Businesses that collect information on their customers are required by law to maintain data privacy. But to companies that want to use that data to improve their offering and better meet the needs of their customers, data privacy can blur the line between what's permissible and how you can use it to do more business. Even still, a data pipeline is a crucial piece of the data analysis picture, and a better customer data pipeline can help you create a better customer database and make better decisions.

What is the purpose of a customer data pipeline?

While you can certainly attempt to improve your business by throwing an idea up on the wall and hoping that it sticks, most responsible companies seek to leverage the data that they're collecting in some manner. The procurement of that data is called your data pipeline -- and since it contains a whole host of customer information, sometimes it's referred to as the customer data pipeline.

That said, customer data doesn't all come from one source, and that means you may have to aggregate data from multiple sources to gain a useful picture of how that data impacts your business. A customer data pipeline is therefore the capability of your organization to take in, process and understand the data you're collecting, ultimately putting it to use in the decisions that you make and the different ways that you choose to manage and grow your business. 

How do you process a data pipeline?

Because of the sheer amount of data that's coming through any business on a day to day basis, the smartest organizations know that data is largely meaningless until you can increase your understanding and derive insights and action from that customer data pipeline. 

The data may need to be cleaned or sanitized for use, as well as verifying that it's accurate and useful. Some call this data transformation, but it's basically the process of adapting or adjusting the data for your analysis.

Some data may come from storage or data lakes, and it's the data pipeline's responsibility to take in that data in a reliable and straightforward way. Other data might be trusted implicitly, making the process more about getting it from one location to another, in addition to synchronizing it all under your intended use. 

Once the customer data pipeline is set, data can be extracted and analyzed in an off-the-shelf solution or via a specialty app designed precisely for the purpose. Then there's the data processing, which is about organizing the data into batches and integrating it into the global customer data set that can therefore be reviewed and analyzed.

What makes MetaRouter’s data pipelines different?

At MetaRouter, the data pipeline generally represents a single data source connected to multiple destinations. The key aspect of our data pipelines lies in the organization of the data. We keep the data in the pipelines, transform that data according to user preferences, and send it to their end destinations. Compliance standards can be applied on a per-pipeline basis. For example, an owner of a kids gaming app could apply strict data privacy rules to the app itself, but loosen them for the marketing website where less sensitive data is likely being collected.

Improve Your Customer Data Pipeline With MetaRouter

As you can probably surmise, there are countless ways to collect and organize data in a customer data pipeline. And if your business is struggling to make sense of the data you're collecting, a partner that can help you make sense of it all is vastly important if you want that data to help you make better decisions and to give you actionable insights that you can actually use.

Here at MetaRouter, we'll help you ensure that you're collecting and using all that important data in ways that benefit your company and enhance the bottom line. With private data routing, a flexible data infrastructure and compliance made easy, MetaRouter allows you to easily control your data collection and get the right insights from it while not running afoul of any regulations and other compliance issues that could jeopardize your collection of data or your business itself. 

Learn more here or get started by contacting us or requesting a demo.

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