Mastering customer data - how to use your data for satisfied customers and marketing automation
Part 1 of the series "Mastering customer data"
As the amount of data about your customers grows, managing it and maintaining consistent quality becomes more challenging. In addition, you also have to handle customer data correctly due to the GDPR - another factor that makes managing customer data more difficult. But there is a solution: with centralised, digital data management using customer relationship management (CRM) software, you can make things easier for your employees and improve the customer experience for your customers.
One topic, many challenges: Managing customer data
51% still keep customer data in silos instead of centralised in a CRM tool
Every company collects and uses data, often a huge amount of it. Customer data in particular can be obtained from various sources: Web shop, customer loyalty programmes, marketing measures, surveys, sales calls, customer service and much more. Due to the different sources, the data is often stored separately.
This approach creates so-called data silos - each department hoards and manages its own data. As you can imagine, or perhaps you have already experienced it yourself, this type of data management means that information is not shared with other departments. On the contrary: as the departments do not know what data the others have, they also do not know what data they might need. A study on customer data management shows that 51% of the companies surveyed complain that their data is still held in silos instead of in a centralised customer data platform.
82% believe that customer data management plays a central role
Collecting customer data has great benefits and effects for you as a company, but also for your customers. The data you collect allows you to optimise your services, processes and products and thus improve your customer experience. The effects can be seen in higher sales figures, stronger customer loyalty, more effective campaigns through marketing automation and more sustainable customer relationships. However, the key point here is that the customer data must also be managed and processed correctly in a CRM tool.
Data management is often underestimated
Despite the great importance of customer data management, it is unfortunately often underestimated from a strategic perspective. Internal processes also influence the functionality of customer data management. For example, 53% are convinced that inadequate processes are the reason for poor contact management. The lack of coordination between the various departments hinders efficiency and productivity. Multiple systems are often used for data management, which in turn favours the creation of data silos and can significantly impair the quality of customer data.
79% say that data quality needs to be optimised
Many companies want a 360° view of their customers. To achieve this, however, data silos need to be broken down and a cross-departmental software solution implemented. Collaboration between different departments and the sharing of customer data is a success factor in creating a 360° view of the customer. The right CRM software plays a central role in this. CRM systems enable companies to collect, consolidate and analyse customer data from various sources. This gives companies a comprehensive picture and enables them to better tailor their marketing and sales activities to the individual needs of each customer along the entire customer journey.
Customer data management is becoming increasingly important in times of marketing automation and artificial intelligence
Customer data management will also become increasingly important in the future. 93% of the companies surveyed stated that the administration and management of customer data is the basis for a personalised customer approach and a positive customer experience.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and the analysis of large amounts of data provide valuable insights into customer behaviour, preferences and needs. These can then be used to:
- Createpersonalised marketing campaigns: AI can be used to create personalised emails, ads and other marketing materials tailored to each customer's individual interests. This can increase the relevance of marketing messages and improve engagement rates.
- Improve customer relationships: AI can be used to analyse customer conversations and identify issues before they escalate. This can lead to better customer satisfaction and retention.
- Increase the efficiency of the marketing automation process: AI can be used to automate tasks such as lead generation, lead qualification and lead nurturing. This can free up marketers' time and resources so they can focus on more strategic tasks.
Our conclusion
Up-to-date and complete customer data is the basis for targeted marketing activities and existing customer support. Only if the data is managed correctly and all departments that work with it have access to it can it be used and processed correctly in CRM software. This gives you a 360° view of your customers and allows you to stay one step ahead of them. In combination with CRM software such as Dynamics 365, artificial intelligence enables the automation of marketing processes and the personalised targeting of customers based on behaviour-based data.
Source: Uniserv, Customer data management 2019
Customer data is the be-all and end-all of every company. Correct and complete data helps you to respond better to your customers and also save costs.
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