Data collection for integrated customer data management: Concerns, considerations and best practices

Abstract

Collecting customer data in the omni-channel, multi-device, always-on world is both art and science. The science of it is well enabled by the modern tools and technologies available to track, collect and manage customer data. The art of it is not just winning customers’ trust in order to access their data, but understanding how to use said data to deliver a delightful customer experience. This paper starts by locating the activity of customer data collection within the larger context of building an integrated customer data management programme. It then delves deeper into some of the concerns, questions, considerations and best practices regarding data collection in the modern business environment. The paper concludes that in the race to win customer loyalty in the ‘experience economy’, data collection is not the end, but rather the starting point. Marketers must strike the right balance between data volume and value, and between speed and depth. They must also find the right pace for data collection in order to build ever-smarter customer data management systems. This paper suggests a number of approaches to help marketers make the right start in this endeavour.