The customer 360° view is not an MDM-originated concept. Its origin is from CRM systems that were specifically designed with a focus on customer management. The ultimate goal is to be able to understand the history, preferences, and buying patterns of a customer to better service them in the future, thereby increasing the probability they will be loyal and generate more revenue, directly or indirectly.
But a true 360° view can only be achieved if the data behind it is conducive for that purpose. CRM systems have remained siloed, which becomes a huge limitation when trying to clearly understand what is important to the customer and convey the proper message at every contact point throughout all stages of the purchase cycle.
Abstractly speaking, an effective 360° view requires data fitness for use as well as timely distribution and availability.
Fitness for use in this case comprises data integration, data quality, and data organization. If data is not integrated, it is practically impossible to have a complete and accurate view. That is the primary problem when data is fragmented among the multiple LOBs across the enterprise. If data is of bad quality, the resulting view will be untrustworthy. Finally, data has to be properly organized otherwise its understanding is blurry.
But it is not sufficient to have data that is well organized, highly integrated, and with great quality. It must also be available where and when it is needed. A services support person on the phone with a customer must be able to have at their fingertips all the information necessary to provide the utmost experience to that customer. At the other end of the spectrum, a marketing team must be able to have the proper business intelligence to decide on marketing campaigns and advance cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.
CRM systems continue to be important for means to distribute data to the many users interacting with customers. But the integration, quality, and organization of customer master data are better when performed at a centralized hub. Furthermore, the centralized information can be leveraged for business intelligence.
For proper decision making, a 360° view requires the association of master data to transactional data. Chapter 8 covered entity resolution, which is an important first step to uniquely recognize a person or company. Moreover, by linking the distinct entities to transactional information, it is possible to get a clear picture of the many relationships established by each single real entity and ultimately reach a complete view for each one.
Figure 10.1 depicts a partial view of a customer life cycle. As a prospect, the hypothetical company “On The Edge Corporation—OTE” shows interest in two products and two services. Eventually, that company decides to purchase a product and a service. Notice how the information can potentially get fragmented across the many LOBs, with possible inconsistencies. In this particular configuration, it is difficult to have a clear view of OTE.
Figure 10.1 Partial Customer Life Cycle
Notice in Figure 10.2 how a proper entity management function is critical to resolve the many instances of OTE and provide a complete view of that company. It is possible to identify all transactions performed by OTE as well as detect its prior interest in other products and services, and potentially pursue additional selling to them. Furthermore, if there is enough intelligence about OTE, it is viable to find other companies in the same industry and/or with the same buying patterns and pursue cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.
Figure 10.2 Entity Management Performed at the Customer Data Hub
As powerful as this complete view is when available at the many points of contact with the customer during the life cycle, it is typically beneficial to organize customer information even further for additional business intelligence. The creation of a customer hierarchy is the standard approach in Customer MDM. Hierarchy management is discussed in the following section.