Can You Really Identify Your Customers?

3 minute read

Everyone knows connecting with customers on a personal level leads to more sales, better customer retention, referrals, and higher customer satisfaction scores. Most organizations are trying hard to make their messaging more relevant and targeted, but it’s not easy. One big challenge is connecting all the customer information they have already collected.

Corporations gather customer information on their own through business transactions, credit applications, surveys, customer service calls, sales force intelligence, and more. They also collect third-party data about their customers from sources such as credit reporting agencies, magazine subscriber lists, social media, and web browsers.

Acquiring Data Isn’t the Problem
Companies have plenty of access to customer information. In fact, they are drowning in data! But organizations are under-utilizing much of the information because they can’t positively connect the data from disparate sources. There’s no such thing as a universal identifier that can track and match customer activity across all avenues of interaction.

Consumers themselves make the task more difficult. An individual doing business with a company might list her name at various times as Pam Smith, Pamela Smith-Jones, or Mrs. Jonathan Jones. Some of her data may be associated with old mailing addresses, abandoned social network handles, a Wi-Fi router since replaced, a roommate’s home phone number, or dozens of other data points. These items may or may not be present in Ms. Smith’s data records stored by various departments and systems scattered across an enterprise.

The Most Difficult Task
What companies really need are comprehensive customer profiles that combine and validate all the personally identifiable information they’ve acquired. Before a company can accomplish that feat they must standardize, verify, and match customer data. This is the hard part. Fortunately Firstlogic’s DQ10 software suite includes all the functions an organization needs to handle this daunting task.

Only after cleaning and matching the data can companies truly understand their customers and respond to their needs. Without doing the data quality work first, organizations can’t develop reliable analytics that reveal valuable details about their audience. Uncleansed and unstandardized data prevents companies from safely automating processes like digital onboarding, or using techniques like artificial intelligence to deliver the benefits these advanced technologies can supply.

Firstlogic’s software for address correction, data resolution, and matching are helping companies get closer to those 360 degree customer views they desire. We allow organizations to turn individual data gems into priceless data diamonds.

Data-Related Obstacles
Common organizational goals include achieving better customer relationships, gaining insight on which to base business decisions, and developing more efficient business practices. Company leaders want to put data at the center of their organizations, move through digital migration, and gain cost efficiencies.

The main obstacles that keep companies from accomplishing these outcomes are data-related:

  • Too much data
  • Too much data variety
  • Too many data sources
  • Lack of data standardization policies
  • Lack of data oversight management

Your organization is probably battling with these issues right now. Almost all companies view data as the path to success in a digitally dependent environment. Firstlogic has been helping companies make sense of their data for decades and continues to enhance their products to meet the challenges of the day.

Want to find out where you stand? Get in touch with us to schedule a no-charge data assessment. We’ll look at the data your organization is using right now and show you where comprehensive data quality practices will enable future growth, stability, regulatory compliance, and efficiency.