One thing you say for marketers is that they are hardly satisfied with themselves. And that’s especially true when it comes to their customer data capabilities.
In a recent survey by the CMO Council, 40% rated their systems as weak or worse.
Perhaps the worst grades were for the integration of data across systems and departments. Almost 40% said they were weak in this area and 18% very weak. Only 14% rated themselves as strong or very strong and another 29% as adequate.
In addition, less than 30% rated the accuracy and reliability of customer information as strong. And 21% called it weak.
The numbers were also dismal regarding the availability of useful reports and analytics. Only 18% said they were strong, vs. 33% who confessed they were weak. Ten percent described themselves as very weak, and another 35% felt they were adequate.
The glass was also less than half full when it came to the relevance of data to the marketing strategy. A third said they were weak. Only 22% rated themselves as strong or very strong.
Where do they get their customer data?
A third rely on internal CRM systems, and 16% on an aggregated internal marketing database. Only 9.1% turn to organizations and associations, and 8% to list brokers and information service providers.
Still fewer derive data from customer service, distributors or channel partners, transactional/order processing systems and magazine and directory publishers.
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