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 the history of customer data has evolved greatly since the invention of the CRM in 1985, we have learned that customer data has become foundational over time. Through this evolution, we have identified 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 modern-day customer relationship management engine will be replaced by a dynamic, business-first, customer data infrastructure that puts data and insights in the hands of decision-makers effortlessly and at scale. If you are looking to better capture your data and make every customer interaction count, Perficient is here to help.