Data quality and consistency should not be neglected, market research suggests that poor quality, data redundancy, and data inconsistency are what most businesses struggle with on a daily basis.
Customer data is amongst the most common of the data that represent challenges to marketing, sales, service, support and billing, and collections functions.
There has never been a better time to implement a more disciplined approach to customer data management than today!
Customer Master data management (“CMDM”) itself is the convergence of people process and technology to maintain a disciplined approach to the definition, creation, maintenance, and distribution of customer data.
Customers by definition can be consumers or businesses. When you consider consumer customers these encompass those that visit a brick-and-mortar store or location as well as those that your business engages with via eCommerce or via phone, mail, or home visits.
The complexity of the consumer customer is bound up in the many ways that they can be contacted or interacted with. Consumer customers also often have brand allegiance and engage with businesses based on transactions that are in the moment.
Business customers tend to present in more complex ways. A business may have another business as a customer but that customer has representatives that present as contacts. There may be other data structures associated with business customers that significantly differentiate the business customer from the consumer customer.