Is a Lack of Data Readiness Holding You Back From a Personalized CX? It’s Time to Invest in a Data Ecosystem

At its inception, digital for retail and commerce promised total visibility, reporting and optimization of each customer’s interactions with a brand across their lifetime. That promise is the foundation of online marketing.

But while companies that invest in digital experience generate an incredible quantity of data, they often feel burdened by its volume. And they struggle to distill and apply usable insights that have the power to unlock that data’s full potential.

Captured data is rarely used to generate a truly personalized customer experience (CX). Instead, companies are left with siloed data and no easy way to translate that information into engaging experiences.

The power of the digital experience is that we can use data and automation to tailor content, products and prices to specific users. However, that requires both data readiness and a strategic technology focus on how to leverage data in a personalized and automated way.

What’s Holding You Back From Achieving Data Readiness?

Many organizations make enriching the digital customer experience a broad goal with no clear domain, resulting in an unfocused effort where different departments make undirected contributions. However, developing a truly personalized customer experience is a complex task requiring special attention from a declared, empowered owner. Ideally, this owner is someone capable of understanding the human side of customer and employee experience as well as the potential for data to enhance that experience and the technology necessary to make that impact.

Companies often use their budgets to jump-start digital marketing efforts without laying the foundation for data infrastructure. It can be challenging to build a business case for constructing that foundation retrospectively when the company has already invested deeply in the ecosystem it underlies. Clear ROI modeling and accountability metrics are essential to removing these roadblocks and starting down the path of data readiness.

Your data road map shouldn’t treat digital readiness as a destination. Instead, focus on defining the data enablement journey for specific, iterative end-customer experiences that have direct and immediate return. When you align these experiences in the aggregate, you can unlock the potential value of all preceding capital investment in the business' digital transformation.

By achieving data readiness, you enable experience enrichment and targeted promotions. That results in better data within the ecosystem, which you can then learn from to build a truly automated, personalized customer experience. It also helps you identify opportunities to add value to the ecosystem.

Consequences of Not Prioritizing a Functioning Data Ecosystem

A decade ago, simply being online was enough. It was a new world and customers didn’t expect much beyond a transactional experience. Now, tailoring your content, product and experience to your audience is essential. If you don’t, you’ll be less competitive and unable to differentiate yourself.

Your customer experience is your brand. In a world where brand experience is increasingly defined by digital interactions, each touchpoint with customers needs to be personal. Customers no longer settle for the “in and out” digital experience; a sterile, vanilla encounter doesn’t inspire brand loyalty.

With a functioning data ecosystem, you can architect highly personalized brand experiences that drive new customer acquisition. It also delivers lifetime value in brand loyalty and repeat business.

Overcoming Roadblocks

Achieving the ideal end-to-end customer experience isn’t easy. Even if you start today, it’s not going to happen overnight. Developing the required infrastructure and finding experienced owners and partners who are well-versed in data organization will take time and money. For that reason, you can expect some pushback from stakeholders when proposing these initiatives.

Remember that data infrastructure is essential to staying competitive in the current digital landscape. You need to achieve data readiness as soon as possible to keep pace with competitors that have been data-centric from inception.

As always with data- and technology-centric transformation initiatives, consider working with a third party that can bring expertise and perspective. A vendor can deliver dedicated and unbiased product ownership and help you road map individual customer experience outcomes, delivering real business results. Equipped with that proof of concept, you should find it easier to demonstrate value to stakeholders and get their full buy-in.

Paul McClay is chief digital officer of Bridgenext, a digital consultancy that blends engineering, data, infrastructure, and creative to create delightful digital experiences with measurable results.