CDP: You Don’t Need a Use Case

If you’re about to embark on an evaluation of a Customer Data Platform (CDP), a good place not to start is with what use case you want to implement. You don’t need a use case.

Yet.

A use case is an execution tactic and if you focus on a tactic, you will miss the forest for the trees. And, the forest here should not be undertaken lightly; the process of digitally transforming your business is an imperative facing almost every single industry today and it is just that, transformative. 

It’s going to take business vision, executive leadership, resources, and, most importantly, teams on the ground committed to a new way of working not only with their data but amongst themselves. More collaboratively, more openly and guided by a principle to deliver exceptional experiences for their customers regardless of the lifecycle stage. 

Your customers already expect you to engage with them on a personalised basis given what they believe you already know about them. In a recent Accenture study, it was uncovered that “75% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a company that knows their name and purchase history and recommends products based on their preferences.” 

Not only that, but Accenture also found that “33% of consumers who ended their relationship with a company last year did so because the experience wasn’t personalised enough.” 

Your customers are not concerned with your operational constraints, they give you their data and expect something personalised in return. The reality is that it’s extremely difficult for most businesses to activate their data across business units due to data silos both among teams and systems. A tactic or a use case will most likely only address symptoms of these data silos, not the underlying issue of data fragmentation. 

Our most successful customers are the ones who construct a practice around Customer Data Orchestration, building cross-functional, cross-departmental teams dedicated to executing on business goals together, not in silos. 

A crucial element to this is the Program Manager, who according to Tealium’s Seb Agudelo, Lead Account Manager in APAC, “plays an influential role in stakeholder management and driving alignment between relevant business units that impact the customer experience.” Without this linchpin role who prioritises and aligns activities against a wider stakeholder road map, it may prove challenging to adopt Data Orchestration across your business. 

But with the foundations and stakeholder support, these multifaceted teams are ramped and ready to uncover the most pressing business issues and then implement strategies and tactics to address them together. 

Buying a CDP won’t transform your business unless you’re willing to transform alongside it, and that starts with having the right vision and team in place for success.