Where Does Your Business Rank on the Customer Data Maturity Model?

A recent study exploring customer data maturity–found that how well companies use customer data–and how well they profit from it–is a story of “halves” and “half-nots.” The conclusions of Customer Data Maturity Survey of 491 professionals across the US and Western Europe–including marketing, digital marketing, IT and other pros in a wide variety of industries, show that data makes the difference for many companies. Those who use it well are achieving their corporate goals and KPIs. As one survey respondent puts it, “We have seen at least 10% growth since leaning into customer data.”

Which Half Is Your Business In?

• About half of the companies (47%) surveyed have a customer data strategy that they strictly follow.”
• Over half of respondents (56%) that use customer data to track purchases and tailor customer experiences report positive financial benefits.
• About half of companies (54%) are likely to make a change to their customer data strategy next year.
• More than half want to implement a tool to centralize data (57%).
• 51 percent want to create an in-house team for customer data strategy/management.

The respondents come from a variety of different business, including the following:

• Consumer packaged goods (CPG)
• Auto
• Retail
• Publishing
• Life sciences
• Media & entertainment

What Gains Do Leaders Get for Their Customer Data Expertise?

The 78 percent that are using customer data platforms realize financial gains from their use in a number of ways: more efficiency (64%), greater business growth (57%), more actionable insights (44%), risk reduction (41%), and lower costs (32%).

How Are Companies Profiting from Customer Data?

The consensus is clear: It pays off to use customer data. As one of the respondents puts it, “Our customer data allows us to increase our productivity and revenue by analyzing consumer demand.”

But how, specifically, does customer data help companies achieve these goals? Study respondents mentioned these capabilities in their answers:

• Target ads and campaigns more effectively and efficiently
• Know how to price products for different segments
• Understanding which engagement channels to use
• Gain insights into consumer behavior, with predictive analytics

Where Are You On the Customer Data Maturity Curve?

Companies typically start by unifying and consolidating their data from various different martech data silos. Then, they progress through a Customer Data Maturity growth cycle that includes phases for getting started and developing a customer data strategy. As companies start to realize the benefits of their newfound capabilities, they enter into a “leading” phase, when customer insights help them drive their KPIs and growth strategies. Finally, some companies achieve a visionary phase, when all their customer data is centralized, unified, and used by all relevant departments and stakeholders. These companies lead their industries with data-driven customer experiences.

What’s Next for Your Business?

In the Customer Data Maturity Model, most companies start by connecting, ingesting, and managing data. But where do they go from there? Here’s what companies do as they increasingly exploit their data to achieve their business objectives.

These gains typically come from creating connecting, ingesting, and managing data (56%) to create a single customer view, or SCV (52%) This data is typically used for activation, campaign management, and journey optimization (53%) and segmentation (49%). About four in ten (41%) say they use customer analytics, AI/ML, and predictive capabilities.

As one respondent put it, “We realize positive gain through refinement of our sales strategy, and this is guided by our customer data strategy.”

What could the smart use of customer data do for your business? To understand how customer data could be doing more for your bottom line–and to get ideas for more profitable customer data use–check out the full Customer Data Maturity Study report or visit www.treasuredata.com.