CDP

What is a Customer Data Platform?

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) is a system that collects, unifies, and manages customer data from various sources, creating a complete and always up-to-date customer profile. A CDP acts as a data management layer between data lakes and business functions like marketing, sales, and loyalty, centralizing information to provide a 360-degree view of each customer.

If a CRM can be seen as a “customer directory” and a Data Management Platform (DMP) as a “targeted advertising engine,” a CDP is something entirely different: it’s the central brain that connects, integrates, organizes, and makes customer data available from every touchpoint.

Why is a CDP important?

In today’s increasingly complex and omnichannel digital landscape, companies engage with customers across numerous touchpoints, generating massive amounts of data. A Customer Data Platform brings all this information together to create a more complete customer profile. Typically, a CDP aggregates data from CRM systems, e-commerce platforms, social media, and other sources.

Data Cloud: the best CDP for Salesforce users

Among the top solutions on the market, Salesforce Data Cloud stands out as a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Customer Data Platforms. The platform makes it easy to connect to any data source – structured or unstructured – thanks to pre-built connectors, APIs, and cloud integrations. Data is harmonized into a canonical model that delivers a unified and consistent view of the customer.

This unified view enables highly personalized customer experiences, allowing companies to trigger data-driven actions and workflows that generate greater value at every touchpoint. Using a CDP is a cornerstone of any successful Loyalty Management strategy.

Data Cloud is also the perfect partner for all of Agentforce’s artificial intelligence projects. We shared our first Agentforce project for Boscolo Tours here.