In the last decade, we have seen customer data become a more and more important part of the business strategy. This shift has created a need for the use of data as a differentiator. To thrive in today’s challenging and competitive environment, companies need to break down the silos across departments, teams, and channels. This enables them to consolidate customer data and see a unified view of the customer. By bringing data together, businesses are better able to understand and respond to their customer needs. That’s what it is leading to growth!
But bringing all this information together can be challenging. Think of it as an iterative process. Start small, by combining one or two of your most used applications for customer contacts, probably some sort of CRM and ERP. Then think of other ways in which people communicate with your business – email campaigns, billing systems, loyalty programs. Next, take a look at externally relevant data. Often you will find sunken data in Excel or other Office files. Ask the people around you, where they store contact informations.
Find yourself in a powerful position
If you are able to gather all of this data in one place, you will find yourself in a powerful position to find rich and valuable insights about your customers. Maybe you think it won’t work because you can’t connect your applications or you have to be a tech guru. Maybe it sounds like a bunch of awful manually work. But, you are wrong! A smart solution to this complex issue exists: Data consolidation by building a data pipeline with integration tools.
These tools are very useful for persons responsible for customer relationship management, sales and marketing or founders of new business. Most of the time, they have their customer data shared among different applications and struggling with copying this data manually from one application to the other. Software for customer data consolidation exists for bigger enterprises for quite a while. Now there are new players coming to field, which target at small and medium business.
What is customer data consolidation?
Data consolidation is a type of data integration method, which combines data from several sources into one unified data source. By consolidating their customer data, companies achieve better control over their most valuable data assets. The reason for this is the tear down of data silos. When done properly, data consolidation can be a critical component of a business’ overall data management strategy. As a result, the data becomes a key, powerful tool for generating customer, operating successful campaigns and gaining insights about customers.
When we talk about customer data, the first thing that comes to mind is the data that is being generated from the sales and the marketing side. The second thing that comes to mind is the data that is being generated by the digital footprint of the customers in other applications like shops, ERP, customer services etc. Even the electronic phone books of your sales and service people are full of valuable contact data. These customer data can be incredibly powerful, and can be used to transform business.
Collect, unify and transform customer data on autopilot
Customer Data consolidation tools are helping to collect, unify and connect customer contact data. They even can transform these customer data into a flexible data powerhouse. Those tools are doing this by turning raw contact data into accurate and complete customer profiles. They provide a flexible way to use these data in other applications.
However, the issue is that most of the companies, especially mid-size and smaller ones, are not able to realize the full potential of their customer data. That is because a majority of these companies are not able to consolidate all the customer data stored in different applications that they are generating.
But they should be aware of: If they don’t take action now, their business will suffer. You cannot get rich perceptions from customers, measure the customer journey or create compelling experiences. Not only do you lose customers, you spend marketing dollars wrong and fail to meet your business goals.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. If you can have a system that allows customer data stored in different applications to be consolidated with a unified view of your customer, you can create useful experiences and ultimately be a hero for real long-term business growth. With the new tools on the market, you can switch on the autopilot for customer data consolidation.
Unlock the Value of Your Customer Data
When you are creating a system that consolidates customer data, one of the most important aspects is the ability to access the information easily. The system should gather the data from the various sources automatically and provide it in a single customer view. Otherwise the process will be difficult and time consuming. You need to login to multiple systems, download multiple records, clear all the data, and create your own unified customer database. Without data integration, you might need to add one employee as a user to to all the other applications. Having just one access point also helps with GDPR compliance.
Gain better performance on all levels of customer management
Because the contact data is ready for processing, the company can extract the pieces it needs directly and instantly at a specific moment. In this way, no time is spent on the preparation, restructuring and integration of further datasets. The process should be fully automated, ensuring smooth control flow, time efficiency, and quality. Moreover, such automated deployment can not only reduce the time and cost of the IT department for manual data validation, but also reduce errors.
As a result, companies can unlock the value of the consolidated data. By doing so, the efficiency of the performance of campaigns, decision making, sales strategies and customer services will be enhanced. The organization will achieve a higher level of financial and operational success.
Now you can consolidate your customer data stored in different applications
SnazzyContacts is a cloud-based contact management tool that will revolutionize the way you manage your contacts. Easy to use, it’s the fastest way to get names, numbers and email addresses etc. automatically from your contact database outlets and existing contacts into your central database. Plus, it will automatically update your contacts whenever any information changes.
All the data from different sources will be easily accessible in one single customer view. This way, the company can have a better control over their data and will be able to manage it more effectively. This kind of approach will also allow users to save a lot of time. They won’t have to search for different data from different sources. SnazzyContacts seamlessly integrates your customer contact data into one user-friendly interface. It will helping you rise to the challenge of delivering fast and effective customer communication across all of your channels. You can maintain your contacts without thinking twice and automate data flows without extensive configuration.
Click here to learn more about the system that can consolidate customer data for you!