The customer data platform (CDP) is one of the fastest-growing categories of business technology today. To understand why, you have to look at some of the underlying challenges across many industries related to data, AI, and personalization.
Customers want an experience that’s more tailored to them. They gravitate to companies that understand who they are and what they need. They want companies to engage with them on their terms, on their schedule, with a connected experience across digital and physical interactions.
At the same time, companies are tapping into the power of predictive and generative AI to allow teams to deliver what customers want — with the proper context. Unifying your afghanistan phone number list first-party customer data and making it easier for your teams to take action is the key to delivering on customer expectations and experiencing AI’s full potential.
So how does the CDP fit in? Let’s take a look.
What does a customer data platform do?
How does a customer data platform work?
What are customer data platforms used for?
4 keys to success with a CDP
What does a customer data platform do?
A customer data platform is technology that allows businesses to pull in customer data from any channel, system, or data stream to build a unified customer profile — updating in real time. This allows you to learn more about your customers, their journeys, and how you can give them the seamless experience they’ve come to expect. When a customer messages you on social media, buys something on your online shop, or comes into your brick-and-mortar shop to make a purchase — all that data goes into your CDP as it happens.
We live in an era where the customer is in control. Amazon can predict what products we will buy next. Netflix recommends the shows we like with great accuracy. Customers want personalized experiences and fast service, and expect companies to have an intimate understanding of their preferences. It’s no longer a business advantage to deliver on this — it’s how companies operate.
Customers want the interactions they have on a company’s website to translate to their mobile app experiences and in-store visits. And they want everything updated in real time, so their current needs are being met on every channel. The problem is that, for most companies, those environments operate from different data sets that are trapped in applications, spreadsheets, and data warehouses or lakes — even though the customer is the same.