CMO.com has an interesting and short article on the “Personalization Payoff: 3 New Approaches to CRM Data” I like the article because the author gets into why you have a CRM system in the first place. You have the system to manage the customer experience from first touch (sales) through the entire lifecycle (marketing and service). But ultimately, it’s about the data that brings you the insight that allows you to personalize your experience with your customer. The author, Michelle Engle, highlights three items:
- Multipronged matching by matching any touchpoint from ip address to mobile device to address to that customer.
- Customer 360: the shangrila of any business. Sales people ask for this almost every time I sit down with them and ask about what they need. In this case, it’s about more than just the interactions with the four walls of your company. The value today comes from a wider net.
- Portable Activation at scale. This is a more interesting concept on the use of data. In Michelle’s words,
And in this new world of online-offline convergence, activation across a variety of outlets, including walled gardens, is absolutely necessary. To limit the data is to limit the effectiveness of your CRM. That means ensuring the data is in a form that quickly and easily ports into a host of marketing partners, platforms, systems, and networks.
Bottom Line
A CRM tool is only as good as how you use the data it collects. It’s one thing to have the data. It’s quite another to create an experience from it.
