Customer data integration (CDI) is the process of collecting, aggregating, and managing customer data from multiple sources within an organisation to create a complete and accurate view of each customer.
The goal of CDI is to provide a consolidated and up-to-date view of customer information, regardless of where the data is stored.
With the proliferation of technology, the number of touchpoints your customer has with your business is only going to increase.
Your customers probably interact with your business in multiple ways –
- Visiting your website
- Coming to physical stores or locations
- Calling your offices to speak to a team member
- Clicking a link that appears on their social media feed
- Receiving a marketing email or SMS from you
Each one of those customer interactions needs to be recorded and the chances are that each uses a different platform to collect the details of the interaction. This is when you end up with multiple records for the same customer.
Customer data integration involves a variety of techniques such as data cleansing, data transformation, and data matching to ensure that customer data is accurate, consistent, and complete. It typically involves integrating data from multiple sources such as sales, marketing, customer service, and other operational systems, to create a unified single customer view.
It empowers you to communicate with your customers efficiently and effectively and provides you with the business insights you need for success.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again – a single customer view is the holy grail of customer data management!
To collect all your customers’ experiences into one holistic view, you need to implement a customer data integration (CDI) solution.
It allows you to consolidate:
- Customer Demographic Data
- Customer Transaction Data
- Customer Environmental Data
- Customer Behavioural Data
- Social Data
Why should you be considering customer data integration?
Customer data integration allows you to better understand customer behaviour, preferences, and needs. Leading to improved customer service, targeted marketing campaigns, and increased customer loyalty. It should be a key component of your CRM strategy.
Some of the key benefits to your business include:
- Improved customer insights: Customer data integration helps businesses to get a holistic view of each customer by consolidating data from different sources such as customer profiles, purchase history, interactions, feedback, and social media activity. This enables you to understand your customers better and provide personalised services and offerings.
- Improved customer experience: By having a single, accurate view of each customer, you can provide a consistent and personalised experience across all touch points, which helps increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Increased operational efficiency: Streamline your processes by reducing duplicates and eliminating data inconsistencies. Leading to saving money and increased productivity.
- Superior marketing efforts: With a consolidated view of customer data, you can segment your customers more effectively within your CRM and target them with relevant and timely marketing messages. To aid in higher conversion rates and increased revenue.
- Enhanced data security: Secure customer data by consolidating it into a central location. To implement appropriate security measures that can help prevent data breaches and protect customer privacy.
Our Top Tips for a Successful System Integration:
- Use an experienced system integration partner who can help you with the map of the integration minefield
- Engage system integration experts early in the planning process
- Understand your data and the outcomes you wish to achieve
- Budget and plan the project thoroughly, leaving room for contingency
- Properly allocate resources for defining field mapping, data transformation, record matching and mastering logic
- Where possible future-proof your system and introduce continuous data cleansing
- Use repeatable processes to ensure consistency.
If you are considering a customer data integration project, reach out to us to explore our DQ Studio solution.
Our experienced team will work in consultation with you throughout the whole process to ensure a successful data migration project with minimal disruption to your business and a smooth transition to the new system.
