Are you looking to increase your contactable Customer base? How much money are you losing on incorrectly identified Customer communications? Throughout our 30 years of big data experience working with clients across industries around the globe, we have found that maintaining contact through relevant Customer engagement is a crucial component of putting the Customer First.
Essential to preserving contact data is ensuring that you have the most up-to-date information from your Customers; not an easy task. On average, people in the United States will move an average of 12 times in their lifetime. United States Postal Service data indicates 14% of the population change addresses annually. As email contact has grown, it's important to note that, on average, 30% of people change their email addresses each year. This is driven by ISP or job changes, or just to stop being spammed. As people move away from home phones to primarily mobile devices, phone numbers are stabilizing as consumers maintain the same numbers through physical moves.
Contact data maintenance also includes an effective and trackable process for removing Customers who "opt out", unsubscribe or otherwise request to not be contacted. Beyond Customer fallout for not honoring their request, regulations such as GDPR and CCPA can deliver fines as high as €20 million, or up to 4% of the annual worldwide turnover of the preceding financial year (whichever is greater), for any violations.
So, how are you collecting and managing sensitive, frequently changing Customer metadata? These three questions can help you perform a quick data health check for your business:
- How flexible are our Customer data platforms? Can multiple departments use the same Customer master data profile?
- What are the accuracy requirements for each of our communication channels?
- How unique is our Customer data asset and how valuable is it to our company?
Here are the most common data management options we encounter across industries:
1.Internal:
Maintaining Customer information manually through an internal data team can be time-consuming and costly. It may require Customers to update their information online or through a call center, with an internal data team to validate the changes, and your Customer engagement team to be made aware of the changes so they can update their downstream systems. If you are in contact with your Customers on a weekly basis, this process will need to be on-going and thorough to accurately capture the data changes.
2.Third party:
Many third-party CRM systems and databases exist, often removing the manual steps from this process and may even automatically update Customer address information via online sources. In many cases this information is based on publicly available data or the USPS' address tools. However, these updates can verge on being "creepy" to many Customers. Automated systems do remove many of the manual touch points for your teams, but the information is then strictly provided by the third-party databases and processes. Additionally, downstream systems often still require updates from these tools to maintain the most correct Customer information across your data landscape.
While there are some hybrid models of options, here are the main pros and cons we have identified for the primary methods:
| Internal Pros | Internal Cons |
|---|---|
| The fastest method if you own and manage your data ingestion platform | Managing a metadata repository tied to your website or mobile platform may require significant improvements in your front-end systems and teams |
| Your internal security can ensure that personal data standards and protections are maintained | A true "Customer master" repository will require significant resources, a robust data governance structure and regular audits for both security and data accuracy |
| The easiest method for maintaining your Customer opt-outs and communication preferences | If there is a data breach from your systems, your company is 100% liable for the breach |
| Platform and tool agnostic. An internal "Customer master" repository can serve as a single source of truth for Customer data within your organization | |
| Leverages the information provided from your Customers which in practice should be the most trusted |
| 3rd Party Pros | 3rd Party Cons |
|---|---|
| Removes significant pressure from your internal teams and systems as you are pushing the process to the 3rd party | May require you to maintain your own Customer opt-outs and communication preferences external to their platform |
| If the data resides on and is consumed from their systems, on-going security becomes less of a concern for your internal teams* | May not allow Customer provided information to be captured or maintained |
| Can be a very accurate source if they are leveraging governmental and legal databases | May require the use of their specific software and technology, limiting the ability for your organization to create an internal "Customer master" on your own databases and downstream systems |
| May be updated on a real-time basis from their systems | You are tied to the 3rd party data match and update process dependencies. Additionally, some companies limit the daily number of requests or queries |
| APIs and other data integration points with the 3rd party may be made available ensuring that all internal teams have the same "Customer master" | Are they consuming publicly available data (ex. mortgages and legal proceedings) or are they using some large unmanaged database to match Customer details and data? |
| How often are they confirming the accuracy of their data? Example "John Smith" may simply be a typo from years ago or it could be correct. How do they confirm accuracy? | |
| *If the 3rd party or their associated processors breach your Customer information, you may still suffer reputational and financial consequences |
Regardless of your chosen data mastering methodology, the Customer's preferred data should always be treated as the "most trusted," as this is the data your Customer is asking you to use. We recommend prioritizing Customer-provided data over other sources, only falling back on alternate sources if there are issues with Customer communications.
dunnhumby can help your company develop a comprehensive Customer mastering solution, regardless of your existing CRM process, technology or vendor. We have spent the last 30 years working with Customer data in many different stages of maturity and complexity. Through this process, we have developed proven best practices to collect and maintain your Customer metadata. If you are interested in discussing Customer mastering or Data Consulting, please reach out to your dunnhumby client representative or Contact Us.
FOR RETAILERS
Smarter operations and sustainable growth, powered by Customer Data Science.
FOR BRANDS
Better understand and activate your Shoppers to grow sales.
Using shopper data to develop insights that drive better decisions is an approach many modern retailers follow, but how many manufacturers are really reaping the rewards that granular shopper data can provide…
With many sources of market data available and product sales data, manufacturers may feel that they have sufficient insight to understand which of their brands are performing well and which may need intervention. But to get a true understanding of who is buying your products - why, how and when - a far more granular level of data is required.
Here are some examples of how shopper insight can give brands deeper knowledge of consumer habits in relation to their products:
Your promotions – are they really working?
If you're running a promotion for one of your products, you'll hopefully have sales figures which show whether there has been an uplift in LFL sales during the period of the promotion. An increase probably can be attributed to the promotional campaign. So far so good. But what else do you know about that promotion campaign which could help your future marketing activities and investments? Who is buying your product on promotion? Are you cannibalising sales from existing shoppers who would have bought it anyway at full price? Are they 'pantry loaders' who are buying in bulk, bringing their spend forward? Is it one shopper buying 3 products, or 3 shoppers buying 1 product each? Are you keeping and converting new customers who buy your brand on promotion? By knowing more about who your shoppers are and what motivates them to buy your product, you'll be able to steer your marketing spend more effectively and avoid wastage.
Brand loyalty – does it really exist?
It's one of the biggest challenges for brands in the face of changing consumer habits and proliferation of channels to purchase: generating and maintaining brand loyalty amongst shoppers. Common beliefs that brand loyalty no longer exists and mass marketing is required to keep continually topping up the funnel with new shoppers in order to keep brand sales buoyant are hard to dispute, unless you have data to prove otherwise. Yet if brand owners don't understand who is buying their product and where there might be headroom for growth, they will struggle to create the right environment for this to happen. Industry sales data might tell you what your market share is, but do you know what your shopper's repertoire is? Are they only buying your brand or buying competitor brands within the category as well? How frequently are your shoppers making purchases? What events or factors are prompting their purchase decisions: pack size first, then brand? Or the other way around? Understanding switching, cross-shopping and retention behaviours are key KPIs you can measure from granular shopper insights.
Giving your new products the best chance of success
New product development is viewed as a great way to encourage existing shoppers to buy more of your products, and attract new shoppers to your brand, yet the failure rate for NPD is remarkably high. Convincing retailers to give up shelf space for your new product can be difficult, and if it doesn't bring in the expected return on investment for both parties, retailers will be quick to de-list it. Understanding category dynamics and the likely universe of shoppers who have the highest propensity to purchase will create a solid foundation for your NPD. Using shopper insight can help you determine what proportion of the retailer's customers you should target with your new product – based on previous purchase behaviour and basket mix. Who has a history of trying new products and sticking with them? Getting an early read of 'trial and repeat' behaviour can help with targeting.
Category growth and shopper Needs
Brands and retailers can both be winners if they work together to grow categories. But understanding shopper needs is vital in making this happen. Key questions you'll want to answer are: What are the gaps in the range? Are there any un-met customer needs which could point to opportunities for growth? What is driving loyalty amongst shoppers within particular categories? Did your promotion or new product launch drive overall category growth? What's the relationship between certain products in the category, and which matter most to shoppers?
A great example of collaboration between manufacturer and retailer to co-create a promotional plan to drive sales and category growth can be viewed here.
There are many issues that will undoubtedly be keeping manufacturers up at night – generating and keeping brand loyalty, creating excitement for shoppers in a sustainable way that doesn't damage your brand (overpromotion), driving growth through innovation (NPD) and increasing brand penetration through retail outlets. The great news is that shopper insight can play a key role in solving these issues and giving your business competitive edge. Getting access to more granular data is the starting point…