operation, the more trust they’ll have in you and your products.
• The number of data privacy regulations is growing. In fact, many states are taking it upon themselves to create their own regulations. So, you need to ensure you’re equipped to cover your organization around the United States and the world. The greatest customer profile in the world means nothing if you can’t defend how you created it.

Create happy customers: Untangle a web of marketing tools and data for best use

Effective digital marketing starts with a clear data ecosystem. Using this step-by-step plan, you can create a solid foundation for happy customers.

Analyze customer profiles to gain rich insights

• Do you analyze customer data in a way that can help you build out a customer journey specifically tailored and relevant to individual customers?
• Can you identify high-priority customers as they engage with your business?
• Do you anticipate a customer’s next step, allowing you to be proactive in resolving any issue that may arise all help prevent customer churn and turnover?

Can you fuel engagements across your enterprise with accurate, rich customer context in real-time?

• Do you integrate with any and all customer-facing systems in order to continually delight customers by creating unique, hyper-personalized engagements throughout the customer’s time with your brand? A unified customer profile is key for driving loyalty and repeat business. It’s also vital for creating brand advocates that will help expand your customer base.