How CDPs Empower Empathy and Improve CLV

The digital revolution has changed both the expectations of today’s tech-savvy customers and the way enterprises manage customer engagement. New systems promise ever-more accurate customer insights, but to be truly effective, this data must be available and actionable across the entire organization—sales and marketing, as well as the contact center. And while many companies focus on improving data access for marketing and sales, they are missing out on data-enabling a key element of the customer experience—customer service.

Improving Customer Service Experiences Is Critical

In a recent Treasure Data study that looked at consumer attitudes on customer service, 65% of consumers said that a positive customer service experience increases loyalty to a company or brand.

But that study also found that 43% of consumers either somewhat agree or strongly agree that positive customer service experiences are rare. There are many reasons why customer service experiences aren’t great, and most of them boil down to agents not having a comprehensive view of the customer across the entire customer journey.

Ask yourself, “Do our agents have a full picture of the customer relationship? Do we arm our agents with knowledge of other customer interactions that may have happened two minutes ago, three days ago, or last month? Can we provide agents with actionable insights and recommendations instead of going into each customer interaction blindly? Can we learn about what every single one of our customers thinks about our products and services—whether they’re interacting with our brands on social media, mobile apps, in stores, or through our sales team?”

If you can’t answer yes to these questions, you should consider a growing trend: Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) in contact centers. According to Sheila McGee-Smith, founder and principal analyst at McGee-Smith Analytics, “many companies are already demonstrating that contact centers can become powerful engines that drive growth in customer lifetime value.” But to do that, they need the right technology paired with the right engagement strategy. The CDP is the right technology.

How CDPs Support Customer Service

Until recently, CDPs were most often used to power marketing use cases. Increasingly, however, the need for the same kind of data repository and intelligence long used in marketing is also being recognized for service.

It’s easy to see why. A CDP connects your data ecosystems—CRM, social media, web app data, behavioral data such as response to advertising, loyalty program histories, and more. CDPs draw on all customer data in almost any format (any channel, online and offline, known and unknown) to create a backbone of customer knowledge. And with some CDPs, such as Treasure Data CDP for Service, data can be updated in real-time, almost instantly, whenever a customer is interacting with your brand.

A CDP provides agents with full visibility into the entire customer journey. It breaks down silos,  and pulls customer data from many different sources, creating a detailed profile or unified customer view (UCV) of each consumer. When an agent interacts with a customer, they have immediate access to that detailed profile. No digging for information, no putting the customer on hold for long periods to find something. The agent can efficiently and effectively answer customers’ questions, make recommendations, or steer conversations toward new purchases or brand experiences.

And if there is a concern that customers wouldn’t like your customer service agents having access to all their data, think again. The study mentioned above also found that 75% of consumers somewhat agree or strongly agree that using previously collected customer data further facilitates the customer service experience. Except for sharing username and password, consumers support agents using additional information like user preferences, website activity, purchase history, and location to improve the service experience.

The CDP as a Value Creator

We often think of a CDP as a revenue driver, but it’s also key to creating value in the company. As McGee-Smith said, a CDP enables employees by giving them the data they need to help customers. She points out that the data agents get from a CDP empowers them to deliver empathy by giving them a complete view of the customer and its relationship with the brand. It equips agents for a relevant experience and allows them to better personalize that experience. As a result, customers feel heard and know the agent is providing them with the best information and support they can.

Not only does the CDP support customer service, but integrating contact center data in the CDP makes that data available to the rest of the company and enables marketing and sales to improve their customer experiences.

The truth is, empowering empathy and improving customer lifetime value are company-wide imperatives. The growth of digital experiences, expedited by the pandemic, has given consumers more power and created greater expectations of brands across the board. Every interaction, every experience with your brand is critical, whether it’s with a marketing campaign, a sales activity, or a customer service call. The CDP provides a new foundational layer of customer data accessible to every team, system, and customer experience.

Remember that 43% of consumers that said a great customer service experience is rare? This is your opportunity to change that.