[{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/06\/03\/customer-profiles-definition-examples-benefits\/#Article","articleBody":"Customer profiles are the bedrock of stellar customer service and superior customer experience. How do you stand out in an increasingly competitive and saturated market? By delivering great experiences over, and over, and over again using your unique customer profile strategy.\nThe key is consistency. And it\u2019s easier to achieve with an effective customer profile strategy built on the insight that informs tactics to meet your goals.\nBasics of customer profile management and customer service you should know\nCustomer profiles: You\u2019re only as strong as your weakest link.\u00a0Imagine your customer experience as a chain, each link representing an interaction between your customer and your brand. Every good interaction adds another solid link and makes the chain stronger. But it just takes one bad experience \u2013 one rusted, cracked link \u2013 to break it.\nNearly 75% of consumers will leave a brand after just three or fewer bad experiences.\nNow imagine your chain lined up next to countless others as far as the eye can see, hoping to be picked by the same customer.\nCustomers don\u2019t choose based on which has the best single link, but which is the best whole chain. So when it comes to driving repeat business, consistency is key. You\u2019re the gatekeeper when it comes to preserving the chain.\nAs customer journeys become more complex, and the landscape more competitive, the relationship between consumers and brands becomes more nuanced. And as with any relationship, the best are built on trust, and trust is built on consistency. Customer profile strategy puts customer experience and brand responsiveness on the map.\nClients and customers need to know that you, as a brand, will deliver on your promises every time they engage with you \u2013 no matter what channel they use, or how long they\u2019ve been a customer.\nThey want to know that you\u2019re not all talk. They want to know what to expect from any given interaction, and that they can count on you to come through.\nEven the best experiences can\u2019t make up for an inconsistent relationship.\n \nHow to win customer trust: 5 strategies to earn loyalty\n   Customer trust is at the center of everything. Follow these five principles to understand, build, and maintain customer trust.  \nHow to create a better customer experience (CX) with a suitable management system\nInconsistency is a sign that expectations don\u2019t match reality. For brands, that usually shows up in one of three areas: over time, across channels, and customer to customer.\nConsistency over time means delivering the same caliber experience year after year. The particulars \u2013 campaigns, technology, trends \u2013 will, of course, evolve over time. But the level of service and the quality of your engagement should stay steadfast.\nConsistency across channels means customers receive the same quality experience whether they\u2019re in-store, on your website, engaging over social, or anywhere in between. It also means that if they switch channels, they don\u2019t have to re-introduce themselves or their situation all over again.\nConsistency from customer to customer means you don\u2019t flagrantly play favorites. Of course, loyalty should have special perks, but every customer \u2013 whether they\u2019re brand new, or a long-time account \u2013 should still be able to expect the same baseline experience.\nCustomer profiles built on cross-channel data platforms help close the gap between expectation and reality. They make sense of customer data and make it easier for companies to manage their overall experience with confidence.\n \nMake Better (Data) Choices: Unified Customer Profile Checklist & CDP\n   With the following unified customer profile checklist, you can find insights to improve your overall customer data strategy. Explore how your current customer data strategy and customer profiles compare to what a CDP can do.  \nBenefits of customer profiles: Excellent CX, great insights, effective automation\nCustomer profile management is an effective way to create relevant, targeted brand engagements. It\u2019s also extremely useful for making those engagements seamless and consistent.\nHere are 3 ways customer profiles make it easier to deliver consistent experiences:\nDemocratizing customer data\nProviding dynamic customer context\nEnabling more effective automation\nDemocratize your data\nPart of why it\u2019s so difficult to deliver a consistent end-to-end experience is because a brand is made up of a lot of people. So, when a customer engages, there\u2019s a good chance it\u2019s with a different team member each time.\nCustomer profiles collect data from the whole customer journey and bring them into a single platform, accessible to everyone at the company. When everyone has access to the same information, the customer is much more likely to get the same level of service and engagement every time.\nGet dynamic customer context\nYou\u2019re able to show up time and time again for the people in your life because you know them. You have a shared history that provides unconscious context clues every time you talk. When they share a story, you can recall past experiences to understand their perspective.\nOf course, we don\u2019t think about it when we do this \u2013 it happens behind the scenes.\nProfiles let companies do this for their customers. Adding the context of past interactions and preferences makes it easier to show up time and time again for them, with a personal touch.\n \nUnified customer profile: Definition, examples, benefits\n   Using the unified customer profile and the ability to measure customer insights with a customer data platform helps businesses deliver hyper-personalized customer experiences at scale.  \nAutomate to reduce human error\nOne of the powerhouse features of customer profile management is its ability to make audience segmentation even more effective. When you know your customers better, you can segment based on their actual preferences and priorities, or where they are on their journey\u00a0now.\nWhen it comes to delivering a consistent experience, automation is great because it minimizes the risk of human error.\nSo every time a customer abandons their shopping cart, you send them a personalized retargeting email. Or every time a customer downloads a white paper, it sends them a personalized follow-up one week later. By automating these predictable interactions, you ensure that you\u2019re hitting your mark, and you free your team up to manage the more complex ones.\n \n18 Billion reasons ($$) to focus on abandoned shopping carts\n   Abandoned shopping carts account for $18 billion in lost revenue annually. Learn the top strategies to convert consumers and drive revenue.  \nStrengthen your CX chain with customer profiles\nRemember that customers today are always paying attention, and their expectations are higher than ever.\nThe pandemic forced a lot of companies to embrace digital, omnichannel strategies and now customers aren\u2019t going to go back. To keep them engaged and loyal, you need to show up at every touchpoint, and deliver consistently great experiences every time.\nWhat can a CDP do for you? Watch our interactive demo.","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/06\/03\/customer-profiles-definition-examples-benefits\/#Article_Person","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/06\/03\/customer-profiles-definition-examples-benefits\/#Article_Person_ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/23x6xj3o92m9361dbu2ij362-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Emily_Kelly-150x150.jpg"},"name":"Emily Morrow","sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/emkmorrow","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/emilykmorrow\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/emily-kelly\/"},"dateModified":"2021-11-09T03:15:35+00:00","datePublished":"2021-06-03T05:04:04+00:00","description":"Customer profile strategy helps you stand out in today's market. Using customer profiles helps you deliver positive experiences again & again","headline":"Never break the chain: Use customer profiles to drive consistent CX","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/06\/03\/customer-profiles-definition-examples-benefits\/#Article_ImageObject","height":"630","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/CDPfuelsCX_1200x375-1200x630.jpg","width":"1200"},"mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/06\/03\/customer-profiles-definition-examples-benefits\/","name":"Never break the chain: Use customer profiles to drive consistent CX","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/","additionalType":"https:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/wiki\/Q1193236","description":"Relevant, timely information & analysis on commerce trends, both consumer-facing and B2B.","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/23x6xj3o92m9361dbu2ij362-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/themes\/hybris_foc\/assets\/images\/layout\/logo-new-2x.png?_=1","height":"96","url":"https:\/\/23x6xj3o92m9361dbu2ij362-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/themes\/hybris_foc\/assets\/images\/layout\/logo-new-2x.png?_=1","width":"500"},"name":"The Future of Customer Engagement and Experience","sameAs":["https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/a-call-for-a-better-experience\/id1479742201","https:\/\/twitter.com\/FutureOfCEC","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/groups\/4844282","https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/feed\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/"},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/06\/03\/customer-profiles-definition-examples-benefits\/#Article"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2021","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"06","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/\/06\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"03","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/\/06\/\/03\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Never break the chain: Use customer profiles to drive consistent CX","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/06\/03\/customer-profiles-definition-examples-benefits\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]