A single customer view is an
aggregated, consistent and holistic
representation of the
data
Data ( , ) are a collection of discrete or continuous values that convey information, describing the quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted for ...
held by an organisation about its customers that can be viewed in one place, such as a single page. The advantage to an organisation of attaining this unified view comes from the ability it gives to analyse past behaviour in order to better target and personalise future customer interactions. A single customer view is also considered especially relevant where organisations engage with customers through
multichannel marketing
Multichannel marketing is the blending of different distribution and promotional channels for the purpose of marketing. Distribution (marketing), Distribution channels include a retail storefront, a website, or a mail-order catalogue.
Multichann ...
, since customers expect those interactions to reflect a consistent understanding of their history and preferences. However, some commentators have challenged the idea that a single view of customers across an entire organisation is either natural or meaningful, proposing that the priority should instead be consistency between the multiple views that arise in different contexts.
Where representations of a customer are held in more than one
data set
A data set (or dataset) is a collection of data. In the case of tabular data, a data set corresponds to one or more table (database), database tables, where every column (database), column of a table represents a particular Variable (computer sci ...
, achieving a single customer view can be difficult: firstly because customer identity must be traceable between the records held in those systems, and secondly because anomalies or discrepancies in the customer data must be
data cleansed for
data quality
Data quality refers to the state of qualitative or quantitative pieces of information. There are many definitions of data quality, but data is generally considered high quality if it is "fit for tsintended uses in operations, decision making and ...
. As such, the acquisition by an organisation of a single customer view is one potential outcome of successful
master data management
Master data management (MDM) is a discipline in which business and information technology collaborate to ensure the uniformity, accuracy, stewardship, semantic consistency, and accountability of the enterprise's official shared master data assets. ...
. Since 31 December, 2010, maintaining a single customer view, and submitting it within 72 hours, has become mandatory for
financial institution
A financial institution, sometimes called a banking institution, is a business entity that provides service as an intermediary for different types of financial monetary transactions. Broadly speaking, there are three major types of financial ins ...
s in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
due to new rules introduced by the
Financial Services Compensation Scheme
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) is the UK's statutory compensation scheme for customers of UK authorised financial services firms. This means it can step in to pay compensation if a firm is unable, or likely to be unable, to p ...
.
See also
*
Data warehouse
In computing, a data warehouse (DW or DWH), also known as an enterprise data warehouse (EDW), is a system used for Business intelligence, reporting and data analysis and is a core component of business intelligence. Data warehouses are central Re ...
References
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Identity management
Business intelligence terms
Data management
Data warehousing