CDP and RCU: solutions for unifying customer data
The diversity of channels used by customers to interact with brands generates a large volume of data. So it’s no easy task for companies to cross-reference this data for efficient targeting and perfect customer knowledge. Faced with this constraint, unifying customer data becomes imperative.
Unifying customer data: what is omnichannel?
Digitalization and the health crisis have given rise to new practices and trends in customer-business relations. One of the manifestations of this paradigm shift is the diversification of the channels consumers use to interact with brands. So, in their purchasing journey, they exploit both digital and physical channels.
As a result, brands find themselves confronted with a multitude of customer data from multiple sources. Under these conditions, it’s not possible to make a concrete analysis of the data and target customers effectively, unless you resort to omnichannelity. Omnichannel is an approach that merges the different channels used by customers.
Omnichannelity therefore eliminates the constraints associated with each channel, to offer uniform services via all channels. This process gives brands a 360° view of the customer, since all his data is available on a single platform, despite the diversity of channels he uses. Omnichannelity makes it possible to homogenize the customer experience.
CDP and RCU as solutions for unifying customer data
RCU and CDP are possible solutions for unifying customer data. With this in mind, blueway offers scalable and upgradeable RCU solutions to ensure the unification of customer data. The RCU (Référentiel Client Unique or Single Customer Repository), as its name suggests, is a repository where data is unified in order to be better exploited to provide a 360° overview. An ECR is also perceived as a technological device. Indeed, despite the fact that the RCU has a very specific function, various technological options are available for setting up an RCU.
The RCU collects, unifies and processes data from various collection points. However, data is not processed in a haphazard way. Instead, they are subject to reconciliation and deduplication protocols, and harmonized around unique customer profiles. RCU eliminates the risk of redundancy and ensures repository integrity. It gives you access to studied, unified and relevant customer profiles.
The CDP (Customer Data Platform) is a solution that meets the challenges of customer data silos. In concrete terms, CDP is a packaged software solution that unifies a brand’s customer data and improves its use. Similar to a RCU, the CDP promotes not only the homogenization of customer data, but also an omnichannel customer experience. As a result, business teams have access to reliable, up-to-date customer data.
The evolution of exchanges between companies and customers in recent years
The relationship between customers and companies has evolved considerably in recent years. This is due to a number of factors, including the health crisis, the digitization of processes, competition between brands, and so on. With the web, customers are less passive, and over the years have become more than just buyers, but full players in the purchasing process.
Similarly, thanks to the web and digitalization, customers now have a whole host of channels for communicating with the brand. As proof, 21% of customer relations professionals in Europe interact with their customers via WhatsApp (PeterConnect and Survey Sampling International). But this is just one example.
Faced with this more direct, barrier-free way of communicating, brands need to reinvent themselves. It’s the most effective solution for efficient data flow management. Such a change makes perfect sense, when we consider the impact of Artificial Intelligence and the employee experience on customer relations .
The organizational impact of this change
Logically, the evolution of exchanges between companies and customers requires the former to reorganize. For brands, cross-functionality is becoming a necessity if they are to make the best use of customer data, and remain efficient and competitive. Seen in this light, omnichannelity makes perfect sense, as it gives employees a 360° view of customer data.
In addition, given the evolving nature of exchanges between companies and customers, data unification is becoming an important issue. RCU and CDP provide concrete solutions to this problem, given the quality of processing and data unification that these solutions enable. As a result, the company is able to guarantee continuity in customer relations, regardless of the interaction channels customers prefer.
