What Features Make an Effective Customer Data Platform?

August 2023

Telecoms & Connectivity

Elisha Sudlow-Poole

Senior Research Analyst

CDPs, or Customer Data Platforms, provide a complete picture of each individual consumer, while at the same time, segmenting them for the purposes of predicting future behaviour. However, as we discuss in our latest customer data platforms research, enterprises are only as good as the CDP they are using; that is, the quality and depth of data it has at its disposal.
 
We have identified several capabilities that are imperative to the success of any given CDP. These include:

Customer Segmentation

Segmentation of existing customers allows for highly nuanced profiles which go beyond data such as age demographics, to fine-tune campaigns targeted to the individual.
 
Segmenting customer traits, such as interests, income, gender, address, and spending habits does not only allow for more efficient predictions in consumer behaviour, but it also presents more complex navigation for data collection and insight.

Channel Engagement

To achieve complete visibility, CDPs must first have a broad spectrum of touchpoints from which to garner data, and the appropriate means with which to receive, analyse, and store.
 
While no system can ever be 100% accurate, there is a greater chance that data drawn from a wide source of touchpoints coupled with an accompanying CDP will be able to be of significant benefit to any enterprise.

Predictive Services

To increase the efficiency of business processes, predictive services including machine learning and algorithms anticipate future outcomes and opportunities based on data collected from previous interactions.
 
Predictive analytics are highly beneficial as they have widespread applications across many industries. For example, in healthcare, predictive analysis is used to anticipate patient outcomes and health risks.
 
Predictive analytics can be either direct or indirect. Direct analytics include data and business analysts who curate large data sets and implement predictive analytics against them. Indirect analytics are used by enterprises that deploy software platforms that house built-in predictive capabilities, such as CDPs.

Personalisation

Leveraging customer segmentation and predictive services will allow for consumers to receive personalised and curated enterprise interactions, thus deploying hyper-personalisation.
 
Hyper-personalisation is a customer-centric process of thoroughly understanding the needs and likely future behaviour of individual customers. This is particularly important for enterprises that sell high end, big-ticket items which are not going to be pitched to a wider audience.

Security & Privacy Compliance

As CDPs collect, collate and store highly sensitive personal information from a range of touchpoints, enterprises have become increasingly concerned about how this consumer data is being handled and exposed.
 
Furthermore, as the digital awareness of consumers increases, users are wanting to control who can access their data and when. Storing customer data across a number of channels carries risk, and therefore, CDPs must ensure that they have a comprehensive data management solution to apply appropriate restrictions without slowing business campaigns.
 
Additionally, whilst most consumers are willing to share data with companies, they expect high value in return. Therefore, Juniper Research recognises that CDP privacy and compliance is being increasingly seen as a transaction between enterprise and consumer. In order for this transaction to remain viable, businesses must ensure that whilst CDPs can collect a wealth of data, only essential categories are being defined as important, as collecting too much data will be of detriment.

Want more insights and statistics?

Download our latest customer data platforms whitepaper, which explores the future use of customer data platforms; identifying key features and capabilities that must be adopted by vendors to ensure competitive differentiation in this highly established market, whilst providing improved customer experiences. You can also visit our infographics area, where you'll find an infographic containing our latest customer data platforms market statistics.