Did you know only 24 percent of executives report that their companies have created a data-driven organization? It’s something that a lot of organizations aspire to, but not everyone achieves.
Being data-driven is about having high-quality data on hand to add value to your organization. Typically, this clean, processed data resides in your data warehouse under the management of your data teams. But, there’s a problem with that. The data inside your warehouse might be beyond the reach of your non-technical teams. This causes several problems:
To solve this issue, you need a way to extract your higher-quality data back out of your warehouse and feed it into your business applications for people to use in their daily business operations.
This is where reverse ETL comes in.
It’s easier to understand reverse ETL if you start with forward ETL. Forward ETL involves getting your data from one place to another. Typically, you’re taking your data from your SaaS business applications and loading it into a cloud-based warehouse.
With reverse ETL you’re copying processed data from your data warehouse and loading it back into your business applications. This puts your data to work in a system staff are familiar with, rather than siloing it in the hands of the data team. Reverse ETL closes the data loop.
Typically, the reverse ETL process follows these steps:
Data warehouses often hold an organization's aggregated data, making it a trustworthy source of truth to base business decisions on. If you do your forward ETL properly, your data warehouse should be the best version of the data you have. You can rely on the reports it produces and the insights you get from it.
So that’s what reverse ETL is, but why would you choose to use it?
Given the massive amount of data your organization deals with, there are going to be some errors here and there. If data stays in business applications, these errors can often go unchecked and unfixed. This can lead to data quality issues.
Poor data quality directly impacts your customer experience. Inaccuracies in your customer data can lead to dissatisfaction, increased support tickets, and poor customer reviews. Examples of quality issues that could lead to dissatisfaction include:
With reverse ETL, your data is aligned with the clean, processed data inside your data warehouse. If your finance team for example have the most up to date contact details, that information gets parsed out to other department applications. This keeps all records accurate and up to date.
Reverse ETL synchronizes your data across your business applications by aligning it with the data in your data warehouse. This synchronization improves your reporting by building a broader picture of your operations. For example, you might not track your invoices in your CRM, but with the two applications synchronized, you’ll produce more accurate operational reports benefitting from the extra data.
This wider view allows your teams to tailor their communications to your customers. Your sales team for example can see if a client has irregular payments or missed payments entirely. With this they can hone their targeting and upsell strategies to better match customer behaviors.
Your teams on the ground benefit from reverse ETL because it gives them a complete view of your customers. Imagine your support team are dealing with a tricky customer, and they only have limited information to work with. They’re going to be less effective at their job. But, what if they had access to:
With that right on their screen, the support agent can reach resolutions faster. Reverse ETL joins up your data and provides it to the people who need it now. This boosts efficiency, productivity, and reduces frustration.
Seventy-three percent of consumers rate customer experience as an important factor in their purchasing decisions.
Ultimately, reverse ETL is all about accessing your data and activating it to provide your operational teams with valuable real-time insights. These insights promote quicker, more confident customer decisions which will improve your customer experience. And a better customer experience leads to more sales and helps you on your path to business growth.
A tool like CloverDX helps you implement reverse ETL in your organization with easy cloud deployment and complete connectivity. Book a demo today to get started.