Customer data and customer data strategy present unique use cases to the business. Customer data can help organizations identify, track, optimize, and individualize the customer journey.
In 2023, leveraging customer data via a robust strategy is table stakes. Armed with a robust customer data strategy and success metrics, organizations can respond more quickly to customer desires and expectations and anticipate market changes more readily.
As part of the wider organization, a customer data strategy enables customer experience, product, sales, marketing, and operations leaders to deepen relationships with customers and potential customers and accelerate business functions as part of wider organizational goals.
While customer data has evolved greatly since the invention of the CRM in 1985, it has become more and more foundational over time. Here are four key customer data trends relevant to today’s business leaders:
1. Third-Party Cookie Deprecation
The rise to prominence of the CDP in early 2019 can be directly traced to Google’s decision to deprecate third-party cookies in Google Chrome. While a boon for privacy advocates, organizations have been forced to pivot their approach to serve targeted advertising.
As such, the CDP was seen an efficient means to leverage first-party, owned digital data by unifying a customer record across channels. However, the opportunity to embrace first-party data comes with a need to adjust audience and the customer data strategy to meet that need.
Key Capabilities Impacted
- Customer visibility and addressability
- Customer identification
- Advertising investment visibility
2. Merging Operational Workstreams
Updates to operating models as a result of the pandemic forced executives to reassess how their organization treats data. This includes both the organizations holistic data strategy as well as more specific customer data strategies.
Specific drivers of this include, the completely digital and multi-device experiences expected as part of the pandemic, as well as the explosive growth in behavioral, demographic, and contextual data as a result.
Key Capabilities Impacted
- Data responsibilities
- Decentralized insights
- Operational reporting
- Audience management and decision-time activations
- Customer insights and retargeting
3. Lost Customer Trust
With the advent of tracking technologies and legislation to support it, consumers are making it clear that brands need to earn individual trust. As such, brands are being forced to show they will effectively provide value for individuals who share that data.
While most brands are effective stewards of customer data, customers have become intimately aware of how brands are using their data. Consumers have also become concerned with tracking technologies used to monitor their data.
As such, consumer trust amongst brands has become key to creating true relationships with consumers. True relationships are ultimately critical to long-term customer loyalty and lifetime value.
Key Impacted Capabilities
- Identity management
- cross-channel analytics
- Real-time personalization
- Audience management and decision-time activations
- Customer insights and retargeting
4. Journey-Centric Organizations
The emergence of journey-centric organizations has fundamentally changed how companies prioritize customer data. Journey-centric organizations prioritize the customer experience and customer-enabling activities.
As such, the CDP has seen an efficient means to leverage first-party, owned digital data by unifying a customer record across channels. However, the opportunity to embrace first-party data comes with a need to adjust the audience and the customer data strategy to meet that need.
Industry research has shown that journey-centricity leads to higher revenue, reduced costs, and better customer experiences.
Key Impacted Capabilities
- Identity management
- Cross-channel analytics
- Real-time personalization
- Audience management and decision-time activations
- Customer insights and retargeting
The Future of Customer Data
Top companies will win the customer experience by integrating a dynamic, business-first, customer data infrastructure that puts data and insights in the hands of decision-makers effortlessly and at scale. Perficient can lead companies through this opportunity by helping them find the right system that will seamlessly integrate with intelligence functions, putting insights efficiently in front of decision makers in order to move quickly and capitalize on customer data.
Capture your data and make every customer interaction count; with deep expertise in customer data solutions and platforms, Perficient is your end-to-end, global digital consultancy ready to partner. Dozens of top companies across all industries have counted on our world-class data solution capabilities and experience with leading technology innovators. Contact us to learn more.
