Knowing me, knowing you

Customer Data Platforms or CDPs give Experience Makers a single, central source of data with that value exchange built in.

According to Mark, a CDP has the potential to elevate a customer relationship to empathy-based, rather than sales-based. So, for example, when a customer lands in the support area of your owned site, you can see immediately see that and understand where that customer is in the lifecycle, responding accordingly.

Wunderman Thompson Data has recently published a paper on the CDP landscape for those looking for advice. Course Correction acknowledges that many businesses are now evolving when it comes to investment in data technology. The first generation of adopters are now looking for a more sophisticated solution that recognises that the insights generated by data need to be employed on several different channels: websites, media, CRM and direct mail, to name a few.

The 2nd generation of CDP sits in the middle of your customer business and provides the hooks or the glue between every customer touchpoint, allowing marketers to resolve the identity of that customer in a way that gets better over time.

However, Alex issues a health warning, “you can’t technology yourself interesting”. A CDP is a very sophisticated piece of kit but it's not a substitute for knowing your customers. Organisations still need to think very carefully about how they will have a meaningful conversation with a customer when they recognise and know them.

Although we are now in the world of 2nd generation CDPs, there still isn’t a standard set of CDP capabilities. However, they do tend to focus around a set of common core capabilities, of which one is now compliance. However, Mark warns that you may need to look at integrating adjacent, specialist technologies, for instance, a consent and preferences management solution, that provides customers with an intuitive UI for preference selection. Working side by side, a CDP would provide GDPR (or similar) assurance by, for example, deleting specified data when asked.

As ever, our Experience Makers debate, the all-important question, what will success look like and how do we measure it?

While there are a bunch of intermediate metrics based around technology adoption and usage, ROI measurement should be based around goals linked to growth. Is the technology providing customers with better life-time value? Is it reducing churn? Is it increasing conversion? Make sure that your KPIs are based on specific outcomes, aligned to growth.

A year or so ago, there was much talk of customers taking charge of their own data. However, the truth is that customers don’t really want to invest lots of their time thinking about this so, instead, we are seeing an emergence of lots of regulators. The reality is that the effort required from an individual to manage their own data is too high. So, regulation is improving on behalf of the consumer. Even when consumers are extremely digitally savvy, to expect them to concern themselves with the minutiae of day-to-day data management is too much.

Today data is very much a brand issue. Whereas, 5-10 years ago it was perceived as an IT or technology issue, even something that could be outsourced to an intermediary; brands are now judged on the responsible use of data. It is an expectation of brands and if they are perceived to be exploitative, or creepy, they risk damaging their reputation.

“Translate everything into human.” - Alex Steer

It’s too easy to look inwards when we talk about data - at our organizations, our databases and tech stacks. But data is “just customers in disguise” and, when we talk about data, we should describe everything we do in terms of people and the outcomes we want to deliver.

Furthermore, think about those outcomes in the context of customer journeys. And extend that to beyond your owned digital estate. Avoid working in silos that don’t allow these journeys to become cohesive - you’ll be presenting a fragmented experience. Instead, think about the quality and power of the data but also what you really want to achieve for your business. Then set up an architecture that joins everything together and allows consumers to flourish wherever they are in their journey. Download the podcast to learn more now.