Customer Data Platforms: The Golden Snitch Your Business Needs

You cannot spell "Customer Data Platforms" without "Customer Data" (duh!).

To ace this ever-competitive market, businesses continually tap into data, store it and use it to personalize the products and services for their customers. This data extracted from multiple web-enabled platforms is no less than a Golden Snitch for the brands.

Harry Potter won the Quidditch competition by grabbing on to the Golden Snitch. Similarly, customer data is your Golden Snitch to win the competition of customer experience. In order to do this, you need to have consolidated data at a central location so that multiple functional teams can access it and utilize it. For instance, the sales and marketing teams require customer data to plan their sales strategy and understand what works; the production team needs it to design products and services while the customer support team uses it to enhance customer experience. Now the million-dollar question - Harry Potter had Nimbus 2000 that helped him to reach the Golden Snitch. Is there something that can assist you in tapping into all that customer data around you? Obviously, there is!

Alohomora! Customer Data Platforms. 

Customer Data Platforms can be your Nimbus 2021, exclusively designed to help you create an integrated customer database, protect it and gain meaningful insights to boost your position in the market.

So, mount your brooms and begin this journey of getting familiar with Customer Data Platform, its evolution, benefits and a lot more!
 

What Is A Customer Data Platform?

Customer Data Platform or CDP is a software which integrates the data pooled from multiple channels like first party, PII (Personally Identifiable Information, that is the personal information of customers) and online/offline platform data to create customer databases. The data is also consolidated from browsing history of buyers, interactions made through emails, messengers or chats on social media. Further, the data is then used to create meaningful customer profiles that allow the marketing teams to build more standardized customer experience.

CDPs also analyze social media activities such as likes, comments, shares and even calls that eventually help in understanding their online behavior. All in all, you could think of CDPs as the ultimate engine to get you all the information possible about your customer. With that, you can create marketing strategies, build support channels and product experience that matches their expectations and deliver an unmatched customer experience.  

Having said that, it took a lot of evolutions for CDP to get to its present avatar. Let’s sneak peek in to where it all started!  
 

Evolution Of Customer Data Platform (CDP)

Nimbus 2000 was later transformed into Nimbus 2001 – and it became more magical. Likewise, Customer Data Platforms are no exception when it comes to evolution. 

Since the beginning of the commerce era, all the activities such as production, sales, communication and marketing have been designed to be customer centric. In 1986, Pat Sullivan and Mike Muhney introduced the first ever Customer Relationship Management platform and slowly by the late 90’s online CRM became a widespread practice. Although, these platforms had dependency on manual data that comprised risk of errors, storage was still a problem.

The 2000s introduced ‘Data Management Platforms’ that were used by brands to fulfil the needs of campaigns, advertisements, promotions and so on. Owing to the limited scope of DMPs it became necessary to have a single platform that enabled communication, prevented data silos and helped in enhancing customer experience. Yet, how would that be possible? Well, in 2010, Customer Data Platforms brought signs of hope and ensured that data extracted from a diverse range of sources is cleaned, combined and made accessible to all the systems and teams of the organizations.

Hmmm... so, this is how Nimbus 2021 has evolved and it slowly became a valuable tool for brands. Yet, how do brands use it? How does it work for brands? Let's find out in the next section!
 

How Does Customer Data Platform Work?

“I have got the Snitch!” Harry shouted, waving it above his head. Those who remember this must be wondering because Harry didn’t really catch the Golden Snitch but swallowed it! Well, let’s not take Harry’s moment of victory away from him and focus on how Customer Data Platforms give you several moments of victory.
 

• Social Media

  Every single like and comment on social media decides the performance of the brands and marketing trends #socialmediarocks - so, it is important that there is proper management of this data and Customer Data Platform does this by managing and channeling the data for your marketing strategies.

• Customer Relationship Management

  A proper knowledge of customer preferences helps you customize products accordingly and eventually strengthens your bond with customers. Now of course it won't happen by spelling Apparate (a teleportation spell!) but Customer Data Platforms will help you to personalize data by considering the choices and preferences of the customers.

• Content Personalization

  If Customer is the “King,” then Content is the emerging as the "Prince" because content helps in targeting the segmented audience. Customer Data Platforms makes a single-handed system for the content extracted from several mediums and utilizes it for promotional campaigns, email marketing, social media marketing and so on.

Now it's time to shed some light upon a few major drivers of Customer Data Platforms.
 

What Are The Forces Driving The Customer Data Platforms?

It was his enthusiasm towards the game and passion to grab the Golden Snitch that made Harry the best Seeker at Hogwarts. Similarly, there are certain forces that are driving Customer Data Platforms as well to help you become the best at customer experiences. Let’s reveal those forces. 
   

• Maximizing Customer Loyalty

  40% of the total organizations that participated in the survey conducted by Forbes shared that Customer Data Platform synchronizes the data by using customer feedback and suggestions and hence is a great tool that helps in maximizing customer loyalty.

• Complying With Data Protection Rules

  Even the greatest wizard Harry got punished for breaking the rules; we are mere muggles! Jokes apart, in the wake of Data Protection Rules, it is essential that marketers prohibit any intentional and unintentional act that can leak customer information and details. Data protection rules require us to seek consent from customers and in turn assure them that their data is safe. This is when Customer Data Platforms come into role by consolidating the data at one location and safeguarding it from you-know-who and his messengers.

• Enhancing Customer Experience

  Customers make purchases and leave suggestions in the form of comments, reviews and ratings. CDPs extract this information from multiple channels and the marketing team personalize the experience of customers by considering their feedback.

It Is impossible to imagine Quidditch without Nimbus 2000; similarly, it is hard to imagine organizations without Customer Data Platforms but what has made Customer Data Platforms so important?
 

 

Importance Of Customer Data Platforms

“Golden Snitch has won Gryffindor 170 points!” in the same way Customer Data can do wonders to brands but only if it is effectively managed, secured and utilized. That's why Nimbus 2021 aka Customer Data Platform is here!
 

• Customer Satisfaction Is Above All!

  Customer Data Platform is a step ahead of Customer Relationship Management Software and Data Management Platforms as it provides multi-channel experience by unifying the extracted data, ensuring accessibility of data to various teams and populate the information for various marketing activities.

• Know Your Goal, Know Your Niche Market

  Harry won the Quidditch competition because he knew his goal and it helped him to outperform the Slytherins. Likewise, Customer Data Platform are designed to cleverly outperform the competitors as they provide insights into consumer behavior, their demographic features and their outlook towards the brands.

• Good-bye Data Silos!

  We bet every #Potterhead skipped a beat when the dark Dementors appeared on the Quidditch pitch and Harry fell off his broom. Well, Data Silos is no less than a Dementor as it prevents data from being corrupted and accessed by unauthorized people. In this Muggle world, even the charm Expecto Patronum cannot kick off this new age Dementor! Nevertheless, Customer Data Platforms help you get rid of this dementor by making your data accessible to all the systems.

Every wonder of technology is upgrading into a new version. Likewise, the future has golden possibilities for this tool AKA your Nimbus 2021!
 

Future Of Customer Data Platforms (CDPs)

Until now it has become clear that data is the biggest asset for brands. A 360-degree approach of data mining will open doors for visibility and instant access. As the data integration will be automated, IT along with marketing teams will have more time to focus on other projects. Every business organization has different requirements and uses data for different purposes.

Customer Data Platforms will be customized as per the type of business and brand requirements. Customer Data is extremely sensitive and losing track of data or inefficiency to convert it into successful campaigns could be the major challenge. The future will bring in the solution of these, as Machine Learning and AI will take over data automation and it will also get easy to manage the content for push notifications and emails to set up direct customer interaction channel.
   

Conclusion  

Customer Data Platforms have emerged as a single path that not only desegregates the data to ensure data personalization but also aids in winning by developing strategies for smooth customer experience. All and all, Customer Data Platform is the single tool that tells your customers what they need, even before they notice.

“The most exciting game ended; the Snitch was caught and it was time to leave the air...” that is how the epic Quidditch game was concluded. Likewise, it is time to conclude this article as well. As every movie from the Harry Potter series has bought something exciting, we promise you that every article by us will continue to bring some new revelations of technologies around the world.