For a small team, a single customer view means that whoever picks up the phone can see the last conversation, the last message and the next step before they say hello. This post explains what a single customer view includes, why customer data usually ends up split across tools, how to build one, and how the unified contact timeline in CoreCNX provides one for teams that use the CNX Suite.
What a single customer view includes
A useful single customer view has four parts.
- Identity. Name, phone number, email address, company and address. These are the details you use to recognize the customer when they contact you again.
- Status. Where the customer stands with you, such as new lead, estimate sent or active customer, and any labels your team uses, such as the service they asked about.
- History. Every interaction, in date order, each marked with where it came from: the website chat that started the relationship, the emails they opened, the texts they answered, the visit your field team made and the notes your staff added.
- Permissions. Whether the customer has agreed to receive texts and email, and when that changed. A customer who asked you to stop texting should never be texted again because one tool did not know.
The history is the part most businesses are missing. Contact details are often already in a spreadsheet or an accounting program. The record of what happened, across every channel, is usually scattered.
Why customer data ends up split
Jordan Ellis
- CoreCNXMoved to stage: Proposal sentToday
- CampaignCNX+SMS replyYesterday
- EmailOpened email: Your estimate is ready3 days ago
- BeaconDoor knocked, Contacted1 week ago
- AlmaSubmitted info via chatbot: name, email, phone2 weeks ago
- CoreCNXNote: Wants the work finished before winter.2 weeks ago
Most small businesses do not set out to split their customer data. It happens one tool at a time.
- Each tool keeps its own list. The website chat tool keeps the people who chatted, the texting service keeps the people who were texted, the email program keeps subscribers, and the field team keeps its own appointments.
- Each tool identifies people differently. A chat tool may know only an email address. A texting service knows a phone number. A field sales app knows an address. The same customer appears in each tool under a different identifier.
- Copies drift apart. When a customer changes their phone number or asks you to stop texting, the change is made in one tool and not in the others.
As a result, a customer who chatted on your website, opened two emails and answered a text exists as three partial records, and no one on your team can see all three at once. Our guide to unified contact timelines explains this problem in more detail and shows how one record per person is built.
How to build a single customer view
Building a single customer view is mostly a matter of a few decisions, made in the right order.
Decide which system holds the record
Pick one system as the place where each customer's record lives. Other tools can keep their own copies for their own work, but they report what happened to the main record. Without one system of record, every tool becomes a partial copy and none is complete.
Match people on phone number and email address
Two entries are the same customer when they share a phone number or an email address. Phone numbers should be compared in a standard form, so that (312) 555-0142 and +1 312 555 0142 are recognized as the same number. Matching on a name alone is risky. Two customers can share a common name, and combining them mixes two histories in a way that is hard to undo. A missed match leaves a duplicate you can fix later. A wrong match is worse.
Keep facts and events apart
Facts about the customer, such as their name and phone number, are updated when they change. Events, such as a chat, an email open or a text reply, are added to the history and never overwritten. An event that can be changed later is no longer a reliable record of what happened.
Label each event with its source
Every event should show which tool recorded it. When two sources disagree, the source and the date tell you which to trust, and when a customer asks how you got their number, you can answer.
Collect both identifiers whenever you can
The most common reason a single customer view stays split is that one tool knows only a phone number and another knows only an email address. Ask for both on your website forms and chat, and import your existing customer list with both columns filled in where you have them.
What a single customer view lets a small team do
With one record per customer, a few everyday tasks become easier.
- Answer with context. A staff member who takes a call can see the customer's last message and last visit before answering.
- Hand off without starting over. When a lead moves from the person who answered the chat to the person who gives the estimate, the history moves with the record.
- Respect opt-outs. A request to stop texting is recorded on the customer's record, so the next person on your team sees it.
- See where each customer stands. Stages show who is a new lead, who has an estimate and who is an active customer, without a separate spreadsheet.
A single customer view in CoreCNX
What feeds one contact record
- BeaconDoor results, survey answers and appointments from the canvass
- CampaignCNX+Texts sent and the replies that come back
- AlmaLeads and conversations from your website chatbot
- EmailOpens, clicks, bounces and unsubscribes, through SendGrid
- Your teamNotes, tags, stage changes and follow-up dates
One record per person
Matched by phone number first, then by email address. The same event sent twice is recorded once.
Keep one record per customer, with every interaction on its timeline. CoreCNX is the CRM in the CNX Suite, and its unified contact timeline is a single customer view for teams that use the suite's other products:
- Website chats from Alma. Alma, the suite's website chatbot, sends each lead it captures, and each finished conversation with a visitor who has given an email address or phone number, to the customer's record. Appointments booked through the chat window are added too.
- Texts from CampaignCNX+. Texts sent, delivery results, replies and opt-outs are added to the customer's timeline. An opt-out updates the customer's text consent, with a dated record of the change.
- Visits from Beacon. Beacon, the suite's field app, sends each door result and each appointment booked in the field.
- Email through SendGrid. Opens, clicks, bounces and unsubscribes from email you send in CoreCNX are added to the timeline, and an unsubscribe updates the customer's email consent.
- Your team's own work. Notes, tags, tasks, follow-up dates and stage changes are recorded on the same timeline.
Each event is matched to a customer by phone number first and then by email address, and a new record is created only when neither matches. An event that arrives twice is recorded once. Each line on the timeline is marked with the product that recorded it, and the timeline can be filtered by source. CampaignCNX+ identifies people by phone number, so import your customer list with phone numbers and email addresses before you connect the other products. That way each text, chat and visit lands on the record you already have.
CoreCNX plans start at $49 a month for 5,000 contacts and 5 users, with no per-user fee. Our page on CoreCNX for business teams covers importing from another CRM and the plans that fit a small sales team. For a closer look at how the record is designed, read our post on why we built CoreCNX around one timeline.
Common questions
Is a single customer view the same as a CRM?
Not always. A CRM (customer relationship management software) is a shared database of your contacts and your history with them. Many CRMs show only the activity that happened inside the CRM itself. A single customer view includes activity from your other tools as well.
Do we need several tools before this matters?
No. Even a small team produces emails, notes, tasks and stage changes, and those belong on one record. The benefit grows as you add channels such as website chat and texting.
What if a customer uses a different email address for each tool?
They will be matched if they share a phone number. If two records share neither a phone number nor an email address, they stay separate until someone on your team confirms they are the same person.
Start with your customer list
Import your current customer list with phone numbers and email addresses, then look up a few customers you know well. Start a 14-day CoreCNX trial and see whether one record per customer makes your team's work easier.
