How to integrate Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Journeys and Data

There is one thing that I haven’t talked about enough yet. And that’s the synergy between Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Journeys and Data.

While these tools are readily available, many are still not harnessing their full potential. That’s why I want to share with you the benefits of this duo and show you how they can create a new levels of personalization.

By bringing together the insights from Customer Journeys and Data, you can craft experiences that are not just personalized but also deeply resonant with your customers.

In this blog article I want to show you how we can use the data and what we can do with it. We will go through following steps:

  1. Connecting Customer Insights Journeys and Data
  2. Enabling the audience configuration
  3. Using Segments from Customer Insigths Journeys
  4. Using CI-D data in Emails
  5. Using CI-D data in Journeys

Let’s go into detail for each of the steps.

Connect Customer Insights Journeys with Data

To begin, it’s essential to establish a connection between Customer Insights Journeys and Customer Insights Data. This integration allows for a seamless flow of information. Here’s how to set up the connection:

  • Ensure Compatibility: Verify that your Customer Insights Data environment is in a region supported by Customer Insights Journeys
  • Enable Data Sharing: In the Advanced settings of Customer Insights Data, enable data sharing with the Microsoft Dataverse organization where Customer Insights Journeys is installed
  • Configure Map, Match, and Merge Rules: Set up these rules in Customer Insights Data to unify customer data and create comprehensive profiles. Please understand, in this article I will not explain how to build up customer profiles and activities in Customer Insights Data. That needs to wait for another acticle. But until then I recommend Malins blog, where she goes through the necessary steps: Link here
  • In the Customer Insights Journeys App, go to Settings > Data management > Customer Insights – Data connector and check if the connection is already set up. If not, click on the button to set up the connection which look like the following screenshot.
Set up connection of Customer Insights Journeys and Data

Audience configuration

Once the connection is enabled you must designate the customer profile attributes that correspond to the customer’s preferred email and phone number. To streamline this process, you can establish default settings in the Audience configuration, allowing the journeys to automatically apply this information moving forward.

Set up audience configuration

Use the benefits of Customer Insights Data in Journeys

Now that the customer profiles are set up and the connection between the two modules is enabled. We can dive into the use cases and what we can do with the data and profiles.

Export segments from Customer Insights Data in Journeys

You can export segments from Customer Insights – Data to Customer Insights – Journeys. This involves setting Customer Insights – Journeys as an export destination in Customer Insights – Data.

We can manage and refresh segments from Customer Insights Data. There are automatic refreshes where we can configure the frequency but there are also manual refreshed possible. When segments are refreshed, they completely replace the previous versions in Customer Insights – Journeys, overriding any local customizations.

Segments appear as static in Customer Insights – Journeys, showing contact lists but not the rules used to create them.

It’s important to consider that exported segments will not create new contacts in Customer Insights – Journeys. Only existing contacts matching the segment’s IDs will be included. You can identify segments managed by Customer Insights – Data through specific fields on the General tab in Customer Insights – Journeys.

And last but not least, segments must be activated (go live) in Customer Insights – Journeys to be used in customer journeys. Just like for “normal” segments.

Personalization Power in Emails: Using Profile Data

Now comes the fun part. With the connection in place, the next step is to harness profile data for personalization in emails. For example, you can use data to target the profiles and engage customers with content tailored to their loyalty status, subscription renewal dates, or any other relevant measure captured in their profile. Or you can us it for dynamic content creation by generating personalized dynamic text in emails, text messages, and push notifications based on the unified customer profile data.

In emails we can use the data from customer profiles just like the personalization tokens we know from contacts and leads. The option CustomerProfile only appears under Audience when the connection is enabled between Data and Journeys.

Use dynamics content from Customer Insights Data

Another option for dynamic text is the use of the activities or the customer measure. We can use them as lists or as inline conditions. E.g. showing only a discount for recipients when the customer measure “total spend” is higher than 100€.

Crafting Journeys with Customer Insights Data

Finally, let’s explore how to use Customer Insights Data within journeys.

Of course we can create segment based journeys with Customer Insights Data segments from the previous chapter. Or we set up custom triggers in Customer Insights Journeys based on specific customer actions. Dataverse triggers are not possible, but for custom triggers we have the option to use the data type Customer Insights Data Profile.

In the journey itself we can even use the content for attribute branches. Such as in emails we can send customers through different paths based on their customer profile or customer measures.

Summary

I think the combination of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Journeys and Data should be more in the focus of everyone using the modules. I know that it is hard for some customers to find good use cases and really make Customer Insights Data tangible. But by connecting Customer Insights Data with Customer Insights Journeys, leveraging profile data for personalization, and crafting customer journeys, businesses can deliver relevant, engaging content that resonates with each individual customer. To me, this is real personalization!

Have you already tried using the personalization options with Journeys and Data?

One Response

  1. Interesting article! The main issue for me is the missing data flow back from Journeys to Data.
    If you use the integration and send emails to Customer Profiles, you won’t receive back any email activity figures in the Data environment. Makes it complicated to draw any conclusions or help Sales in the Qualification process.

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