In the age of digital transformation where consumers interact with brands in so many ways and at so many different touchpoints, building and managing customers profiles could be a demanding task.
Today’s empowered customers have many options at each stage of the customer journey, creating their own, unique customer journey pattern.
Related: How to leverage the customer lifecycle for customer retention
According to a recent Forrester research, in 2016, 40% of US online adults reported using “buy online, pick up in-store” or “reserve online, pick up in store” options when shopping online.
So, there is no doubt that the overall consumer behavior has changed dramatically, forcing brands to rethink their strategy and adapt a unified approach in order to properly use all the available information and deliver personalized customer experiences to customers.
But how can companies manage to collect all the customer data from all digital and offline channels and successfully build a unified customer profile?
Related: How to combine online and offline customer experiences
Today, although companies understand the changing customer journey, most of them fail to effectively address its complexities. That is why Customer Relationship Management strategies are becoming so important.
The key here is to invest in the right customer management platforms and tools. First of all, these tools will help you gather in one place valuable customer information such as demographics (date of birth, family status, address etc.), behavioral data and transactional data regarding the physical store or/and the online store purchasing. This process is becoming less complex and faster with the right technology in place.
According to a Boston Retail Partners (BPR) report, 73% of retailers plan to have a unified commerce platform implemented by the end of 2019.
Investments in technology and marketing automation tools are crucial if you aim to dominate the customer journey. These tools along with the know-how to successfully manage the customer information, enable you to get closer to your customers, understand their behavior and translate it into smart insights. Then it is possible to design and execute highly personalized and targeted campaigns for your customers, again faster and in a more accurate way.
