But how do you solve this challenge?
By gathering all your customer data in one place, to get a full overview of every single customer’s interaction with your brand across all channels, devices, and platforms.
The number of different tools, channels, technologies that companies have with first-party customer data is increasing every year, which makes it harder and more difficult to create a Single Customer View.
The problem happens when these channels, tools, and platforms are isolated from each other and the rest of the tech stack. This means that the data stays in the individual channels, tools, and platforms which gives an incomplete view of the customer’s interactions with a company’s touchpoints – this applies both online and offline.
When customer data is isolated, you can easily lose track of your customer’s journey and interactions with your company, and you are for example not aware that a customer has already bought the product from your physical store when you target the customer online.
You are simply not able to deliver relevant and personalized marketing if you have a fractured view of your customers.
That is why you need a Customer Data Platform.
A Customer Data Platform allows you to consolidate first-party behavioral data across all customer touchpoints, to create a Single Customer View. This makes you able to actively use all the collected customer data in unity to deliver consistent messages through all channels.
In a Customer Data Platform, you can unify all your collected data from every channel and customer touchpoint such as Email, SoMe, CRM, POS, ERP, DMP, etc. – into one platform.
So, a Customer Data Platform allows you to unite customer data from multiple channels and use it actively to create advanced audience segments which then can be activated in all available channels.
With a Single Customer View, you can also track whether the individual customer has purchased a product in your physical store, so you e.g. don’t spend your online marketing campaigns targeting a customer that has already purchased a specific product offline.
All the information you have collected about your customers is stored in one place, and you don’t have to look in various systems, to see how engaged the customer has been with your brand.
A single customer view is especially important when you engage with your customers through multiple channels. Since customers expect consistent messaging based on their preferences – this allows you to be more precise in your targeting as well as being able to personalize the customer journey.
Achieving a Single Customer View, without a Customer Data Platform is nearly impossible.
To recognize a customer across online channels, offline sources, devices, and platforms you need a connection in the form of unique identity markers. Unify data sources based on Raptor User Profiles, which is a keychain technology tracing and combining user IDs across various data sources, such as e-mail address, cookie-, device-, user-, and token ID.
Companies with loyalty clubs have an advantage when it comes to connecting offline and online interactions to the same customer because they have created an additional identity marker. When an offline customer registers his purchase in your loyalty club, it’s possible to recognize the customer whenever he interacts with your brand through digital channels.
The Raptor audience builder provides operational access to the Customer Data Platform. This is where strategic business logics is incorporated and defined by available customer data from various channels.
A Customer Data Platform’s core output should lead to experiences that meet or exceed customer expectations while delivering measurable business value. While this primarily requires more efficient data management, it must also include tools for:
Read more: CDP Buyers Guide
Being omnichannel is a need. Therefore, you can’t afford to not invest in recognizing your customers across all channels to deliver personalized omnichannel customer experiences. So, the time to act is now if you don’t want to be overthrown by your competitors.