How to succeed with single view of data | Strategy

It is all about creating a single view of customer behaviour and the information you collect across touchpoints and business areas, and how you utilise this data.

Single view of data includes single customer view, also known as unified customer view or customer 360 and single view of inventory.

Too many lack top-level buy in and understanding

In way too many companies the top-level management lack understanding of the importance of digital transformation and what it takes to succeed.

More often than not, there is a challenging gap between what is the common understanding on the floor of the business and from the directors office and the fact that c-level management simply does not understand what the customers expect.

Unified commerce and Adidas

An example of someone who actually understand that digital transformation demands a big investment, and the right resources is Adidas.

In 2017 Adidas announced that they aimed to make their e-commerce shop the most important store and by 2019 the goal was to drive 60% sales from e-commerce.

Furthermore, the management understand that a digital transformation is more than a classic multichannel setup with an e-commerce site. It is utilizing digital tools throughout the whole company.

For Adidas this has included modern POS, OMS and a digital showrooms using 3D video and AR – just to mention a few.

IMPACT har mystery shoppet i Adidas flagship store i London

Adidas' flagship store LDN i London er et digitalt viduner

Since 2017 they have built a solid digital foundation and their profits and revenue has kept on growing.

Brands do not understand their customer’s pains and needs

You need to put energy, resources and hard work into understanding your customers. Too many never do research on pains or ask their customers what they need and wish for.

New kind of customers

The new generation of consumers are extremely sensitive towards their demands and expectations not being met and they have little to no tolerance towards brands not understanding their reality.

While some customers might still be price sensitive, we are seeing a shift towards consumers focusing more on value and purpose instead of giving away a moment of their attention to aggressive red signs shouting SALE.

Understand your customers

You need to understand what brings value to your customer segments, whether it is transparency, personalisation, service, sustainability is completely dependent on who you are serving.

Rising customer trend

Although all customers are different, we have seen one big trend within concepts and offerings.

They save time. It should be easy, convenient and fast. And this is one thing single view of data will help you give your customers.

The best companies

Some of the companies who are over the top succeeding in meeting customer pains are the new tech unicorns such as Netflix, Uber and AirBnB.

They have been able to completely rethink a customer offer based on customer pains within the current solutions. How? By involving and asking customers what features, pains and interests they have or try to solve using their platform.

Way too many do as they have always done

If you stop trying to get better you will stop being good.

The answer to why you do as you do should never be “This is how we have always done it” or maybe even worse – you do not even know “why” you are doing what you are doing.

You need to make sure that you have a solid understanding of the business and the processes you have in your company to make sure that you always try to think smarter and challenge yourself in order to optimise your offering and meet customer expectations.