According to a poll conducted in March of this year by Econsultancy and ResponseTap, nearly all client-side marketers (in-house marketing team) reported that their data was important to understanding their customers. Unfortunately, the collection and management of this data has proven to be a challenge.

In fact, only about 33% of client-side respondents said they were doing an adequate job of implementing change based on the findings from their data. Only 20% of agency marketers felt they were handling this part of the process well.

When asked about data integration and sharing, client-side marketers reported:

  • Customer journey understood yet little to no management at touchpoints – 38%
  • Inconsistent delivery, silo management – 33%
  • Integration across channel with channel focus rather than customer focus – 24%
  • Seamless integration of channels with full opportunity exploitation – 5%.

It bears mention that silo management with inconsistent delivery was the only channel to decrease from 2011 to 2015. All others stayed consistent or increased.

In a study on using data to optimize customer experience conducted in December 2014 by Econsultancy and Ensighten, marketers reported also having trouble with this aspect of data usage. While 70% of client-side marketers had begun making sense of their client journeys based on the data, only 57% of agencies could say the same. In either case, respondents still felt they had a way to go before they could say they’d optimized the customer experience with any confidence.

When asked about building a single customer view, a March 2015 Signal study found that merging data as it became available was a major challenge, as it made for an often fragmented view of customer profiles. This study further found that fragmented data meant:

  • Incomplete marketing measurements – 62%
  • Lack of personalized customer experience – 61%
  • Lack of marketer understanding of customer journey – 35%.

Before marketers can ever hope to provide a truly streamlined customer experience, they must take action to create a single customer view rather than viewing all their data in the current fragmented fashion. Only then can they understand the customer journey and obtain the necessary insights that their data holds about how to provide a better customer experience and fully exploit opportunities for earning more of their business.

Source:

eMarketer. Do Marketers Act on Data Insights? April 22, 2015.