Despite all of the investments in customer engagement technology, customers still believe brands are falling short of their expectations. At the heart of this paradox, brands simply do not understand customers enough to deliver relevant messages, offers, content and products at every stage of the customer journey. And the root of this lack of “understanding” is customer data that is simply in poor shape – it is inaccurate, incomplete, untimely and/or simply unavailable when needed.
This is why 84% of marketers said that data is their organization’s most under-utilized asset. It is also 54% of marketers said that the lack of data quality and completeness is their biggest challenge to data-driven CX. For most organizations data is simply not ready for its intended use to create value. Data is not ready to drive personalized CX. Data is not ready to drive AI. Data is not ready to drive new customer acquisition programs. Data is not ready to drive conversions via paid media. Data is not ready to drive real-time relevant engagement. This is because customer data is messy, data is hard, and data needs evolve as customer needs evolve.
And technology to-date has largely failed to resolve these issues. In this series on data as the defining difference, we will outline customer data technology solutions for the future – and ones that are delivering results today. Because even with so many customer data technology misfires, Redpoint has managed to create value with industry leaders in Healthcare, Retail, Travel, Financial Services, Media and Entertainment, with select results illustrated below. (See Figure 1),
Figure 1: Value with Redpoint customer data technology
From the Corner Store to Omnichannel Personalization
For some added perspective on why data is simply not ready to drive personalized CX, consider the quintessential corner store experience that is now mostly a relic of a bygone era. A friendly proprietor greets you by name, makes you feel welcome, and engages in some lighthearted banter about your family, the weather or local events. The conversation naturally flows to the status of your home project, the purpose of your visit. The shop owner knows what phase of the project you’re in, recommends the exact products you’ll need and even suggests a product you hadn’t considered. When you leave, you’re happy with your purchase and even more pleased with your overall experience. Your main takeaway is that you received something of value that far exceeded the transaction.
While this type of experience remains the goal of major brands in almost every industry, the challenge is to now do this at scale in an era of highly dynamic customer journeys across an increasing number of digital and physical channels. This is why it is such a challenge to get your data right. Yet as the challenge intensifies, so too do the hardening customer expectations for a more seamless personalized experience. Even with multiple devices, different identifiers and continual change (life stages, family dynamics, etc.) customers hold brands accountable for knowing who they are across all channels, and for knowing with some degree of accuracy why they’re engaging.
While retail may have been the pioneer in personalizing a digital-first experience, the expectation for a personalized experience now extends to relationships with healthcare providers, health plans, travel companies, financial services and other industries that interact with consumers. For instance, a customer accustomed to relevant, real-time recommendations from a retailer anticipates that that a mortgage lender will be able to offer a real-time quote. Or have the expectation that a health plan administrator will have the same information that the customer has already provided on an online form.
More than merely applying data, the secret to solving the personalization paradox is applying the right data at the optimal time. Enterprise companies that compete on customer experience rely on customer data technology to turn customer data into insight.
Customers become frustrated when the companies they interact with have trouble with these seemingly routine experiences, giving them pause to continue a relationship with a brand. Consider a Broadridge CX Survey in which 54 percent of consumers (63 percent of GenZ) said they will stop doing business with a company that delivers a poor customer experience. Or a McKinsey study in which 76 percent of consumers said that receiving personalized communications is a key factor in prompting consideration of a brand, with 78 percent claiming that a personalized CX makes them more likely to repurchase. These and similar proof points validate the inescapable truth that companies now regularly compete on customer experience. Reducing churn, as the referenced statistics demonstrate, is just one of many benefits that result from refining data with the goal of delivering personalized customer experiences. Brands that prioritize personalization generate up to 25 percent in new revenue, also according to the McKinsey study, which found a direct link between revenue and an organization’s ability to execute personalization initiatives – the more skillful in applying data to grow customer knowledge and intimacy, the greater the returns.
Recognition, Relevance & Real Time: The Heart of Personalization
Applying data to grow customer knowledge and intimacy speaks to the ultimate goal of personalization; to mirror, as closely as possible, the corner store experience. But because today’s personalized CX must account for the dynamic nature of complex customer journeys, in order to meet customer expectations a brand must first recognize the customer at the moment of interaction, and be in the position to provide a relevant interaction that displays a recognition of the customer journey itself.
More than merely applying data, the secret to solving the personalization paradox is applying the right data at the optimal time. Enterprise companies that compete on customer experience rely on customer data technology to turn customer data into insight. A modern marketing technology stack will have one or more systems tasked with collecting, cleaning and storing customer data for the purpose of generating insights that it will use to deliver personalized experiences. Singularly or in tandem, these systems will typically be integrated to generate a single customer view, a cohesive profile that provides the enterprise with a single source of truth for the customer. One system, which typically will be the centerpiece of the marketing stack, will house the unified profile and make it available across the enterprise, to marketers and business users.
Actionable Steps for Liberating Your Customer Data
As customer journeys become more complex, and as it simultaneously becomes more important and more difficult to deliver a personalized CX, organizations are seeking the most optimal, cost-effective way to organize their marketing technology around building the single customer view. There are a lot of questions and different opinions about the best approach.
In this series, we’ll address key questions enterprise companies face when leveraging customer data to drive business value. Our focus will be on actionable strategies and insights, including:
- Customer data as the foundation to pivot toward a customer-centric approach
- How did we get to the point where customer data technology is failing to deliver results
- How a customer data technology enables a truly personalized customer experience
- Why data readiness is critical to a successful value creation
- A practical guide to choosing data management technology
- Real-world examples of customer data technology use cases that deliver measurable impact
- Navigating the data-driven personalization capability maturity model to achieve superior outcomes in a stepwise manner
These actionable steps will help you to turn customer data into business vale. By leveraging customer data effectively, building unified profiles, and applying the right insights at the right moment, brands can deliver the seamless, personalized experiences that drive loyalty, reduce churn, and unlock new revenue opportunities – all while reducing operational costs along the way.
In the coming weeks, we’ll explore the strategies, technologies, and frameworks that enable organizations to overcome these challenges and master the art of using customer data to drive all kinds of potential uses. Stay tuned as we dive deeper into actionable steps for turning customer data into business value and elevating the customer experience to new heights.
