By Lindsay Britz, Magic South Africa
Organisations that successfully integrate customer data and provide their customer-facing employees with a holistic view of customer information are better able to target, engage, sell and satisfy prospects and customers. Despite its importance to creating an optimised customer journey, only a small number of companies (17%) have fully integrated their customer data across all areas of the organisation according to Salesforce’s The State of Marketing Leadership report released in December 2014.
Creating a 360-degree customer view requires the enterprise to capture customer information from email, social media, and websites, and also integrate data from various business systems including CRM, ERP, customer support, logistics and even third-party services, such as credit check services. Because customer data integration (CDI) projects touch people, process and technology, CDI project leaders must be social champions, as well as architectural experts.
Here are 5 tips to help ensure that your CDI project will be a success:
