In B2B2C distribution channels, intermediaries alone can hold the relationship with the client and as a result, information can be held in different systems, in varying formats, levels of completeness and accuracy. Cleansing, standardising and linking these client records with those you already hold to provide actionable customer information for marketing and analytics purposes is difficult and time consuming; where the channel extends multi-nationally, multiple character sets and languages add additional complexity.
Where these intermediaries are owned or franchised, organisations are striving to deliver consistent client information via customer relationship management systems to the channel to improve customer service and co-marketing to end clients. As an example Trillium works with a number of automotive manufacturers who struggle with multi-channel data capture issues and dealer maintained customer databases, which impacts their marketing, loyalty and customer service programs.
For organisations selling products and services through independent intermediaries such as retailers, information may be extremely limited and fragmented, which impacts their ability to understand buying behaviours, channel preferences and maximise their channel investments.
IT can struggle to consolidate multiple data sources to supply actionable client information to enable these initiatives. Competing priorities, limited resource, a plethora of systems and perhaps a lack of understanding of the business’ data needs within IT can impair marketing and customer experience professional’s objectives, which can be further impacted as channels to market and client information sources expand.
In the 2nd blog of the 3 part series, we will look at how marketing are able to build an integrated view of their customers and allow them to take control of their data. In the meantime, see how organizations are overcoming these challenges in our new video, Single Customer View for B2B2C Marketing.
Simon Knight is Senior Product Marketing Manager EMEA at Trillium Software
