Data is a powerful tool for improving customer loyalty. Businesses that understand this principle know how to leverage the customer data management lifecycle to anticipate customers’ needs and improve their experiences. Here’s a guide to understanding the customer data management lifecycle and how you can use it to win customer loyalty.

Customer Data Management Lifecycle

The Customer data management lifecycle (CDML) refers to the entire process of handling customer data—from the moment of collection to the point of deletion. Managing customer data through different life cycle stages requires a clear framework for data governance and usage that also prioritizes protecting consumer privacy.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these stages below:

1. Collection

Many businesses think the first stage of the cycle, collecting data, is the easiest part, but this is not always the case. Data collection sets the tone for the rest of the process and determines the quality of analysis as well as for later insights. To get the most out of raw customer data, collection must be:

Deliberate. Brands must lay down an intentional, organized plan for collecting data. Teams need to know which customer data they need and how they will use it to get results by driving conversions. Without a deliberate strategy, the task of data collection is often an afterthought instead of a vital function that empowers all other business initiatives.

Efficient. Data collection tools must capture all critical information in a timely and efficient manner. Having a single platform for ingesting real-time, event-level data is the most efficient approach to customer data collection. This is especially true for businesses building their digital landscapes.

Omnichannel. For businesses, the ability to capture and collect customer data from all available channels is almost a precursor to growth and success. Given that the company is offering an attractive product/service in a crowded marketplace, the competitive advantage often boils down to a relevant, connected customer experience. Therefore, brands must be ready to capture omnichannel customer data sources in order to draw meaningful and actionable insights for personalization initiatives.

2. Storage

Storing collected data enables companies to access and use information quickly. Speed is essential for brands seeking to take advantage of fleeting trends that influence customer behaviors and decisions. Therefore, incoming data must be categorized and stored in its proper place as soon as it is collected. A centralized platform for storing data meets this requirement and eliminates the need for multiple databases.

This also improves customer data security, since a unified database allows for fewer loopholes and weaknesses compared to several smaller containers. The single platform also makes it easier to implement a universal system for governing access and accountability.

In addition, centralized storage facilitates speedier collaboration between sales, marketing, and support teams and enables them to act in unison toward a common goal.

3. Maintenance

Continuous maintenance of customer data is key to a data-driven strategy across marketing, sales, support, or customer experience. Customer data must be clean (i.e., free of duplicates, errors, and corruption), for accurate analytical results.

While companies can opt to manually clean and maintain data quality, it presents a momentous task for any team of data scientists. Customer journeys are getting longer, and individual shoppers generate massive amounts of information with each new interaction. The best approach is to employ a dedicated solution such as a customer data platform (CDP) to take care of data collection, cleaning, and storage. Best-in-class CDPs also automate data updates so each dataset is fresh and relevant to current customer needs.

4. Leverage

The next stage in the customer data management lifecycle is analysis. Companies can leverage their collected, stored, and updated data for actionable insights to guide their brand’s customer initiatives. Depending on the brand’s goals, customer data can be leveraged in numerous ways:

• Understanding customer behavior
• Personalizing customer journeys
• Launching data-driven campaigns
• Optimizing campaign performance
• Creating audience segments and lookalike groups
• Targeting audience segments
• Determining pain points for better support
• Improving customer experience
• Increasing customer loyalty
• Decreasing churn

Leveraging customer data helps brands understand customers to better serve them. Without useful data, a brand may revert to serving its own needs and impose what it thinks the customer wants. Not so with a data-driven, consumer-centric strategy—brands get to know their customers better and meet their needs the way they prefer, earning loyalty through connected customer experiences.

Disposal

The last stage in the customer data management lifecycle is disposal. With consumer privacy concerns on the rise, organizations must be extra vigilant when it comes to responsible deletion.

After customer data assets have served their purpose, companies must dispose of them securely to minimize risk of theft. In addition, companies must also ensure their practices comply with applicable laws and regulations regarding data destruction. By demonstrating responsible guardianship of data assets through the final stage of deletion, brands can improve customer loyalty.

In summary, brands who understand the customer data management lifecycle can transform raw data assets into actionable insights and increase customer loyalty through personalization initiatives. Brands demonstrate excellent management of customer data assets through deliberate data collection, silo-free storage, and quality maintenance. The right tools allow brands to leverage customer data and draw deep consumer insights that improve experiences. Lastly, responsible disposal and deletion demonstrates how brands value consumer privacy while using data to better serve their customers’ needs.

Let Treasure Data CDP Take Care of Your Customer Data

Treasure Data is a best-in-breed customer data platform trusted by Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies around the world. We take care of your customer data management lifecycle through:

• Automating data collection, cleansing, and enrichment
• Omnichannel data collection
• Ingestion of real-time, streaming, and historical data
• Centralized customer data storage
• Enterprise-grade security and data privacy
• Shared security model
• Predictive analytics
• Artificial and machine learning capabilities
• Next-best action (NBA) recommendation engines
• Responsible deletion and disposal

To learn more about how Treasure Data can help with your customer data management lifecycle, consult an expert today. Want to learn more? Request a demo, call 1.866.899.5386, or contact us for more information.