When marketers get excessively caught up successful chasing the “golden record” successful a customer information platform (CDP), they tin let “identity” to foul up their use cases. So let’s look astatine wherefore creating a azygous lawsuit illustration successful your CDP isn’t ever perfect and however you tin make the close procedures for merging records.

When creating a ‘golden record’ ruins the lawsuit experience 

Sometimes, stitching unneurotic each of a customer’s accusation into a azygous illustration tin accidentally interfere with your usage cases. Let maine illustrate.

While readying a household trip, I added my girl Anne arsenic a impermanent connected the preservation done her idiosyncratic email address. But she received a reminder astir the travel from the question institution successful her enactment email, which made her nervous. Why did they nonstop the reminder to her enactment email? Who told them astir her enactment email?  

Near arsenic I tin tell, this is what happened. Anne had created an relationship with the question institution utilizing her enactment email for a work-related event. Somewhere on the way, the question institution added her idiosyncratic email to that profile. When I added her idiosyncratic email to the impermanent list, the question institution attached that enactment to her profile, truthful erstwhile it came clip to nonstop retired a reminder, it utilized the default email successful that profile, which was her enactment address. In different words, successful an over-zealous effort to make a “golden record” for Anne, they forgot the intent of the usage case: to nonstop a reminder to the impermanent email that’s entered for the event. 

Take different example. Joe is simply a bully customer. He’s an bureau manager, and helium buys things from your store for his company. But helium has a broadside hustle and buys galore of the aforesaid things for idiosyncratic use. He keeps those accounts separate, utilizing abstracted email addresses. Merging those records doesn’t assistance your narration with Joe. It annoys the heck retired of him and gets him successful occupation with accounting. 

Dig deeper: The story of the azygous lawsuit record

And past there’s my experience. I enactment arsenic a advisor for galore antithetic companies. Sometimes I request accounts connected the aforesaid work for antithetic clients connected antithetic email addresses. Some services won’t let a lawsuit to person aggregate accounts with the aforesaid telephone fig for two-factor authentication. So I indispensable find a workaround that doesn’t assistance the work supplier oregon me. 

These are each examples wherever merging records astir a idiosyncratic tin ruin a lawsuit experience. On the different hand, determination are instances wherever you amended merge the records. For instance, if you’re a edifice delivering nutrient and cognize that Sam has an allergy, you indispensable guarantee that accusation migrates crossed each Sam’s accounts. 

Merging lawsuit records: When to bash it and how

The bottommost enactment is clear: usage cases are much important than identity. But however bash you cognize erstwhile and what to merge? I’ve created 2 frameworks to enactment done these issues: the device framework and the person framework. By reasoning done each usage lawsuit with some frameworks, you tin make the close procedures for merging records. 

Device framework 

The instrumentality model is however astir radical enactment done lawsuit information issues. 

Device profile: A instrumentality makes a petition to your site. Your CDP creates a illustration for that instrumentality and collects accusation astir it. At this level, you tin conception connected things similar operating system, geography, surface size, etc. 

Activity: If that instrumentality makes aggregate requests, you tin enrich the illustration with different information, specified arsenic the benignant of contented accessed. With this enactment information, you tin conception connected things similar “likes videos” oregon “accesses taxation content.” 

Identifiers: Some of the device’s activities assistance to constrictive down who is down that device. For example, a instrumentality mightiness marque a petition to your tract aft clicking connected 1 of your emails. That helps to make narrower segments and, successful immoderate cases, helps you to place the person. Identifiers tin beryllium utilized to make almighty segments, similar “everyone who is registered for our e-newsletter.” 

Person: Some identifiers marque a beardown transportation to a person, portion others lone hint astatine the person’s identity. As you cod identifiers, you tin sometimes resoluteness the illustration down to a peculiar idiosyncratic with much oregon little certainty, depending connected the quality of the identifiers you person collected. Once you person a illustration identified with a person, you tin make usage cases specified arsenic presenting renewal offers adjacent expiration. 

People

The idiosyncratic model helps you debar the abovementioned problems, similar Anne’s interest astir misusing her enactment email oregon my troubles with two-factor authentication. This model requires america to measurement retired of a data-centered satellite and deliberation astir the existent lives of existent people. 

Person: Rather than starting with a instrumentality illustration and trying to resoluteness it down to a person, we commencement with a idiosyncratic and ideate however that idiosyncratic behaves successful the existent world. Let’s instrumentality to Joe, your bully lawsuit who purchases bureau instrumentality for enactment and his location business. 

Devices: Joe has 2 phones: 1 from the bureau and 1 for idiosyncratic use. He’s cautious to bash bureau enactment connected 1 and home/personal enactment connected the other. Joe besides has an bureau PC but a Mac astatine home. Again, helium uses 1 for bureau enactment and the different for his ain ventures. 

Identifiers: Joe is cautious astir keeping things separate. His bureau email is for bureau work, his idiosyncratic email is for friends and household and helium has different email code for his broadside hustle. Joe does not privation these merged oregon confused. 

Personas: Rather than reasoning of Joe arsenic a azygous person, you person to deliberation of Joe’s 3 chiseled personas: Office Joe, Personal Joe and Side Hustle Joe. 

Dig deeper: 19 CDP usage cases that tin annoy oregon prosecute your customers

Using these frameworks for your usage cases 

Now that we person the basics let’s instrumentality 1 usage lawsuit and enactment it done some frameworks. The usage lawsuit is: “Send applicable occupation listings to each mechanical engineers who opt into our occupation postings email.” 

Device framework 

The apical of the instrumentality funnel doesn’t assistance overmuch with this usage lawsuit due to the fact that we can’t place mechanical engineers by what benignant of instrumentality they use. Once we get to the enactment level, we tin find profiles that predominant contented applicable to mechanical engineers.

We tin usage on-site quizzes oregon elemental questionnaires to stitchery identifiers. In this case, occupation title. Once we person the occupation title, we tin make a conception of mechanical engineers and beforehand the “sign up for occupation listings for mechanical engineers” email list. 

That’s bully capable for this usage case. We don’t request to resoluteness individuality down to the person, though a sanction mightiness beryllium suitable for personalizing the emails. Resolving things down to the idiosyncratic mightiness make a problem, arsenic we’ll see. 

Person framework 

Julia, our mechanical engineer, works for a institution that doesn’t instrumentality kindly to radical looking astir for caller gigs. The IT section monitors each the emails that travel to bureau addresses. Because of this, Julia is cautious to support her enactment and idiosyncratic lives separate. 

While she lone has 1 laptop, she does each her bureau enactment successful Chrome and each her idiosyncratic browsing (from home) successful Firefox. She signs up for the occupation posts email connected her idiosyncratic account, but not connected her enactment account. 

If an overzealous information idiosyncratic merged these 2 accounts into 1 illustration for Julia and started sending the job-post emails to Julia’s enactment address, Julia would not beryllium happy. 

Rethink illustration merging with these frameworks

People are much analyzable than your information operation recognizes, truthful it’s indispensable to presumption your usage cases from 2 perspectives: 

• From the information broadside (the instrumentality framework).
• By imagining the beingness experiences and concerns of existent radical who often enactment online done antithetic personas. 

Make definite you operation your data, merge rules and usage cases to let radical to enactment wrong immoderate personas suit them. Don’t effort excessively hard to make a azygous illustration for each idiosyncratic successful each case.