Customer data platforms are key for centralizing customer data from multiple sources and unifying it around a customer profile.
Let’s go over all of the functions of a CDP.
1. CDPs centralize first-party data
A customer data platform gathers first-party data from various data sources connected to it. Connectors include databases, data warehouse, FTP, additional connectors (APIs or webhooks), and plugins. These connectors pull data from important touchpoints across the customer journey.
Businesses can connect sources such as apps, website activity trackers, ecommerce stores, CRMs, and so on.
Data collection also includes transactional data like bahrain mobile phone numbers database product purchases and behavioral data such as web page visits and spending patterns. Customer interactions at customer touchpoints are also opportunities for data collection.
What’s more, a customer data platform can also ingest data from offline sources like spreadsheets, .CSV files, and in-store purchase records.
A note on data: First-party data is safer and more relevant to businesses than third-party data because companies know exactly where it comes from and how it’s collected. Third-party data, on the other hand, is exchanged between vendors, and it might not have been collected with consent.
2. CDPs unify data
Data comes in from many sources, not all of which are obviously linked. Your team might get some customer data from email campaigns, sales and marketing automation workflows, or your ecommerce store.
Connect your ecommerce website and email service provider (and other tools and data sources) to your CDP platform. From there, it consolidates data into unified customer profiles, each with a unique identifier. Even if a customer uses different devices or phone numbers to interact with your brand, repeat profiles are merged into one master profile when a match is found. This process is called identity resolution.
If in your CRM you store customer profiles using email as an identifier but the support team stores them by phone number, you have two profiles for the same customer. CDPs deduplicate profiles, making them a powerful tool for your business.
Unifying data into a single customer view results in accurate, high-quality data that helps teams perform better. Make more relevant marketing campaigns or provide more informed customer support, for example.
