Connect the Journey: Building Real Omnichannel Intelligence

This article is part of our series unpacking Plinc’s Strategic CRM Playbook: From Execution to Influence. The Playbook helps CRM teams increase their strategic influence, shape commercial decisions, and deepen customer value.

In Chapter 8: Connect the Journey, we explore how CRM can become the function that finally makes sense of cross-channel behaviour. And why joining up the customer experience isn’t just a CX win, but a commercial one.

Download the full Playbook now or follow this series to explore all 10 chapters.

A Fragmented Reality

In most businesses, the customer experience spans multiple touchpoints but the data that reflects it doesn’t.

• Store visits are tracked separately from online behaviour
• App engagement is siloed from email activity
• Call centre logs never touch the campaign platform

And when customer behaviour is fragmented, so is the organisation’s ability to respond.

CRM teams feel this daily. They’re asked to build journeys and segment audiences but with only part of the picture.

The outcome? Campaigns are well-intentioned but incomplete. And customers experience the disconnect.

What’s Missing

What’s missing isn’t data. It’s connection.

• Behaviours aren’t tracked consistently across channels
  → A customer’s app activity isn’t linked to their in-store visit, even though both matter
• CRM doesn’t have a full view of the journey
  → So triggers, targeting, and measurement are based on guesswork, not real behaviour
• The business can’t see what customers are actually doing
  → So decisions are made based on isolated metrics, not joined-up understanding

This disconnect doesn’t just hurt personalisation. It makes CRM reactive and limits its ability to contribute meaningfully to broader strategy.

The Reframe: CRM as the Journey Translator

CRM is uniquely placed to connect the dots.

It’s the only function designed to engage across touchpoints: email, app, store, web, service. And to think in journeys, not just transactions.

But to make that influence count, CRM teams need to map, measure, and communicate customer journeys in a way that influences decisions across marketing, product, and trading.

What It Looks Like in Practice

We’ve seen CRM teams reposition themselves as journey intelligence leads by focusing on three key areas:

1. Map one high-volume path end to end

Choose a critical journey, such as store browse to app purchase, or web search to email reactivation. Map what the customer sees, and what the business knows at each Chapter. Highlight the blind spots.

2. Quantify the impact of disconnected journeys

Measure differences in conversion, retention, or engagement between customers who receive joined-up experiences vs those who don’t. Show the cost of misalignment.

3. Turn insights into influence

Don’t just report on drop-off rates. Use those insights to:

• Brief trading teams on customer friction
• Advise marketing on sequence and timing
• Guide tech on where integration will drive performance

CRM becomes the bridge between customer understanding and business action.

Quick Wins vs Long Plays

Quick win: Pick one journey that spans two or more channels (e.g. app browse + store transaction). Track the % of customers who complete both, and whether their behaviour differs from single-channel customers. Use this to start a conversation with CX or product.

Longer play: Build a cross-functional “Journey Intelligence” workstream with key teams. Start by agreeing what journeys matter most to customers and what questions the business can’t currently answer about them.

Why This Shift Matters

Personalisation isn’t just about better messaging. It’s about better understanding.

When CRM teams connect behaviour across touchpoints, they don’t just improve campaigns. They inform product development, CX design and strategic prioritisation.

And in a world where customers expect joined-up experiences, CRM is the best-placed team to help the business deliver.

This article is part of From Execution to Influence, Plinc’s Strategic CRM Playbook. Download the full Playbook here to explore all 10 chapters.

Next Up:

Chapter 9 – Lead the Brief

→ How CRM can move from order-taker to live strategist and influence trade and marketing plans before the brief is even written.