Use Customer Insights - Data for a complete solution
Customer Insights - Data simplifies your organization's ability to unify and understand your customer data across different data sources. Additionally, it can be extended into other applications to create a complete solution. This capability lets users in your organization take advantage of Customer Insights data in the context of their role in the organization and in their interactions with the customer.
After configuring the necessary components, you can use Customer Insights to enhance the following applications:
Model-driven applications - Audience can ingest data from model-driven applications such as Dynamics 365 Sales or Dynamics 365 Customer Service. Additionally, insights that are captured in the application can be surfaced directly on customer records in model-driven apps.
Power Apps - Apps that are created in Power Apps can be connected to Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Data as a data source. This capability lets you use data from the unified customer profile and data from other applications simultaneously.
Power Automate - With Power Automate, you can run actions in other line-of-business applications based on data that is surfaced from Customer Insights - Data or on actions triggered in applications that are connected to Customer Insights - Data.
Power BI - The Customer Insights - Data Power BI connector enables you to use the unified customer profile within Microsoft Power BI to further analyze and uncover insight.
The following example is what a real-world scenario might look like.
Contoso Coffee produces high-quality coffee and coffee machines, which they retail through channels including their new Contoso retail stores in premium locations, high-end food resellers, and on the Contoso Coffee website.
Contoso plans to further expand their offerings with Contoso Cafés and a new Connected Coffee Machine, which can trigger refill orders and alert Contoso service about any issues. This new offering helps the company build direct relationships with their customers and learn more about how customers consume their products
Business objective
Contoso's current business model doesn't provide them with a direct relationship with their customers. For this reason, they're unable to deliver personalized customer experiences. Contoso wants to own and build a meaningful, direct relationship with all consumers to deliver an exceptional, personalized customer experience through relevant communications, personalized recommendations, and services.
Contoso ingested all their data into a unified customer profile that provides them with all relevant data about their customers. They want to take the data that they now have and use it throughout their entire operation.
The company identified three main areas to focus on:
Making Customer Insights data (such as activities, measures, and customer profile information) available to staff while they're working in Dynamics 365 Sales or Customer Service.
Creating a "greeter app" that assists their retail staff in delivering more personalized customer experiences and provide recommendations based on historical data.
Gaining a deeper understanding of their business by uncovering insights for different functions of their business.
The following sections examine each one of their objectives to determine how it can be accomplished.
Surface Customer Insights data in model-driven applications
With the Customer Insights - Data Customer Card add-in that is available in AppSource, data that Customer Insights - Data captures can be surfaced on each contact record in Contoso's Dynamics 365 Sales or Service applications. When employees open a customer record, they can gain deeper insights through three Customer Insights - Data components:
Customer Insights - Data Timeline - Activities that represent purchases that customers made on the company's website or while at retail stores could be displayed in the Customer Insights - Data Timeline control on the card in the application.
KPI - Employees have access to important Customer Insights - Data measures such as Average Web Purchases, Lifetime Spend, and so on, directly from within their model-driven application.
Demographics - This configurable control can display important information from the unified customer profile.
Additionally, data from Dynamics 365 Sales or Customer Service can be ingested and used in the customer profile. For example, activities such as phone calls, meetings, or tasks could be ingested as needed.
Create a greeter app to deliver personalized service
With Power Apps, Contoso could create a "greeter" application and connect it directly to the unified customer profile in Customer Insights - Data. From the application, greeters at retail stores can check in on the customer while they wait for a sales associate to assist them and have access to all the information in that customer's profile. After the customer is checked in and directed to a sales associate, the associate could be presented with next step recommendations based on information that is captured in Dynamics 365.
The "Greeter" application might resemble the preceding image and would:
Use Customer Insights - Data as its primary data source.
Use Power Automate to:
Create a check-in activity in Dynamics 365.
Check-in activity data would be populated from Customer Profile information that is surfaced in the Power App.
Create a product recommendation card from Dynamics 365 Sales Insights.
This card could provide product recommendations or next steps.
Help the greeter present the recommendations to the associate in the Power App.
Uncover insights with Power BI
The Customer Insights - Data Power BI connector would connect to Audience Insights as a data source. Rich Power BI visualizations could be created and used to provide more insights.
