So you’ve got a Customer Data Platform…Now what?

Customer Data Platforms centralize and unify customer data, making it accessible and useful to your teams. They help you comply with privacy regulations. And, if you choose a smart, best-in-breed CDP, they’ll set you up for true 1:1 personalization with your customers. The kind of personalization that companies like Netflix, Spotify, and The Economist use to serve customers what they want when they want it—and drive real business results through that personalization.

But once you have your CDP, how do you go from no CDP to Netflix-level personalization? What are the next steps? What should you be thinking about when you start implementing your new technical tools?

The answer is something we’ve tackled in our recently re-launched CDP Buyers’ Guide. You can download the full guide here (free) or read on for more answers.

Quick wins with a smart CDP

The real benefit of a CDP is in its long-term potential. But quick wins help keep the team motivated, show immediate value to your C-suite, and create excitement and knowledge around your new CDP technology.

With a best-in-breed CDP, expect quick wins within 60 days (and if you’re still researching CDPs, this is a great question to ask: How quickly will we be able to get some of those wins?). The usual route to these speedy results comes from taking customer data from the CDP, segmenting it based on your goal or use case, and then feeding it into Facebook or Google and using their powerful targeting features to advertise to your target customers.

One Lytics client saw cost per conversion drop by 90% when they took this approach. Not to mention that the Facebook ads served to that audience were three times as likely to convert as the same ads pre-Lytics.

Long-term planning

We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again: The real benefit of a CDP is in its long-term potential. Use those quick wins to gain momentum, but don’t forget to put in the time to make your CDP really work for you long-term.

What do we mean by put in the time? Well…

1. Clean your data.

Data cleaning is about removing errors and inconsistencies from your data so that it’s truly useful. If you have data coming in from a variety of sources, this also means spending some time figuring out your standards. When different teams enter state names, should they type Alaska or AK? When your forms ask for phone numbers, how are they input and is it consistent across all your forms? What date formats are you using? How will you deal with duplicate records?

Spend some time making sure your data is in good shape. After all, it’s the core of your new tool.

2. Align your teams.

Customer service, marketing, sales, tech…any team that’s customer-facing needs to be aligned if you want to truly harness the power of customer data to personalize experiences.

If sales knows a customer just purchased a TV but marketing is still chasing them around with ads for it, that’s bad customer experience. If support knows a customer is upset because their new phone just died but marketing is sending them emails about add-ons, that’s bad customer experience.

And that kind of bad customer experience? It turns clients off—permanently. According to a survey by Aspect Software, omni-channel businesses have 91% greater year-over-year customer retention.

For higher retention rates and better customer experiences, use your newly centralized data across teams. Make sure teams are communicating with each other. Make sure points of failure are noted and addressed. You have the power to be truly omni-channel now. It’s important to make the internal changes—in mindsets, communication, the way data is shared—that facilitate personalization.

3. Campaign, learn, repeat.

Over time, if you’ve chosen a platform with machine learning and AI, your CDP should be getting smarter and smarter. It should be honing behavioral scores. It should be learning more about how your customers work. It should be identifying more users, turning anonymous profiles into known profiles.

And while it’s doing all that, your team should be working and learning alongside it. Test campaigns and find out what works for your customers. Spend time creating strategy around real, 1:1 customer personalization. Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t. Look for gaps in communication, knowledge, and the data itself. And choose a vendor who cares about more than the technology—who offers services, workshops, learning resources, and high-ranking customer service to help your business achieve your goals.

Need some help?

If you’re a new Lytics client and could use some direction, we’d love to talk to you about our services. If you’re still researching CDPs and are looking for a vendor who sees the big picture, we’d love to give you a demo of Lytics and answer your questions.

And if you’re still deep in the research phase, we hope our CDP Buyers’ Guide will help. You can grab a copy free here.