Have you ever been asked to write a review of an item you’ve already returned? Or been offered a discount on an item you bought last week? Or got solicitations for pet food despite never having owned an animal?
These are just the kind of irksome scenarios that a unified customer profile can help you avoid.
Table of contents:
- What is a unified customer profile?
- How does real-time data work?
- The case for change
- The customer view
- Indian companies that found success with a unified customer view
- Why it’s important to have a unified customer profile
- How to build a unified customer profile
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is a unified customer profile?
A unified customer profile is a record that gives you a comprehensive view of your users – this includes visitors, customers, prospects, and subscribers – based on every interaction online or offline that they have with your company.
It gives every business team a single view of every customer. All customer data, from any system, channel or stream, is harmonised in real time and powered by AI to give you insights and the power to make personalised recommendations.
How does real-time data work?
Real-time data is continually collected and translated into usable information the minute it is generated or received. Batch data processing occurs less frequently and on a set schedule, and is dependent on a series of sequences to process at set intervals.
The case for change
Organisations use an average of 1,061 apps to run their business. Only 29% of these are integrated. This disconnect means that leaders cannot generate meaningful insights from all their data; in fact, 56% consumers expect all offers to be personalised.There’s a huge gap between the services businesses think they’re delivering, and what they are actually delivering.
The customer view
When businesses lack a single record of customer activity, their interactions can feel disconnected, outdated, and frustrating. Building a unified customer profile helps you deliver connected, relevant, and timely engagements that keep customers coming back and prevent repeating information or missing out on their needs.
Indian companies that found success with a unified customer view
Croma unified customer data on Salesforce Data Cloud, empowering service teams with a 360-degree view across products, brands, and channels. With consistent, automated workflows and streamlined field operations, Croma delivered faster, personalised, and intelligent customer experiences, boosting satisfaction and loyalty in India’s competitive retail space.
Genpact unified 100+ systems using MuleSoft, enabling more than 600 data flows and 45 reusable APIs for seamless integration across its tech landscape. Data Cloud consolidated five lakh data records into a single model, giving teams a real-time, 360-degree customer view. This powerful foundation helped streamline sales, marketing, talent, and sustainability processes, delivering smarter insights and faster outcomes. As a result, Genpact reduced internal staffing turnaround times by 2x, saved Rs 100 million in hiring costs, and improved employee retention. With Salesforce, Genpact is creating a scalable, AI-powered ecosystem that adapts, evolves, and drives sustainable growth for the future.
Trailhead Quick Look
How can you unify all your customer data, across any channel and system and from any source, into a single record? Discover how on Trailhead, the free online learning platform from Salesforce.
Why it’s important to have a unified customer profile
The ways that customers interact with you are varied, numerous, and growing constantly. Each interaction not only triggers a different way to collect, process, and act on that data, but also creates a separate customer profile for the same customer!
Which of these profiles is the newest and most complete? It’s impossible to know unless they are aggregated into a single record and updated in real time. When you don’t have a complete picture of your customers:
- You send offers they don’t want or need
- You miss opportunities to send offers they do want and need
- You annoy customers by asking them to repeat information you likely already have
AI-powered unified profiles give you real-time visibility into all customer interactions (online, offline, mobile, social, etc.) so you can give them what they actually want, when they want it, instead of guessing.
“Effective journey orchestration with unified customer profiles that track user data in real time as they engage with various touch points can have a profound impact on customer satisfaction, dramatically reduce churn, and increase conversion,” notes a white paper from Tata Consulting, an IT consulting and services company. “In this digital age, a customer’s profile can never be complete since new behavior traits keep emerging continually.”
How to build a unified customer profile
Start by connecting your data sources — marketing, sales, service, commerce — into a single record. How? Mulesoft uses a combination of APIs, cloud-based integration principles, and robotic process automation (RPA) to pull data from all sources, including legacy systems. A customer relationship management (CRM) system where the apps that each team uses are connected gives you better visibility into customer activity.
Another important step: storing the new masses of customer data in a data lakehouse, which is an integrated CRM system that connects easily to a data lake, stores and harmonises data, and sends relevant information back to the customer’s profile.
This is very different from conventional approaches, which Tata Consulting says “are incapable of capturing customer data from all systems and channels, cleansing, matching, merging and enriching customer profiles in real time.”
Because customer data comes from all corners of your company — marketing, sales, service and more – maintaining a unified view should be everyone’s responsibility.
According to a KPMG article by Brad Jenkins, managing director of enterprise innovation, “Each group approaches the customer from a unique vantage point, each is focused on different cross sections of customer interactions, each generates data and insights that contribute to a unified view of the customer.”
He says that KPMG is uniting all vantage points to create rich, comprehensive, easy-accessible profiles. “We then integrate those profiles with downstream systems, used by sales and marketing, to drive relevant, unified customer experiences.”
Sai Silks Kalamandir harnesses unified data to triple marketing impact
Sai Silks Kalamandir, a leading South Indian ethnic wear retailer, consolidated over six million records into five million unified profiles using Salesforce Data Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Einstein AI, and Tableau. Powered by hyper-granular segments and AI-driven insights, they now launch personalised campaigns across media boosting engagement efficiency by 3x and saving 2,000 volunteer‐hours on campaign reporting.
Read the full story
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
A unified customer profile combines data from multiple systems including marketing, sales, service, and commerce into a single, holistic view of each customer. For Indian businesses, this means understanding behaviour, preferences, and purchase history in real time, enabling you to deliver hyper-personalised offers, consistent messaging, and timely engagement across all channels. By unifying data silos, you empower teams with insights that build stronger relationships, improve decision-making, and help you respond faster to market changes. This is key to driving loyalty and sustainable growth in a competitive market.
In today’s multi-channel world, a unified profile empowers Indian brands to track and anticipate customer needs, build trust, and deliver relevant experiences. It prevents fragmented or duplicated efforts, ensuring customers aren’t targeted with irrelevant offers or asked to repeat themselves across channels. By connecting all data into one actionable source of truth, your teams can create consistent journeys, identify sales opportunities, and proactively solve issues. A unified profile supports higher customer satisfaction, increased retention, and business resilience in the face of rapidly evolving consumer expectations.
Indian businesses can build a unified customer profile by integrating data from marketing campaigns, sales pipelines, service tickets, commerce activity, and offline interactions. CRM solutions like Salesforce make this process seamless, breaking down data silos while maintaining security and compliance. With advanced AI capabilities, you can enrich profiles with predictive insights, segment audiences more effectively, and automate personalised outreach. Not only does this improve team productivity but also ensures customers enjoy consistent, relevant interactions at every stage of their journey. In a growing digital ecosystem, unified data is the backbone of smarter, customer-centric decision-making.
