by Mark Withington, on May 31, 2022 9:30:00 AM
How to Maximize Value from a Customer Data Platforms (CDPs)
Interest in Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) has skyrocketed as more and more organizations realize they need to provide a seamless customer experience in an omnichannel world.
The problem statement goes like this, “how do we ensure that customers who interact with our organization through a multitude of channels (read: phone, messaging, web, chat, chatbots, email, social media, and in-person) hear a common voice response throughout the many customer journeys they will experience during their lifecycle (e.g., suspects -> prospects -> buyers -> loyal customers, and back again).
What is a Customer Data Platform?
CDPs look to solve this challenge using an Extract, Translate, Load (ETL) mindset across the various systems that support phone, messaging, web, chat, chatbots, email, social media, and in-person interactions to produce a single source of truth for all interactions that lead up to a transaction (e.g., a buying event, a service call, a warranty issue, etc.).
Originally the charge of an organization’s customer relationship management (CRM) system, CDP acknowledges the plethora of communication channels (and their supporting systems) that atomize the customer’s interaction into as many data silos. CDP systems attempt to reconstitute the customer’s interaction into one logical chronology of interactions (stored in one place) regardless of the channel it came in through.
But is Consolidating Omnichannel Data Enough?
The traditional DIKW pyramid sheds some light upon the challenge as it infers that data by itself, while a crucial foundation, is not the ultimate endgame. Converting data into information, information into knowledge, and finally, knowledge into wisdom requires adding the appropriate pixie-dust-like metadata that so often “is left as an exercise for the reader.”
So too the CDP - while a critical foundation, the true challenge is harnessing the CDP data and choreographing it into a consumable and purposeful dialogue along a well-designed customer journey. The focus on purposeful – in other words, having a mutually desirable endpoint (between the supplier and consumer) that accounts for the idiosyncrasies of the consumers’ decision process – mainly, how the human mind processes data.
Why Use a Customer Data Platform?
While it may seem at first that CDPs are most relevant to marketing departments, CDPs benefit departments across an organization. As your organization learns to wisely leverage the data compiled by its CDP, departments such as finance and IT will be able to make better, faster decisions about products, services, and other areas of company investment.
What Questions Should You Ask about Customer Experience Management Best Practices when Planning Your CDP Project?
- Is my organization viewing CDP as a foundational part of our Customer Experience effort or simply a technology project?
- Does my organization plan for a Purposeful Customer Journey and understand how CDP can support that effort?
- Does my organization currently have or use service blueprints to map customer interactions with ‘front-of-house,’ ‘back-of-house’ processes, and supporting technology?
- Do we use psychographic customer segmentation with supporting personas and understand the CDP needs for each of them?
- Does my organization incorporate choice architecture within our CX and understand how CDP could facilitate that effort?
What is Your Organization’s Purpose Driven Customer Experience Maturity?
If you answered no to any of the above, you owe it to your customers to take our entire Purpose Driven Customer Experience Maturity Assessment, a simple five-minute survey that can help highlight CX areas of strength and opportunity within your organization. Purpose Driven CX creates a level of structure around the customer experience that leverages proven concepts from behavioral economics, service design thinking, and Accelare’s S2E implementation methodology to deliver a level of precision and discipline that any organization can benefit from.
CDP and Digital Transformation
Any digital transformation efforts that include the customer will require CDP to be effective. CDPs track an organization’s customers’ digital body language and consolidate that information into one chronological location. This data is essential for digital transformation, which is the process by which an organization upgrades and elevates its digital platforms and systems. (It also includes transformation on the cultural side of an organization, as core processes are reevaluated.) The comprehensive view of the customer experience offered by a CDP is vital to digital transformation. Additionally, a CDP will provide its maximum value in a transformed digital environment.
Leverage CDP with Accelare
Accelare’s Purpose Driven Customer Experience supercharges CDP by leveraging traditional CX tools like customer journeys, service blueprints, empathy maps, behavioral economics, service design thinking, and Accelare’s concepts S2E implementation framework to drive increased customer satisfaction and breakthrough growth. Make tapping the potential of using CDP wisely with help from the experts at Accelare. Reach out today to get started!