The one factor that distinguishes great companies from mediocre ones is personalization.
Great companies personalize experiences and go beyond transactional relationships to engage with customers and build long-lasting bonds with them.
So, what’s stopping other companies from delivering these elevated experiences?
According to Statista, 80% of companies acknowledge the impact of personalization on customer spending. 62% admit that it has improved loyalty and retention.
Yet, due to fragmented data from disparate sources, most companies are unable to customize.
It’s apparent that companies need a comprehensive view of their audience to understand their needs and tailor interactions.
However, the increasing touchpoints make it hard for them to gather, analyze, and act on the data.
That’s where the Customer Data Platform (CDP) comes to the rescue.
What Is A Customer Data Platform?
A Customer Data Platform (CDP) is a software solution that collects and organizes data from different sources to build a single customer profile. It collects the customer’s identity, lifestyle, as well as behavioral and aspirational data from sources like CRM, social media, websites, and PoS systems. This detailed data enables companies to create comprehensive customer profiles, individualize experiences, predict trends, and accelerate decision-making. It’s called a platform because it serves as a unifying frame for the entire range of applications and solutions that need to access customer data to drive action.
Why Use CDPs?
A CDP can deliver multiple benefits:
- Unifies data
CDPs use SDKs and APIs to pull data from disparate sources into a single platform. It creates a customer profile containing Personable Identifiable Information (PII) such as the customer’s name, address, email ID, etc. The unified customer profile can be used by marketing, sales, product management, and customer support teams to improve customer experience.
- Improves personalization
Besides PII, CDPs also capture extra insights like browsing history, website visits, and social media activity. This valuable information enables the sales and marketing teams to understand preferences and buying patterns. It empowers them to customize product recommendations and create targeted marketing campaigns to increase engagement. More importantly, the support team can leverage this data to tailor customer interactions. A cohesive, hyper-personalized approach can help companies boost customer retention, repeat purchases, and reduce churn.
- Makes compliance easier
Companies must adhere to regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to build customer trust and avoid legal hassles. The centralized platforms of CDPs can help companies collect and manage all the data in a single location. It will also protect the PII details and audit them regularly. By storing all information in one place, a company can easily grant access to customers to view it upon request. This will help companies improve transparency, protect customers’ privacy, and maintain compliance.
- Supports data-driven decision-making
In a fast-paced business landscape, companies have to make quick business decisions. For that, they need access to real-time data. CDPs can gather real-time information from different sources and provide timely insights on customer behavior and market demands. Such rich information can help decision-makers forecast trends and behaviors accurately and devise strategies to meet them. CDPs are truly useful in improving decision-making and aiding innovation. It enables companies to accelerate go-to-market strategy and gain a competitive advantage.
How Telecom Operators Can Benefit From CDPs
A telecom operator receives customer first-party data, including PII details, customer usage patterns, travel habits, device preferences, and billing information.
If used correctly, all this information can help improve personalization.
According to McKinsey, telecom operators can boost revenue by 10% and customer engagement by 20-30% through data-driven personalization.
However, only 5% of them are harnessing data to personalize experiences.
That’s why CDPs are so vital for telecom operators. They can gather data about the customer into a unified platform and use it for the following purposes:
- Personalize subscription plans and offers
Telecom operators can use CDPs to analyze usage patterns and recommend relevant subscription plans. For example, they can suggest unique roaming plans for frequent travelers or internet plans for remote professionals. This will help them deviate from the usual one-size-fits-all offerings and improve retention.
- Upsell and cross-sell plans
CDPs offer a complete view of usage patterns, allowing operators to cross-sell or upsell relevant packages. For instance, they recommend location-specific data and voice call plans to frequent travelers and higher data plans to streaming users. This helps operators increase sales and drive revenue.
- Reduce churn and retain customers
With the help of CDPs, operators can categorize users based on their activity and engagement levels and launch targeted campaigns. For instance, they can send renewal notifications to expiring subscriptions and display attractive data and voice packages to new customers. These individualized campaigns can reduce churn and increase retention.
- Improve compliance
There’s a thin line between personalization and privacy violation. Telecom operators should be careful not to cross that fine line. A data breach or privacy violation could lead to irreparable damages to the operator’s reputation and revenue loss. CDPs can help operators adhere to compliance rules like GDPR. By breaking down silos, it unifies information, improving transparency and efficiency in data management. It can help operators establish data governance standards, improve access control, and track suspicious activities. It acts as a single source of truth and provides more visibility on how data is stored, accessed, and handled. It makes monitoring and tracking efficient.
How Can Telecom Operators Enable Innovation With CDPs?
The telecom industry is evolving rapidly, making it increasingly complex for operators to differentiate themselves. It has become even more challenging for them, with the Millennials and Gen Z becoming the primary user base. They expect individualized experiences from their telecom operators.
Thus, companies need to devise unique initiatives to engage with them. For example, they could offer micro-finance for device purchases or do something as simple as streamlining the digital onboarding process.
CDPs help operators enable innovation #ei, offering valuable insights into customer behavior.
It’s an excellent technology to retain your users, earn more revenue, and grow.
To know more about how CDPs and other technologies can benefit your business, contact us.