Oracle integrates CDP data in Fusion Cloud for better customer service

In a bid to cater to enterprise efforts to improve customer experience and engagement, Oracle is enabling integration of data from company’s Unity Customer Data Platform into its customer service offering, dubbed Oracle Service.

Oracle Service and the Unity CDP are part of the company’s Fusion Cloud Customer Experience (CX) offering. Oracle Service comes with the ability to automate processes, predict the need for service, and deliver tailored responses, the company said.

The integration between the CDP and Customer Service is designed to allow customer service agents gain a complete view of the customer, improve agent efficiency, and enhance service quality, Oracle said.

“Service agents frequently work from a patchwork of systems and rarely have the right data in front of them to solve customer problems efficiently and effectively,” said Jeff Wartgow, vice president of product management at Oracle’s Advertising and Customer Experience (CX) division, in a company announcement.

“By embedding data from Oracle Unity within Oracle Service, we can give service agents real-time customer insights and recommendations within the tools they already use. This will help brands drive positive engagements by making sure their customers feel heard, helped, and appreciated,” Wartgow said.

Customer service undergoes transformation

Customer service is undergoing a transformation as companies break down data silos within their systems to gather information and present it to service agents for better engagement practices, in turn providing a superior customer experience, according to market analysts.

“Customer experience management has fundamentally changed the purpose and practice of marketing — every customer interaction, customer-facing team, use case, and system must be connected to each other. The macrolevel implication for enterprise IT architecture is to tilt conventional departmental thinking on its side and solve for continuity,” a report from IDC states.

One goal of the drive to enhance customer-related applications is personalized service.

“Better visibility into customer journeys will enable agents to better anticipate needs and personalize interactions,” according to a Forrester report.

How does Unity CDP, Oracle Service integration help?

Oracle claims that the new integration between Oracle Unity and Oracle Service will enable capabilities like personalized agent routing, service-aware marketing, proactive service, and intelligent recommendations.

While personalised agent routing can be explained as a way to match customer service agents with the needs of an existing customer, service-aware marketing is the process of identifying and targeting a prospective consumer.

For example, with personalized routing, customers who search for or purchase items for dogs can get directed to an agent who is passionate about dogs, or a customer interested in items for cats can get directed to an agent who is passionate about cats.

An example of service-aware marketing is the act of identifying a customer who has expressed interest in a product or service but isn’t ready to commit to a purchase. The agent can add the customer to a follow-up marketing campaign to receive relevant offers and discounts, Oracle said, adding that customer service information can be used to improve marketing programs and even suppress customers from receiving marketing messages if they are having service issues. 

Oracle said that service agents in an enterprise can now use data and insights to  better understand customers.

“Service agents can also use data to proactively engage customers through the most appropriate and efficient channel (e.g., live chat, digital assistants, video chat). For example, with knowledge of previous customer activity, such as recently viewed pages on the website, an agent can deliver more relevant service information without having to ask questions upfront,” the company said in a blog post.

In addition, the CDP  integration will also enable customer service agents to draw intelligent recommendations to push new or parallel purchases.

For example, service agents can see that a customer recently purchased a Macbook and can therefore recommend an Apple-compatible keyboard.

IDC had placed Oracle’s CDP platform at the top of its 2022 IDC MarketScape for customer data platforms focused on data and marketing operations users.

Forrester’s New Wave B2B Standalone CDPs, Q4 2021, report also places Oracle CDP as a strong performer among other rivals such as Acquia, ActionIQ, Adobe, BlueConic, CaliberMind, Dun & Bradstreet, FirstHive, Leadspace, Lytics, Oracle, Tealium, Terminus, Twilio, and Upland Software.

Some of the other CDP competitors include Bloomreach, Insider and Klaviyo.