If you have been a part of any of your retail organization’s digital transformation initiatives, you may already know the importance of building a 360-degree view of your customers. It refers to your ability to see every angle of the relationship that customers are nurturing with your retail brand. You get to understand who they are, what they need, and how you can put yourself in a position to proactively cater to their needs.

For instance, you will instantly have access to valuable information such as past interactions, buying power, as well as the type of campaigns they may have seen or the events they may have attended. What did they recently purchase from your e-commerce store, and how was the experience? What type of support did they receive the last time? More importantly, what else can you offer to extend their lifetime value?

“Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.” – Donald Porter

These are some of the answers you have at your fingertips when you are equipped with a 360-degree customer view. Equipped with these insights, you can deliver the right experience at the right moment.

It always starts with data

One of the foundational elements of creating a 360-degree view of the customer in the retail industry is the unification of organization-wide data. Your customer’s journey consists of many steps, and each level has its share of data that spans multiple touch points. The traditional way of storing this data across siloed systems has become passé due to the cumbersome and long-winding tasks that are involved in extracting and managing them.

For example, the customer’s personal details may be stored in your CRM systems, whereas some of their recent brand interactions can only be found in social media channels. Furthermore, their purchasing journey data may be residing in your legacy systems.

Common types of retail customer data

  • Online account activities
  • Previous transactions
  • Channel interactions (in-store, phone, email, chat, etc.)
  • Campaign performance
  • Support ticketing

Only when this goldmine of data is stored in a unified repository can you use them to serve the customers better. However, stitching together pieces of information from disparate sources is easier said than done. Many retail brands struggle to enable synergy between the legacy infrastructure they cannot live without, as of now, and newer digital platforms that the marketplace demands.

How iPaaS enables a 360-degree customer view

Integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) provides cloud-native technology solutions that can bring retail brands one step closer towards unlocking the potential of data-driven digital transformation. iPaaS provides easy-to-use integrations to take control of the customer data various your internal and external sources, including legacy service systems and contact databases. You can use pre-built business connectors that are compatible with your integration scenario of choice to make sure that no data goes unused.

“Cross-device targeting yields 16% more conversions for retail advertisers in the US.” – Recent Google Study

By giving you a holistic view of your customer preferences, iPaaS paints the big picture of what your customers need to have a more fulfilling experience every time they connect with your brand. Further, as a 100% cloud-native technology, it offers data protection, quality reviews, and rule improvement on an ongoing basis.

iPaaS goes a long way to enhance your decision-making capabilities with a comprehensive 360-degree view of customers.

Operational, sales, and marketing readiness

  1. Save a significant amount of time in understanding behavioral patterns, buying preferences and purchase histories of customers
  2. Unearth accurate forecasts about product or campaign performance
  3. Create better marketing impact through targeted promotions
  4. Empower sales teams with existing and predictive data
  5. Make data-based decisions that accelerate strategic growth – from staff resourcing to vendor management and support activities
  6. Stay on top of support interactions before they happen and accelerate customer retention
  7. Personalize every support interaction and increase customer loyalty
  8. Bring new resources up to speed on the overall service performance
  9. Gather data about new customers and market segments to make inroads

It always ends with customer happiness

With iPaaS, you can examine a customer’s purchasing behavior, personal attributes, and sentiments before delivering a tailor-made experience. But what does this mean for your customers? Let’s look at what they stand to directly gain from your iPaaS-enabled 360-degree customer view.

Save less time and effort by delegating the responsibility of knowing when and what to purchaseGet seamless and proactive support, anytime and anywhere, without repetitive data entriesReceive consistent brand messaging across all touchpoints – one voice, one promise
Offer feedback that brands can listen to and act upon – be heard in real-timeAvoid being bombarded by irrelevant sales and marketing campaignsEnjoy a more contextual and meaningful shopping experience

Aspire Systems is one of the few Dell Boomi global certified system integrators. We help clients to get the most out of their Boomi iPaaS platform by providing industry-leading integration practices to help retail brands in delivering connected customer experiences and unlocking the potential of digital transformation.

If you would like to know about how we can help you build and harness a iPaaS-enabled 360-degree customer view, please email us at [email protected].

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