May 21, 2015
Marketers are a long way from having a single view of customers
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from the Retail TouchPoints website.
Only six percent of marketers say they have attained a single view of customers to support their cross-channel marketing goals, according to a study from Signal, the marketing technology vendor. However, 90 percent of marketers understand that achieving a single view across all touch points and devices is important or essential to reaching these goals.
Signal conducted an online survey between January and March 2015 to garner insights from 171 marketing professionals in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. Marketers in the retail and consumer durables industry represented 24 percent of the respondents — the highest of any industry. One third of survey respondents said they integrated multiple purchased solutions in-house to capture a single customer view, while the same amount of respondents said they use a combination of in-house and external solutions.
The survey found that while many marketers are able to collect and integrate data from traditional, browser-based and messaging sources, less than 40 percent are able to collect and integrate mobile app data, about half are unable to connect their CRM data, and only 42 percent could measure the impact of ad impressions in the customer’s journey.
Source: Solving the Identity Puzzle, Signal
Most (57 percent) respondents said merging profile fragments as data becomes available is the most significant challenge while building a single customer view. Collecting cross-channel data, while essential to creating consumer profiles, is another obstacle, according to 55 percent of respondents.
The top disadvantage of handling fragmented data, according to 62 percent of respondents, is that marketing measurement is incomplete, leaving them with no way to fully measure and learn from campaigns. As many as 61 percent noted that they couldn’t personalize customer experiences the way they wanted to, and 35 percent said incomplete data prevented them from understanding the entire customer journey.
Respondents outlined a series of benefits that come with a complete, unified customer profile. One third of respondents said the most significant benefit was better understanding customer behaviors across all channels. Other notable perks included higher marketing ROI (26 percent) and better engaging customers across channels (20 percent).
Signal offered four recommendations to help companies create a unified view of customers:
- Create a roadmap for cross-channel marketing by defining marketing and customer experience goals and objectives;
- Determine the right data sources and data points;
- Prepare to integrate new technology and build a solution that meets specific company needs; and
- Benchmark customer-view capabilities, monitor progress and identify the key success metrics for the proposed solution.
BrainTrust
Nikki Baird
VP of Strategy, Aptos
Kai Clarke
CEO, President- American Retail Consultants
Recent Discussions
Discussion Questions
Is collecting and matching siloed and fragmented engagement data to create a single view of the consumer a tangible goal? What recommendations do you have for marketers looking to map a unified view of customers across channels and devices?
Poll
This is a huge challenge but it is absolutely achievable. I think an essential focus must be the ability to not only integrate data, but also view and present it in an understandable way. The amount of data we collect at this point can create a lot of noise, and being able to both access the data and then turn off the static in order to present the findings is paramount.
My recommendation is simple: be prepared for a lifetime journey rather than a project. Consumers will constantly find new ways to engage with each other, and thus retailers will have to follow. While it does seem like there has been a rush of innovation around digital engagement and that pace of change can’t possibly last forever, society in general has a long way to go to add more human elements to digital communications, and a strong desire to do so. So I don’t think that the innovation rush is anywhere near coming to a close.
What that means for retailers is that there will be something that displaces Snapchat. And there will be something else after that, and something else after that — and that will all be before 2020. So if you think that a single view of the customer is a “project,” you will be sorely disappointed. It’s an admirable goal and worth chasing. Just keep in mind that you may never catch it.
I am a huge advocate of creating a single-view shopper platform. Inarguably it is the only real way to communicate intelligently with shoppers that engage a retailer through more than one channel or medium.
I also never said it would be easy. I have personally experienced the excruciating process of combining data sources, updating legacy database systems and building a process to maintain, analyze and segment shoppers according to behaviors across channels and media. Many services say they can deliver such, but the costs or complexities of execution often slow down the effort.
I like the idea of mapping, but it must be proceeded by a thoughtful investment and transition to new software (likely cloud-based) that can fluidly be updated and manipulated to support cross-channel marketing campaigns. Almost all of the major software and database services are talking about this and touting their ability to deliver. The fact that only a select few retailers state they have found nirvana in this area is reflective of how difficult the process to transition to single-view customer data actually is.
I would approach the problem in a step-wise fashion, likely with an agency that specializes in communications. I would begin with in-store transactions and less complex touch points such as call centers, moving then to more technical interfaces such as e-commerce, website, email, SMS and ultimately incorporating social media.
Single view of the customer continues to be a challenge for retailers mainly due to legacy systems. In addition, most organizations do not collaborate very well in cross-functional teams. Single view of the customer involves IT, marketing, sales/operations, etc. The CEO, CFO or CRO needs to take ownership to make this a reality as it would require ripping out old technology to adopt a more flexible, agile API strategy to seamlessly connect the puzzle pieces of CRM, order management, customer service, etc.
A single view of the customer is not only a tangible goal, but one that is increasingly essential given the array of brand experiences that customers have. While these are great data points and not terribly surprising, the reason the goal is so far away for most brands is much more than a function of technological limitations.
A single view of the customer requires not just technology, but also willingness on the part of the customer (due to some greater value they get in terms of a better customer experience) and perhaps most importantly, this goal being a priority for a company’s leadership. There’s a reason that Amazon is about the only company coming close to a single view, and that starts with Jeff Bezos.
Data mining, in a viable end-product creation (i.e. models which make sense and are accurate) is still more art than science. If this can be a tangible goal at all is doubtful. Creating a unified view of a targeted customer from multiple inputs is more of a dream than a reality, at this time. This is because of the scattered usage patterns and age-groups, as well as other market schisms which involve each device.
Yes of course this is a tangible goal! And an important one, but even then it is only step one. It reminds me of the drive towards Enterprise Data Warehouses (or DMPs in digital marketing for that matter), where people thought the key was to integrating the data into one place.
Integrating data is valuable if and only if it actually leads to changing business decisions. That requires at a minimum intelligent reporting to get any value at all. But to truly gain real value, you need analytics that actually help you accurate evaluate and target business actions. And that, not bringing the data together, it the hardest—and most valuable—part.
Yes, leveraging the data to create a single view of customers is not only a tangible goal, it is a competitive necessity. And fast becoming “tables stakes” to enable successful retail. Keeping pace with today’s connected customer is a challenge for retailers. Consumers use multiple channels to interact with retailers, change preferences frequently, and shift their loyalty to competitors at a moment’s notice. To rapidly adjust to these changes, retailers must continually analyze and act on huge volumes of data collected from across the enterprise.
Yet the questions that help retailers better understand consumers can be difficult to answer, with each query yielding a need for even more refined data. The relevant data is typically scattered throughout the enterprise — and sometimes far beyond, in the supply chain and across social media platforms. As a result, business analysts and users are often unable to answer essential questions and gain valuable insight that can support better business decision making.
Retailers who want to engage with customers “at the speed of life” require a new approach to data. They must be able to access and query all of the data, intuitively asking questions and receiving rapid responses that support faster, more informed decision making. Simply understanding purchase histories is not enough. Retailers must dig deep into data that references customer behaviors, interests and preferences. Regardless of the data type, storage approach, or technology architecture, retailers need solutions that integrate all of their data assets into a unified whole. Retailers need “connected data.”
Connected data is the key to a data-driven retail business, helping companies reduce complexity and gain insight from a wide variety of data. The results include increased customer engagement, satisfaction and long-term brand loyalty.
It does all start with having a “connected data strategy” (something that many retailers are just beginning to realize). Some guiding principles to consider:
Integration: Bringing all your useful data together because data drives more value when integrated.
- Simplicity: Providing infrastructure to simplify your data environment.
- Flexibility: Allow for a wide range of options when it comes to deploying connected customer related analytics (on premise or in the cloud).
- Speed: Build around the principle of rapid time-to-market when it comes to operationalizing connected customer data and analytics (enable the data to answer more questions in less time).
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This is a huge challenge but it is absolutely achievable. I think an essential focus must be the ability to not only integrate data, but also view and present it in an understandable way. The amount of data we collect at this point can create a lot of noise, and being able to both access the data and then turn off the static in order to present the findings is paramount.
My recommendation is simple: be prepared for a lifetime journey rather than a project. Consumers will constantly find new ways to engage with each other, and thus retailers will have to follow. While it does seem like there has been a rush of innovation around digital engagement and that pace of change can’t possibly last forever, society in general has a long way to go to add more human elements to digital communications, and a strong desire to do so. So I don’t think that the innovation rush is anywhere near coming to a close.
What that means for retailers is that there will be something that displaces Snapchat. And there will be something else after that, and something else after that — and that will all be before 2020. So if you think that a single view of the customer is a “project,” you will be sorely disappointed. It’s an admirable goal and worth chasing. Just keep in mind that you may never catch it.
I am a huge advocate of creating a single-view shopper platform. Inarguably it is the only real way to communicate intelligently with shoppers that engage a retailer through more than one channel or medium.
I also never said it would be easy. I have personally experienced the excruciating process of combining data sources, updating legacy database systems and building a process to maintain, analyze and segment shoppers according to behaviors across channels and media. Many services say they can deliver such, but the costs or complexities of execution often slow down the effort.
I like the idea of mapping, but it must be proceeded by a thoughtful investment and transition to new software (likely cloud-based) that can fluidly be updated and manipulated to support cross-channel marketing campaigns. Almost all of the major software and database services are talking about this and touting their ability to deliver. The fact that only a select few retailers state they have found nirvana in this area is reflective of how difficult the process to transition to single-view customer data actually is.
I would approach the problem in a step-wise fashion, likely with an agency that specializes in communications. I would begin with in-store transactions and less complex touch points such as call centers, moving then to more technical interfaces such as e-commerce, website, email, SMS and ultimately incorporating social media.
Single view of the customer continues to be a challenge for retailers mainly due to legacy systems. In addition, most organizations do not collaborate very well in cross-functional teams. Single view of the customer involves IT, marketing, sales/operations, etc. The CEO, CFO or CRO needs to take ownership to make this a reality as it would require ripping out old technology to adopt a more flexible, agile API strategy to seamlessly connect the puzzle pieces of CRM, order management, customer service, etc.
A single view of the customer is not only a tangible goal, but one that is increasingly essential given the array of brand experiences that customers have. While these are great data points and not terribly surprising, the reason the goal is so far away for most brands is much more than a function of technological limitations.
A single view of the customer requires not just technology, but also willingness on the part of the customer (due to some greater value they get in terms of a better customer experience) and perhaps most importantly, this goal being a priority for a company’s leadership. There’s a reason that Amazon is about the only company coming close to a single view, and that starts with Jeff Bezos.
Data mining, in a viable end-product creation (i.e. models which make sense and are accurate) is still more art than science. If this can be a tangible goal at all is doubtful. Creating a unified view of a targeted customer from multiple inputs is more of a dream than a reality, at this time. This is because of the scattered usage patterns and age-groups, as well as other market schisms which involve each device.
Yes of course this is a tangible goal! And an important one, but even then it is only step one. It reminds me of the drive towards Enterprise Data Warehouses (or DMPs in digital marketing for that matter), where people thought the key was to integrating the data into one place.
Integrating data is valuable if and only if it actually leads to changing business decisions. That requires at a minimum intelligent reporting to get any value at all. But to truly gain real value, you need analytics that actually help you accurate evaluate and target business actions. And that, not bringing the data together, it the hardest—and most valuable—part.
Yes, leveraging the data to create a single view of customers is not only a tangible goal, it is a competitive necessity. And fast becoming “tables stakes” to enable successful retail. Keeping pace with today’s connected customer is a challenge for retailers. Consumers use multiple channels to interact with retailers, change preferences frequently, and shift their loyalty to competitors at a moment’s notice. To rapidly adjust to these changes, retailers must continually analyze and act on huge volumes of data collected from across the enterprise.
Yet the questions that help retailers better understand consumers can be difficult to answer, with each query yielding a need for even more refined data. The relevant data is typically scattered throughout the enterprise — and sometimes far beyond, in the supply chain and across social media platforms. As a result, business analysts and users are often unable to answer essential questions and gain valuable insight that can support better business decision making.
Retailers who want to engage with customers “at the speed of life” require a new approach to data. They must be able to access and query all of the data, intuitively asking questions and receiving rapid responses that support faster, more informed decision making. Simply understanding purchase histories is not enough. Retailers must dig deep into data that references customer behaviors, interests and preferences. Regardless of the data type, storage approach, or technology architecture, retailers need solutions that integrate all of their data assets into a unified whole. Retailers need “connected data.”
Connected data is the key to a data-driven retail business, helping companies reduce complexity and gain insight from a wide variety of data. The results include increased customer engagement, satisfaction and long-term brand loyalty.
It does all start with having a “connected data strategy” (something that many retailers are just beginning to realize). Some guiding principles to consider:
Integration: Bringing all your useful data together because data drives more value when integrated.