The Benefits of A Single Customer View

By Koketso Mamabolo

Enhancing the Customer Experience 

Empathy transforms your customer’s experience. Once you begin to see past the transaction, a human being emerges. A single customer view (SCV) is a wonderful tool for centralising data about a customer and their interactions with your business, to enhance their experience.

Empathy requires you to see things from another person’s perspective. In order to do that, you need to know something, gather data, about that person. A single customer view, also known as a 360-degree view, is a hub which details and organises that data. It’s a centralised collection of information, within your organisation, where customer activity is captured for internal use by departments such as marketing and customer support.. 

The empathy you should show customers is no different to the empathy you show your friends. When your friend comes to you with a problem, you already have all sorts of information about them to contextualise the problem. You will know the obvious things, like their age, gender, where they live, who is in their social network, what some of their preferences are etc. You will use that information to listen effectively, comfort them, and assist them where you can.

Why should your business go about things differently? 

SCV allows you to gather all the information about your customers needed to give them the best experience, from the moment they’re introduced to your product or service, all the way past the end of the transaction, where customers may have problems which need fixing.

Your customer’s experience is more important than ever because we have more options than ever before. If someone does not enjoy their interactions with your company, they will find someone else to provide the product or service. You want your marketing campaigns to be relevant to the customer. You also want to resolve issues with ease, so as not to tarnish your business’ reputation.

Let’s take a closer look at the ways SCV can help you enhance customer experience.

Cross-channel Marketing

Using an SCV, cross-channel marketing approaches can be developed. You are able to see which channels dominate when it comes to closing transactions, making it easier to build targeted strategies. Marketers can craft strategies based on information, rather than assumptions. You will know when, where and why customers engage with your company. 

Using behavioural data, content can be personalised, on whatever platform. Past and present behaviour can be run through a predictive analysis, to predict how they will behave in future, as well as how potential customers may behave. Marketing specialists have access to information on their site visitors’ habits, including the number of clicks, scrolls and the amount of time spent on the site. You’ll know which products they browsed through, which products they added to their basket and which products they removed. 

They also have access to geodemographic data, which covers information such as the customer locations, their level of affluence and the age group they fall into. This opens up space for cross and upsell campaigns. Cross-selling involves encouraging customers to buy something that goes well with, or adds to the initial product or service purchased. For example, someone buying lined paper will likely need a pen to write on it. Knowing that someone bought paper from your stationery site allows you to offer them a product in line with that purchase.

Seamless Customer Service 

When customers have a problem, they want it to be dealt with as seamlessly as possible. They don’t want to have to restate their complaint to a revolving door of customer service representatives. They want to know that their concern is heard, taken seriously and being dealt with. As with a friend, it’s important that they know you are listening; that they’re not screaming into the dark. 

It starts with the customer’s name. No-one wants to be just a number. Being able to address a customer by their own name is the first step to assuring them that they matter. Next comes a record of the communication history. This will include the issues lodged; when they were lodged; who they were lodged with; whether or not they were resolved; how they were resolved; and detailed records of correspondence between the customer and your company.

Customer service representatives can use transactional and geodemographic data, as well as communication history to tailor their approach to a particular customer. By drawing on information from different aspects of the business, they are able to get a fuller picture of the customer and deal with issues accordingly. If a customer wants to exchange a t-shirt for something else, you don’t offer them a pair of shoes. If they come in for the second time, speaking to the second different representative, the process will be smoother if you already have a record of how their previous consultation went, what the issues are, and what the customers’ needs and wants are.

*Check out the latest edition of the Public Sector Leaders publication here.

For enquiries, regarding being profiled or showcased in the next edition of the Public Sector Leaders publication, please contact National Project Manager, Emlyn Dunn: 

Telephone: 086 000 9590 |  Mobile: 072 126 3962 |  e-Mail: emlyn.dunn@topco.co.za