What's a Customer Data Platform, really?

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A customer data platform (CDP) is a technology that helps businesses collect, store, and analyze customer data from various sources and channels. This data can include website visits, purchases, email addresses, customer service interactions, and a lot more you can imagine – CDPs track all engagements and interactions with your product or service, on every touchpoints. With a customer data platform, businesses can gain valuable insights into their customers’ behavior and preferences, and the data they store is accessible to all relevant stakeholders. But what are the other advantages of implementing one? Let’s see!

Customer Data Platforms explained

CDPs are centralized data hubs that are essential tools for modern businesses. Their main purpose is to give businesses a 360-degree view of their customers, which helps them create personalized experiences that keep customers coming back for more. The data it stores is centrally stored and accessible by everyone who needs it in the organization. By leveraging customer data, businesses and their individual contributors can better understand their target audience, build more successful campaigns and products, optimize their customer engagement strategies, and more. With a CDP in place, businesses can build stronger customer relationships, optimize sales processes and create better experiences which is the key to strengthening customer loyalty. At the end of the day, CDPs are all about providing team members with a complete picture of their customer base and prospects.

CRM vs. CDP?

Not only because of the abbreviation, it’s easy to confuse Customer Relationship Management systems with CDPs, as they are also built to manage interactions with customers and prospects, collecting lots of data and information.

CRMs – such as Intercom and Zendesk – collect basic information like name, contact information, support tickets, chat conversations, and any other type of messaging with your team. However, using a CDP, you can track every action a customer has taken since they found your company, see and analyze all their interactions, getting a more in-depth look at their behavior.

The vast majority of CRMs store outdated data that's difficult to navigate, and they require frequent updates and maintenance. They are mainly used by Sales teams to connect with existing and potential customers, making sure their customers are satisfied. With a Customer Data Platform in place, the entire team can quickly access information on-demand, whenever it is needed, benefiting non-customer facing roles like marketing, product development, and leadership too.

Key reasons to use a Customer Data Platform

A great Customer Data Platform means a single source of truth for all customer data and insights, making it easier to identify customer needs and opportunities. With a CDP in place, businesses can create tailored customer experiences that drive growth and retention. CDPs can also be used to trigger automated messages, manage customer relationships, and create targeted campaigns, next to increasing marketing campaigns' accuracy and streamlining customer segmentation. In addition, a CDP can help reduce data silos, improve operational efficiencies, and enable better data-driven decision-making.

CDPs ensure that the valuable data you gained is organized properly, which is an essential factor if you think about scalability and your long-term operations. A well-trusted CDP also guarantees that your data is handled with the care it truly deserves, and complies with all data privacy laws and regulations, like GDPR or CCPA.

Conclusion

All of these benefits make having a CDP in place an invaluable asset for any business. With that in mind, let us recommend you Persio: Persio helps to collect, store and unify all of your product, marketing, and sales data across your entire stack. If you’d like to empower all of your teams with actionable data, sign up for a closed beta now!