What is Customer Data and How to Utilize It?

Customer data has become one of the most valuable assets for companies in this rapid era. Here is the information collected by companies obtained from interactions with their customers. These data will become a reference for businesses to design strategies to be more optimal.

There are many benefits that can be obtained from customer data. Customer data can be the right step to determine what strategies will be taken to carry out a company’s marketing activities. Nowadays, it is no longer effective to send marketing campaigns to thousands of customers without knowing whether the campaign was sent to the right target. Personalization is emerging as the key to business marketing success. Reporting from McKinsey Survey respondent data, more than 71% of respondents want brands to do more personalization. And customers are willing to provide data to get personalization.

What is Customer Data?

Customer data is defined as information provided by consumers when interacting with your business through websites, mobile applications, surveys, social media, marketing campaigns, and other activities both through online and offline media.

What needs to be considered is customer data security and privacy. Companies must ensure that customer data is stored and managed in a secure manner and in accordance with applicable protection regulations.

Based on Shopify data, 40% of customers admitted that they refused to buy products from a brand because of their concerns over data privacy, and 57% expressed their increasing concern over how brands use their personal information.

So, what are the types of data that are safe to collect for businesses?

1. Personal data
   Personal data, also known as basic data, refers to names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. This data is usually needed to identify customers and facilitate communication between companies and customers.
2. Transaction data
   Information about purchases or transactions made by customers, such as purchase history of products or services purchased, payment amounts, and payment methods used. This transaction data is important for tracking customer buying patterns and optimizing sales strategies.
3. Emergency contact data
   In some cases, companies may need to collect emergency contact information from customers such as the names and phone numbers of family members or close friends. This information is usually stored for security and emergency purposes such as healthcare or security cases.
4. Limited demographic data
   Demographic information such as age, gender, and geographic location can help companies understand their customer profiles without revealing too much detailed personal information. However, it is important to limit demographic data collection to only relevant and necessary information.

How to Utilize It?

Utilizing customer data in the right way can bring great benefits to companies. Here are some ways to utilize it:

1. Personalize the customer experience
   By understanding customers’ preferences and purchasing habits, companies can tailor their experiences individually. This can increase customer engagement and brand loyalty.
2. Customer segmentation
   By analyzing customer data, companies can divide them into different segments based on demographic characteristics, behavior, or preferences. This allows companies to direct marketing strategies more effectively, reaching each segment with appropriate messages.
3. Predict future behavior
   Using advanced data analysis techniques such as machine learning, companies can predict the future behavior of customers, adjust marketing strategies, and optimize supply chains.
4. Improved customer retention
   By understanding the factors that influence customer satisfaction and loyalty, companies can take proactive measures to improve customer retention. This includes offering customized promotions, better customer service, and improved products or services.
5. Operational optimization
   In addition to the benefits directly related to marketing and sales, customer data can also be used to optimize a company’s overall operations. This includes supply chain management, inventory, and production planning.

There are many sources of data that you can utilize for the advancement of your business and service to customers. Sprint Resul as a Customer Data Platform (CDP) technology will help you to unify customer data from various sources of customer information so that there will be no double data.

With the integrated CDP technology, this platform provides easy access and management of customer databases from various communication platforms used. Not only that, you can also get recommendations for the next step. You can get recommendations for effective campaigns, communication channels to use, and when campaigns should be deployed all processed automatically through Sprint CDP’s AI technology.

Learn more about Customer Data Platform and Sprint Resul here.