A single customer view – five top tips

In most consumer categories, product differentiation is narrowing dramatically, and fast. In automotive for example, the performance of the competitive sector and price cars is very narrow. In fast moving consumer goods the difference between, for example, yoghurt brands, in product terms, is minimal. In financial services, interest rates are the same etc.

This means that most brands have to compete on customer service and customer experience, it is their last source of competitive advantage.

To excel in building a brilliant customer experience you need to know your customer intimately, you need to be able to predict what they want, when, how, where and in what way.

And to do this you need a single customer view. A single customer view is an aggregated, consistent and holistic representation of the data known by an organisation about its customers.

It means that the company knows your transaction history, your service history, but also has other data about you; age, sex, location, communication preferences, as well as search history, social media activity, TV viewing history etc.

Using this powerful data, the advertiser can use its single customer view to shape customer experiences that add value to your lives, and hence their brand and business.

Many advertisers would like the power of single customer view but don’t know the right way to build one. Too many ambitious programs are over specified and fail. Too many organisations rush to buy licenses for software before they have done their homework and now have unused and unloved MarTech kit!

Our Flock Five Top Tips for a single customer view are:

1. Start with the answer. Work out what are the most valuable customer experiences (for the customer, not your business!) or their biggest pain points in their interactions with you. Define opportunities by outputs and outcomes, not inputs. Rank them.

2. Data Audit. Figure out what data sources you have that can be used to help meet the consumer’s needs, and what other data you need.

3. Map out the data process and experience. Run workshops to identify the desired experience and process by which data is gathered and used. Look at who does what, where and when, and how processes need to change to gather and use the data to solve the problems or create the opportunities you desire.

4. Check for skills. Hold a capabilities review. Do you have the right skills, and the right amount, organised in the right way, to deliver the single customer view? Do you have the right culture?

5. Marketing Technology. Only when you have a plan in place for 1-4 should you consider the marketing technology required to “join the pipes” of data together.

Using all five steps you can build the holistic and integrated budget and business case for transformation.

If you’d like more information on building a single customer view or any of the five tips then please don’t hesitate to contact us now!