Mistakes in Identity Resolution that could be Costing Your Business Customers

Mistakes in Identity Resolution that could be Costing Your Business Customers

Which is the most important mantra that digital marketers in the business world need to follow today? It is, “Know thy customer”. Getting to know your customer is not an easy task. What is required is identity resolution (IR). The latter is the process of matching data points from different sources to draw up a complete picture of an individual.

It’s a critical part of marketing, as it allows businesses to target ads and content to the right people. Unfortunately, many marketers continue to struggle with identity resolution, mostly on two fronts: lack of data and the complexity of the process. That is why they lose out on opportunities to connect with their customers.

But even those enterprises that do implement IR need to be careful, since mistakes in profiling can turn out to be costly. In this article, we’ll explore the mistakes that marketers make with ID Res, and how they can be avoided.

How Identity Resolution can Benefit

The process of identifying a customer involve the linking of data points across multiple data sources. This enables you to create a 360 degree picture of an individual. By understanding who your customers are, you can more effectively target them with marketing and advertising messages.

Additionally, identity resolution can help you avoid potential mistakes such as sending the same message to multiple people or targeting the wrong audience. When done correctly, identity resolution can be a powerful tool for any business.

How is Identity Resolution and Customer Data Platform Linked?

Identity resolution, the process of determining which data points refer to the same real-world entity, is a critical function in a customer data platform (CDP), as it allows businesses to connect disparate data sets and get a complete view of their customers.

A CDP helps interpret customer data so that you can create effective, personalized customer experiences. CDPs like Express Analytics’ Oyster have the ability to collect and unify all customer-related data, across online and offline touchpoints, to create a 360-degree view of a single user.

Thus, it helps manage fragmented data across multiple channels so you can track customer behavior and deliver intelligent recommendations (in real-time).

The CDP usually focuses on ingestion, segmentation, and activation of data. Identity resolution is at the heart of all of those processes. In order to develop more accurate customer journey analytics, identity resolution plays a prominent role in organizing customer data.

If you want to read the complete blog post on a CDP and its benefits, click here. 

Flaws in Traditional Approaches to Customer Identity Resolution

Inaccurate data is one of the most common problems facing businesses today. In fact, according to a recent study, bad data costs US businesses an estimated $3 trillion each year. One of the biggest contributors to this is poor customer identity resolution.

Traditional approaches to ID resolution, such as deterministic matching and probabilistic matching, are often inaccurate and can lead to lost customers and wasted marketing spend.

Here are some of the most common mistakes businesses make when trying to resolve their customers’ identities:

1. Not verifying the identity of the customer. Verifying the identity of a customer is essential in order to protect their personal information. If you don’t verify their identity, a hacker could potentially access their account and steal their data.
2. Using the wrong customer identifier. When trying to identify a customer, it’s crucial to use the correct customer identifier. This identifier can be a customer’s name, email address, or other contact information.
3. Not correctly matching the customer’s account information with their identity. If you’re trying to identify a customer, it’s important to match their account information with their identity. This means verifying the customer’s name, email address, and other contact information.
4. Not enforcing anti-spoofing measures. When you’re trying to identify a customer, it’s important to enforce anti-spoofing measures. This means verifying the customer’s identity using methods that don’t rely on their contact information.
5. Using too many verification steps during registration or checkout processes for new customers. On top of this list we have using too many verification steps during registration or checkout processes for new customers.

How to Overcome the Flaws

Traditional analyst approaches to customer identity resolution were often flawed. As a result, customers would be lost and resources would be wasted. Businesses can improve their customer experience by adopting a holistic, accurate approach to IR.

Here’s how:

1. As a rule of thumb, deterministic and probabilistic matching techniques should only be used when necessary. Most of the time, these matching techniques are inaccurate, which could lead to wasted marketing dollars. Ensure the accuracy of your data by using them only when necessary.
2. Be sure to verify the identity of the customer without relying on their contact information. Verifying the identity of a customer is one of the most basic mistakes businesses make. You can use email verification, social security numbers, or national identity numbers to verify your identity.
3. Identify the customer using a unique identifier. It is imperative to use the correct customer identifier when trying to identify a customer. An example of such a parameter would be a customer’s name, email address, or other contact information.
4. Ensure anti-spoofing measures are enforced while verifying customer profiles.  Spoofing the identity of a victim is one of the most common ways hackers exploit identity theft. It is possible to prevent that from happening if you ensure this.

In conclusion: If you’re in the business world, you know that one of the most important things to do is “know thy customer.” Identity resolution is a process of matching data points from different sources to create a complete profile of a customer. If you’re not careful though, mistakes in identity resolution can cost your business customers. This article has laid out such mistakes and the ways to avoid them.