What happens when the same customer appears in three different systems—and every system tells a different story?Sales sees an open opportunity. Customer service sees recent complaints. Marketing sees email clicks and website activity. An order system knows the customer has already purchased twice. Each department has useful information, but nobody has the complete picture.In this episode of Microsoft Knowledge Nuggets on M365 FM, Mirko Peters explains Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Data in plain English and explores how organizations can bring fragmented customer information together, unify records, create 360-degree customer profiles, calculate measures, build segments, use AI-powered predictions, and activate customer insights across Microsoft business applications.Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Data is Microsoft's Customer Data Platform (CDP). Its purpose is not to replace CRM, sales, service, or marketing applications. Instead, it connects information from those systems to create a more complete and usable understanding of each customer.
WHY SCATTERED CUSTOMER DATA CREATES BAD DECISIONS
Most organizations already have significant amounts of customer data. The problem is that the information is often distributed across multiple systems.Dynamics 365 Sales may contain contacts, accounts, opportunities, calls, meetings, quotes, and notes. Customer service systems contain cases, complaints, product issues, and support conversations. Marketing systems track email opens, clicks, forms, event registrations, and website engagement. Order platforms contain purchases and returns.Every system provides a useful perspective, but none necessarily provides the complete customer story.This can create situations where sales approaches a customer who currently has a serious support problem, marketing sends an upgrade promotion to someone who just purchased the product, or customer service fails to recognize that the caller is one of the company's most important customers.The problem is not necessarily missing information. The information exists—it simply is not connected.
WHAT IS DYNAMICS 365 CUSTOMER INSIGHTS DATA?
Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Data is a Customer Data Platform, commonly abbreviated as CDP.A CDP brings customer information from different approved sources together, identifies records that appear to represent the same customer, and creates unified customer profiles that other business processes can use.Think of it as a central customer records room.Sales contributes customer and opportunity information. Service contributes cases and interactions. E-commerce or order systems contribute purchases and returns. Websites contribute digital interactions. Other business applications contribute additional customer information.Customer Insights - Data organizes these records and attempts to connect the information belonging to the same customer.
WHAT IS A 360-DEGREE CUSTOMER VIEW?
The term 360-degree customer view sounds complicated, but the underlying concept is straightforward.Instead of understanding a customer from only one perspective, organizations can combine multiple types of information into a broader profile.That profile might show who the customer is, what they purchased, which service cases they opened, which events they attended, and how they recently interacted with the organization online.It is not a magical perfect view of everything about a customer.It is a more complete business view created from the customer information an organization has legitimately connected.
CUSTOMER DATA TYPES
Customer information can come in many forms.Demographic or profile information can include names, addresses, job titles, organizations, and contact information.Transactional data can contain purchases, payments, returns, subscriptions, or reservations.Behavioral information can describe actions such as visiting a webpage, opening an email, registering for an event, submitting a form, or using an application.Operational information can provide additional context from service processes, inventory systems, or connected devices.Combining these different types of data allows organizations to understand more than what appears in a single CRM record.
CUSTOMER INSIGHTS DATA VS CUSTOMER INSIGHTS JOURNEYS
Microsoft uses the Customer Insights name for two closely related areas, but their responsibilities are different.Customer Insights - Data brings customer information together, creates unified profiles, calculates insights, and builds customer segments.Customer Insights - Journeys focuses on customer communications and journeys across channels such as email and text messaging.An easy way to remember the distinction is:Data understands the customer. Journeys communicates with the customer.Customer Insights - Data can prepare the audience and customer context. Customer Insights - Journeys can then use that information when the organization decides how and when to communicate.
CUSTOMER INSIGHTS DATA VS DY...
