One of the most common questions people ask about Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) is: “When can I expect to see results?”

Investing in a new software is a big decision, and waiting to see a return can be stressful. Luckily, you don’t have to wait for long.

With Lexer’s CDP, your initial customer insights and personalized campaigns can be up and running in as little as three months. However, much of the benefit from a CDP comes from its strategic, structural, and cultural impact, which can unfold gradually over the course of months.

Here’s a timeline of the 3, 6, 12, and 24-month milestones and benefits you can expect following a CDP deployment.

3 Months: Your CDP is fully deployed, revealing initial insights and strategies for growing sales.

Your CDP can be fully deployed within three months, integrating both in- and out-bound feeds of data.

All of your customer information—including demographics, purchase histories, email engagement, third-party data, and more—is compiled into a rich single customer view.

This single customer view provides you with deep customer insights to inform your first segmented campaigns. These initial campaigns should be focused on the lowest-hanging fruit to drive sales; this way, you’ll begin to see returns as soon as possible while setting benchmarks for future testing and optimization.

6 Months: Sophisticated personalization and segmentation improve efficiency and ROI.

Six months post-deployment, your entire team is able to efficiently and independently orchestrate personalized campaigns at every stage of the customer lifecycle.

Using robust audience segmentation and cross-channel activation tools, you can execute CDP-powered campaigns to:

• Build your email database with high-quality prospects.
• Acquire high-value customers.
• Grow customer lifetime value by converting the second sale.
• Improve retention by winning back lapsed customers.

Additionally, your combined and enriched dataset enables you to quickly and accurately track key performance metrics on the customer segments you’re targeting. More sophisticated measurement capabilities allow you to directly map your business activities to customer behavior, quickly identify opportunities for improvement, and easily demonstrate your impact to stakeholders.

12 Months: Every team is using data to inspire new cost-saving and value-generating initiatives.

By the time you’ve had a CDP for a year, you’ll be experiencing increased operational efficiency, agility, and innovation across the business.

Your team can develop data-driven customer personas to inform personalization and segmentation. Customer engagement campaigns can be executed with increasing volume and audience sizes, and improved measurement and optimization processes lead to greater impact with every campaign.

Insights from your CDP can help your product team create differentiated products and services tailored to your customers. Additionally, your data and analytics teams are spending less time on low-value list queries and more time on sophisticated customer analytics.

24 Months: Your business has transformed into a customer-centric powerhouse.

Two years into a CDP implementation, your business will have undergone a data-driven, customer-first transformation that drives sales growth and customer satisfaction.

You’re collecting more and higher-quality information about your customers through CDP-powered surveys and in-store data capture. Your customer service team will have the ability to transform from a cost-center to a profit-center, providing exceptional omnichannel service that improves retention rates.

Your predictive analytics, sophisticated reporting, and robust segmentation and activation tools have given you a critical competitive advantage, enabling you to quickly seize opportunities and mitigate risks in response to market changes and evolving customer needs.

The fastest, easiest CDP deployment in the industry

The sooner you get your CDP up and running, the sooner you can begin using it to drive results.

Lexer understands how important that is, so we’ve worked hard to develop a deployment strategy that’s as painless as possible for our customers. (Click here to read the kikki.K customer story about our deployment process, which has been described as “the simplest integration” in the industry.)

Deployed in less than 5 weeks with no heavy-lifting required by your IT team, Lexer’s CDP and services help you weave customer-centricity into every aspect of your business, from the relevancy of the customer experiences you offer to the agility, efficiency, and proactivity of your internal teams. We’ll meet you where you are and evolve with you over time, guiding you through each of the 3, 6, 12, and 24-month milestones for a CDP-powered business transformation.

A version of this article was originally published on Lexer.io. If you liked this, you’ll probably find more value in the original, in-depth version too. Click here to read the full version of “Post-Deployment Timeline: What Changes Can You Expect with a CDP?”