Dynamics 365 Customer Insights: All You Need to Know

Imagine a scenario where you can combine different data sources to create personalised experiences and predict customer behaviour, such as churn rates, which enhance customer experience. What a boon for a business!"

Thus, you can take advantage of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights to ensure you maximise your data. It collates all disconnected data into a single source, processes it, and offers you 360-degree insight into the customer. In fact, companies using Dynamics 365 Customer Insights have reported sales gains as high as 20% attributable to personalised marketing campaigns enabled by it.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights: What Is It?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights is an AI-driven platform that integrates various customer data into actionable insight. Businesses can improve customer experience, enhance marketing effectiveness, and drive personalised engagement across channels.

While collecting data is straightforward, making sense of that data is considerably more complex. The platform serves two core functions:

Customer Insights—Data: This gives organisations the ability to put together various sources of data, such as CRMs, transactional databases, and third-party applications, so that all information relating to customers is centred.

Customer Insights—Journeys: This feature enables customer engagement initiatives based on personalised and AI-driven omnichannel customer journeys that stimulate deeper interactions and retention.

Key Features and Capabilities of D365 Customer Insights

It is important to develop a clear understanding of the core functionalities of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights pertaining to supporting data-enabled decision-making within businesses.

Data Unification from Multiple Sources

Dispersed data in different departments is usually hidden like scattered puzzle pieces within a business. In Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, organisations can unify data from diverse sources, including Salesforce, LinkedIn, Azure, or other third-party APIs. The unified data is stored in Azure Data Lake Storage, thereby providing a single source of truth.

360-Degree Customer View

Integrating data from different touchpoints allows the creation of a 360-degree view of the customer. This will allow you to see all interactions, purchases, and customer preferences from one dashboard. The bird’s-eye view allows you to see what your customer wants. It thus enables better decision-making, more efficient targeting, and hyper-personalisation of marketing campaigns.

Real-Time Data Insights

Using Dynamics 365, insights into customer behaviour can be gleaned in real-time with the intention of predicting customer demand. Thus, enabling prompt decisions to avoid loss of opportunities. For example, suppose high-value cart abandonment occurred for some of the prospects. Thus, the platform will suggest applying a discount to support sales better.

AI and ML Capabilities

AI and ML capabilities become prebuilt, making it possible for organisations to predict customer behaviour, churn risk, and campaign optimisation. Think of it as a crystal ball, anticipating customer needs before they manifest.

Journey Orchestration Across Various Channels

Customer Insights – Journeys come with various utilities, including email campaigns and team notifications, that ultimately assist you in creating seamless and personalised customer journeys. These connections will help you keep customers engaged in the flow through various channels via consistent and relevant interactions at each customer touchpoint.

Seamless Integration

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights integrates well with other Microsoft solutions such as Power BI, Azure, and third parties to complete the tech stack.

What Are the Benefits of Using Dynamics 365 Customer Insights?

Use Dynamics 365 Customer Insights to improve customer segmentation, personalise interactions, increase retention, and optimise operational efficiency. 

Improved Customer Segmentation and Targeting

You don’t need to do the hit-and-trial method. Segment customers into laser-focused categories based on demographics, behaviours, and transaction histories for much more specific targeting. For instance, segment "manufacturing CTOs exploring IoT solutions" or "healthcare providers with expiring contracts" to really nail it with relevance.

Personal Validation

Based on AI-guided insights, businesses can tailor marketing campaigns and engage with customers based on individual preferences, fuelling customer relationships. For instance, the show could represent SaaS pricing tiers to CFOs, and technical demos could be focused on engineers.

Higher Marketing ROI

Eliminating guesswork reduces waste on ad spending, which helps increase conversion rates with the usage of AI-powered recommendations.

Increased Customer Retention and Loyalty

Retention is a tough nut to crack, but just by being armed with data, engagement strategies can strengthen the relationship with the consumer and ultimately help the consumer become more loyal.

Operational Efficiency

Automating customer insights and data processing substantially reduces manual effort on the side of a business and allows businesses to focus on what truly matters.

Leveraging Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights

Copilot, Microsoft's built-in AI, is set to propel customers' insight towards the next level. You can use the AI assistant to do something against the data and make data-based business decisions.

This is what you can do using Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights:

Data Exploration and Analysis

Copilot enables the use of simple language to describe selection criteria. For example, you can type "customers who bought shoes in the last month," and Copilot translates this into a segment query for you. This allows users to create accurate customer segments without needing sophisticated technical skills.

AI-Assisted Journey Creation

You can describe your journey goals and objectives in natural language, and Copilot will provide real-time journey recommendations. For instance, if you type, "Create a journey that sends a welcome email to all customers in the loyalty member segment," Copilot will provide a detailed journey plan, including touchpoints and transitions.

Streamlined Campaign Management

Copilot simplifies the process of creating and managing marketing campaigns. It offers suggestions to provide the best terms, modifies the language for optimal results, and helps to customise customer journeys to keep every touchpoint consistently relevant.

Personalised Recommendations

Copilot analyses customer data and makes personal recommendations that allow engaging customers with pertinent offers based on their stated interests and prior behaviour.

Getting Started with Dynamics 365 Customer Insights

Customer insights might seem overwhelming, but by taking the right approach, businesses can seamlessly integrate and certainly make the most of it.

Setup & Configuration

1. Choose Your Environment: Deploy on Azure for scalability or use the SaaS version for plug-and-play ease.

2. Connect Data Sources: Use prebuilt connectors, like Dynamics 365 Sales CRM, Shopify, or custom APIs.

3. Define Matching Rules: Teach the system how to merge duplicate records. For instance, “John Doe” vs. “J. Doe” are the same.

Data Import & Unification Process

Bringing all your data under one roof is the first step. Dynamics 365 offers built-in connectors and APIs to bridge the gap between different data sources.

Batch Uploads: CSV/Excel files for historical data.

Streaming Ingestion: Real-time data from IoT or transactional systems.

Enhancing Customer Profiles

By enriching existing customer profiles with external data like social media interactions and web activity, businesses gain a deeper understanding of customer behaviour.

Creating Customer Journeys

1. Define triggers: e.g., “Contract renewal date is 90 days away.”

2. Design Touchpoints: Email → Teams reminder → Discount offer.

3. Optimise with A/B Testing: Let AI determine the best subject line or call to action.

D365 Customer Insights Implementation: Things to Know

The implementation of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights is properly guided and follows a strategic approach to meet the goals of the business and to ensure precision in data quality. Successful implementation requires:

Clear strategy & goal setting

Data governance and compliance adherence

Cross-departmental collaboration

Ongoing monitoring and optimisation

Detailed Customer Insights License Pricing

Microsoft offers a flexible pricing model for Dynamics 365 Customer Insights based on the following:

Number of customer profiles managed

Additional AI and analytics features are required.

Integration with other Microsoft tools

Choose Dynamics Square UK: Implement Seamlessly

Selecting the right implementation partner can delimit the difference between an effective and non-effective deployment process of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. Dynamics Square is a leading Microsoft Solutions Partner with 14+ years of experience and has served 500+ companies successfully. Dynamics Square UK offers:

• End-to-end implementation services
• Tailored consulting for your industry
• Ongoing support and training

Call us now at  0207 193 2502 or write us an email at info@dynamicssquare.co.uk to maximise the value of your investment.