In this blog we discuss a single customer view and why it's an essential method for retaining customers and staying ahead of competitors in 2022.
The last two years have not only seen a change in how we do business but in how customers expect us to do business. According to Business 2 Community:
“Customers no longer base their loyalty on price or product. Instead, they stay loyal to companies due to the experience they receive. In fact, 86% of consumers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience.”
With the global pandemic, we saw a monumental digital transformation shift, as more and more customers shifted to online platforms to research, purchase, engage and refer brands. Businesses now have an average of 25 competitors in their market and this migration has only further exposed customers to their competitors, making switching providers or companies as simple as a touch of a button.
This change has placed a larger emphasis on providing a fantastic experience for every single customer interaction throughout the purchasing journey. In order to aid in achieving this, it’s essential that you create a data hub that collects, organizes and centralises all of your customer data in one place. This means that in one place, anyone in your company can see:
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How many times a potential or existing customer has visited your website, if they have completed any forms and how did they find you.
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How much a customer has paid your company if any proposals have been shared with them, when they first purchased a product or service and who assisted with the purchase.
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What customer support has been provided to the customer in the past if any tickets have been raised if there were any past issues with products or services and how they were resolved.
Having this one single customer view of any customer allows companies to stay ahead of the competition while also optimising every interaction in order to provide great experiences.
What is a single customer view?
A single customer view (SCV) is a centralised view that provides you with a comprehensive overview of your customers throughout their entire dealings and touchpoints with your company. This centralised view combines data from a consumer’s online behaviour, their demographics, interactions with your customer service, and purchase history.
For example, Alice is speaking to a customer service agent regarding a new purchase she has made. The customer service agents can now easily, in one place, see all the previous interactions with Alice. This information not only includes what she purchased as well as who she spoke to while finalising this purchase, but also how she found the company, what she interacted with before speaking with sales, and every communication she’s had with the company so far
Let’s take John as another example. John isn’t a customer yet but is currently speaking with someone in the sales team. This salesperson can see every interaction John has had with the company throughout the marketing and sales process. This helps him provide John with the best product/service based on what he has previously shown interest in.
To put it simply, having a centralised information hub allows for more contextualised information to be shared with a user no matter the purchasing journey stage, creating a better experience.
This comprehensive data pool then allows you to create personalised interactions and effective marketing, based on their current stage of the purchasing journey.
Check out this blog post for more details on the benefits of a single customer view, Why you need a single customer view to scale growth.
What happens to those left behind, to organisations without an SCV?
From data silos and inaccuracy to compliance and privacy concerns, organisations without an SCV will see a disconnect not only with their customers but internal teams too.
Your company now has more competitors than ever before and your customers have easy access to more choices than ever before. So in order to be successful, you need to REALLY understand your customers. This understanding can’t be driven by assumptions (i.e. creating buyer personas that are purely a view from inside your company), but rather from actual interactions and conversations. It is with this full understanding that your company will be able to predict future consumer demands and create content tailored to their specific needs.
Let’s put ourselves in the customer's shoes for a minute
You recently became a new customer with a mobile phone provider, but three months later you aren’t happy with the service and raise a ticket with customer support. After a couple of days of no feedback, a member of the sales team gives you a call to sell you an additional package with no background or solution to your original complaint. You once again need to log a ticket for the same concern and wait for a response, extending your resolution time. Would this interaction motivate you to purchase an additional product or service? Or recommend this brand to friends and family?
What if you had the opposite interaction? Post raising a ticket, you had a customer support representative call you back with a full understanding of who you are, what was sold to you and how the ticket can be resolved. Would this positively impact your experience feedback?
When all your business units communicate with one another and share data, your customers can only benefit and this, in turn, leads to organisational growth.
How Huble Digital can help
We know that implementing change can feel overwhelming, that’s why we’re here to help. We’ve helped lots of companies achieve a single customer view by fully utilising and implementing HubSpot CRM. Simply set up a call with our team and we can discuss relevant case studies within your industry and how we could potentially help.
