The single customer view (SCV) is not a new concept. It’s long been perceived as marketing’s holy grail – the ultimate solution, promising deep, seamless personalization, smarter decision-making and unparalleled operational efficiency.
So why are we still just talking about it? And why now?
It’s easy to assume that all this renewed attention around the SCV is reflective of the new era of data.
The explosion of data and technology hasn’t just expanded the potential of the SCV – the pressure to deliver increasingly personalized customer experiences has turned the SCV into a constantly moving target with escalating costs and growing complexity.
But is that really enough reason for the lack of progress?
Why SCV initiatives fall short
The challenge isn’t convincing stakeholders and teams anymore; that case has already been made. The real challenge lies in execution – turning the SCV from an aspirational concept into a practical, actionable reality. To do so means navigating the major technical, cultural and operational hurdles that keep so many organizations stuck in neutral.
The reality is that achieving a ‘true SCV’ – one that integrates all customer data seamlessly across all functions – is not only challenging, but for most organizations, it’s often unrealistic.
The idea is deeply appealing, but in practice, it overlooks a lot of the fundamental operational and cultural realities that are inherent to many organizations, especially when dealing with the scale and complexity of enterprises.
Internal departments don’t just use data differently, they prioritize entirely distinct types of data. What’s mission-critical to marketing is usually irrelevant to finance, while customer service teams need access to a completely separate subset of the data landscape.
The real challenge lies in execution – turning the SCV from an aspirational concept into a practical, actionable reality.
And then there’s the issue of scale. Vast amounts of structured and unstructured data, customer relationship management records, invoicing habits, clickstream analytics, email engagement metrics – the list goes on. Harmonizing all of that into a single cohesive and compliant system slams most SCV initiatives into technical and cultural walls.
However, the cost of neglecting SCV altogether is high, resulting in missed opportunities and unmet customer expectations. Research indicates that 82 percent of global B2B marketing decision-makers agree that their customers expect personalized communication and experiences across their marketing and sales journey.
SCV undoubtedly helps brands meet these expectations while reducing wasted marketing spend, leading to greater efficiency and far higher returns. But what stands as the key to unlocking personalization for marketers, to those who own data within the organization such as chief information officers, chief technology officers or chief data officers, it is a technically sprawling project riddled with risk.
And therein lies the problem – the drive behind most SCV initiatives often starts in the wrong place, asking the wrong questions.
Wrong place, right time
Too many organizations set out to build an all-encompassing, enterprise-wide SCV, aiming to achieve a singular, unified truth about the customer. The scope quickly becomes unwieldy. Budgets spiral out of control. Resistance builds as different stakeholders fight for ownership or push back against what feels like a complex, risky and unnecessary undertaking. The problem isn’t ambition, it’s misdirection.
The goal shouldn’t be to achieve a mythical ‘single truth’ about the customer; it’s about defining what’s truly useful by asking a tougher and far more valuable question: What version of the truth do we actually need, and how do we ensure that it delivers results?
Focus on fit-for-purpose, not perfection
The reality is that most organizations don’t need a perfect SCV. What they need is clarity and an approach tailored to their specific goals and challenges. The SCV isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution that can be applied universally across organizations – it’s a framework.
And the first step toward building that framework is to start at the end and work backwards. Begin by asking:
• What are the outcomes you need to achieve?
• Which use cases matter most to your organization?
The key here lies in shifting the focus from unattainable perfection to creating a fit-for-purpose framework, one that’s designed to deliver actionable insights aligned with specific business outcomes.
Make your data work smarter, not harder
Historically, consolidating customer data relied on Enterprise Data Warehouses (EDWs) and data lakes – broad, large-scale solutions that were often unwieldy and expensive.
Today, Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) offer a more focused alternative, enabling organizations to bring together structured, actionable customer touchpoint data. And unlike EDWs, CDPs are designed to feed data into real-time decision-making processes, making it much easier for teams to connect, process and act on insights.
For organizations looking to create a fit-for-purpose SCV, incorporating tools like CDPs can simplify the journey, allowing teams to prioritize the data that drives meaningful business outcomes. Because it isn’t about having every piece of data, it’s about asking the questions that get you the right data for the right purpose. For example:
• What data does marketing need to identify and target the right audiences effectively?
• What behavioral insights are going to help sales engage and convert leads?
• What life cycle engagement patterns are the most important for delivering exceptional customer experiences?
Anchoring the initiative in very clearly defined use cases first shifts the narrative from ‘we need all the data’ to ‘this is the data we need to achieve these outcomes.’
A targeted, outcome-driven approach like this narrows the scope, making it far more achievable and valuable. And, perhaps most importantly, by focusing on the data and the outcomes that matter most, you’re able to ensure that stakeholders can see – and champion – the results right from the outset.
Chunk the elephant
The next big mistake organizations make is trying to eat the elephant whole. A fit-for-purpose SCV doesn’t happen all at once; it’s built incrementally by focusing on what will drive the greatest impact first.
The goal isn’t to try and solve every data challenge overnight, but to take the most practical, high-value steps that align most closely with your defined use cases. What’s critical to accept from the outset is that the data will never be perfect. The key is in ensuring that whatever data you do have is at once actionable and relevant to your goals.
The goal isn’t to try and solve every data challenge overnight, but to take the most practical, high-value steps that align most closely with your defined use cases.
Narrow your focus, prioritize what actually matters and take the incremental steps necessary to deliver immediate value while paving the way for long-term success.
Calculating the ROI of that progress requires a narrower focus, too – one aligned with your specific objectives. Marketing teams who rely heavily on digital interactions benefit from detailed audience segmentation and selection, opportunity mapping, interest caption and detailed understanding of the customer.
By capturing and understanding their audiences’ preferences, marketing teams are also better positioned to predict their next best actions, leading to informed decisions and investments, instead of using hope as a strategy.
Progress over perfection
While this approach pulls SCV from the realm of mythical perfection into something far more realistic and attainable, organizations still need to tread carefully.
Overstepping boundaries risks alienating customers with personalization that can feel invasive. Privacy laws governing the use of personal data must be navigated thoughtfully and addressing internal risk aversion is critical to ensuring that progress doesn’t stall.
It’s about embracing progress: building a dynamic, evolving SCV capability that balances financial and ethical considerations while adapting to the changing needs of your organization, your teams and your customers.
The SCV isn’t just a technical aspiration, it’s a strategic framework that aligns people, processes and data. And for those organizations willing to take a more pragmatic and strategic approach to it, the rewards are more than impactful.
