360-degree customer view? You have the data, now bring it together, with PieSync

When substantial businesses decide they want to synchronize their customer data across the many different applications in daily use, they often employ teams of developers to achieve this. The specialists then dive into code layers and APIs, setting up pathways between the in-house CRM and, for instance, a database of contacts held in the cloud by a different department.

CRMs have often been deployed as a single source of truth, integrated with other applications. However, in many instances, CRMs never took a pivotal role, and the integrations deployed didn’t fulfil the functions they were designed to serve – either relying on manual import/export, or pushing data on occasion, not in real-time.

To create what digital marketers are now calling a customer data platform (CDP) data from across corporate channels needs bringing into a single platform.

Sources which create such a platform might include, for example, call center interactions, connected device data & sales data, mobile apps, customer lifecycle trends, websites, social media, and email. The key to a successful CDP is achieving a multi-way synchronization in real-time between all of these data sources, so no application uses out of date information.

Source: Piesync

Now even the smallest organization can synchronize its customer data from app to app, with no need to code, or know the first thing about RESTful APIs, XML, JSON or SOAP.

Belgian company PieSync offers a solution (itself cloud-based and available as-a-service – SaaS) that intelligently links apps like Zoho, Quickbooks, Exchange, Gmail, Eventbrite, and many hundreds more.

Synchronization is simple to set up and can be one-way or two-way, according to needs. The interlinks are built up using a clear web-based interface. The software asks for access to the same apps you use every day and then does the rest in the background – ensuring that data entered once appears everywhere. And if the data alters in any way on a distant system, the changes percolate back right through the organization.

This means that your sales department will be using the same data as marketing and the customer care team can see up-to-the-minute financial data, like payment histories. Potential new leads’ details can be used for gentle marketing activity – easing prospects down the sales funnel, for example – and when the new contact becomes a customer, there’ll be no need to copy & paste from the sales database into the other systems’ interfaces.

The 360-degree overview of every customer, supplier, member of staff, third-party partner (and so forth) is kept bang up to date, leaving the teams to spend their time not on exporting and importing .csv documents, but selling the product, providing the service – whatever your business does.

Database cleaning or administration often involves dozens of hours of work every week. Businesses can save on average 15 percent of staff time by letting PieSync’s routines do the work of traditional database administration. That’s a significant saving in itself, and re-tasking staff whose job it was to undertake repetitive, menial admin of this nature can be redeployed to make a more positive impact on the organization overall.

Source: Piesync

With PieSync, it’s worth noting, there’s no requirement to tear up every in-house or remote system your business already uses. Organizations can keep using the systems they’ve spent money on; those in which there’s been a significant investment, both monetarily and in terms of staff training & acceptance. You stay in full control of the software tools of your choice.

Furthermore, as new applications or tools become available, PieSync makes it easy to switch or adopt them – paramount in keeping the competitive edge.

With accurate data in every corner of the business, there are no embarrassing moments when invoices get sent to old addresses (the new address perhaps languishing in a customer care database) or when clients call, and the person answering the phone doesn’t have a history of their interactions with the company.

Instead, the all-round view afforded by the CDP of the customer applies right across the company, a process which carries on in the background, according to the data flows you set up. And as the business grows, you just pay a little more each month if your contact list grows, and you expand.

With up-to-date data, your reports will be accurate, so planning strategy doesn’t get off on the wrong footing, and predictions get made on falsehoods. With PieSync, you remain informed and up-to-date, at all times.

To learn more about PieSync, and how its contacts synchronization solutions can make life easier and more productive click here to start a free trial. One of their sync experts will get in touch with you to go over some ideal synchronization setups for your business.