What is a Customer Identity Solution?

Video Transcript +

At the most basic level, a customer identity solution can be likened to having a dial tone on your phone. If you don’t have a dial tone, a connection into the telephone network, you can’t even begin to call a specific person you want to talk to. You’re shut out. Likewise, if you don’t have an identity solution in place, you won’t be able to consistently dial-in your customers on a one-to-one level.

An identity solution gives you the ability to recognize your customers in the moment that they’re interacting with your brand — whether that’s on your website, in a physical store or viewing an ad — and to apply all the information you have about that customer to customize or optimize that particular interaction. In other words, each brand–customer interaction can be informed by that customer’s prior interactions, with their most recent action often being the most important in understanding the current context.

A customer identity solution should have these 4 key components:
1. Continuous identification: The ability to recognize your customers whenever and wherever they appear, online or offline.
2. Customer data foundation: Profiles of each customer containing everything you know about them from all of their interactions with your brand over the whole period of time that they’ve been your customer.
3. Always active profiles: The ability to continuously update your customer profiles in real-time as new interactions take place on your website, in your mobile app, in a store or with a call center.
4. Activation connections: The ability to activate marketing to customers on a one-to-one basis using any marketing partner, such digital advertising platforms, personalization engines and attribution analytics and insights tools.

A revolution is underway in customer experiences and the ways brands connect with their customers. Marketers are envisioning new, more personalized ways to engage with their customers, and Signal is the platform that’s helping brands get there.

At the most basic level, a customer identity solution can be likened to having a dial tone on your phone. If you don’t have a dial tone, a connection into the telephone network, you can’t even begin to call a specific person you want to talk to. You’re shut out. Likewise, if you don’t have an identity solution in place, you won’t be able to consistently dial-in your customers on a one-to-one level.

An identity solution gives you the ability to recognize your customers in the moment that they’re interacting with your brand — whether that’s on your website, in a physical store or viewing an ad — and to apply all the information you have about that customer to customize or optimize that particular interaction. In other words, each brand–customer interaction can be informed by that customer’s prior interactions, with their most recent action often being the most important in understanding the current context.

A customer identity solution should have these 4 key components:

1. Continuous identification: The ability to recognize your customers whenever and wherever they appear, online or offline.

2. Customer data foundation: Profiles of each customer containing everything you know about them from all of their interactions with your brand over the whole period of time that they’ve been your customer.

3. Always active profiles: The ability to continuously update your customer profiles in real-time as new interactions take place on your website, in your mobile app, in a store or with a call center.

4. Activation connections: The ability to activate marketing to customers on a one-to-one basis using any marketing partner, such digital advertising platforms, personalization engines and attribution analytics and insights tools.

A revolution is underway in customer experiences and the ways brands connect with their customers. Marketers are envisioning new, more personalized ways to engage with their customers, and Signal is the platform that’s helping brands get there.

Originally published March 29, 2017

Blane Sims

Blane Sims was formerly Chief Innovation Officer at Signal where he defined the strategy and roadmap for an award-winning technology platform serving the digital marketing industry.

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