How to Fix Siloed Systems and Build Customer Loyalty

1 day ago7 min read2 comments

Trying to run a business with siloed systems is like attempting to complete a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing—you’re left with a fragmented picture that never quite comes together, and the frustration is palpable for everyone involved, especially your customers. I’ve seen this play out across industries, from my time building Sollis Health to observing the seismic shifts in personal finance and fintech, where the core lesson remains the same: data is your most valuable asset, but only if it’s integrated.When critical information is locked away in departmental vaults—marketing here, sales there, customer service in another—your teams are essentially flying blind, unable to see the complete customer journey. This isn’t just an operational headache; it’s a direct assault on customer loyalty.Think about the last time you had to repeat your story to a bank, a retailer, or even a healthcare provider. That friction, that feeling of being just another ticket number, is what erodes trust.It’s the same principle I teach when discussing side hustles or personal finance: systems must work for you, not against you. In traditional healthcare, a patient might shuttle between a primary doctor, a specialist, and a pharmacy, with none of them fully sharing records.The result? Missed allergies, duplicated tests, and a care experience that feels more like a bureaucratic maze than a seamless service. This isn’t far from the challenges in banking, where your mortgage application might be siloed from your investment portfolio, forcing you to manually connect dots that the institution should be linking for you.The travel industry faced this head-on; for years, loyal hotel guests couldn’t access their folios through apps, a simple convenience that became a loyalty killer until systems were finally integrated. The cost of inaction is staggering.A McKinsey report highlights that consumers are increasingly willing to share personal data if it leads to better outcomes, but they expect privacy and seamlessness in return. At Sollis, we leveraged tools like Qualtrics to harness AI for summarizing qualitative feedback, turning free-form comments into actionable insights—whether that meant tweaking a membership tier or expanding into a new market.This isn’t about a fancy tech upgrade for the sake of it; it’s about building systems that anticipate needs, much like a good financial plan anticipates future expenses. For instance, we adopted Metriport to pull consented data from national health databases, giving clinicians a snapshot of a patient’s history before an appointment.This saved time and reduced errors, mirroring how fintech apps use integrated data to offer personalized financial advice without users having to juggle multiple logins. The bottom line? Siloed systems push the burden onto the customer, turning potential advocates into frustrated managers of their own experiences.True integration is a loyalty strategy, not a back-end fix. It’s an investment in understanding your customer holistically, moving from transactional interactions to recognizing them as people with unique histories and preferences.When you connect those dots, you don’t just streamline operations—you build the kind of trust that turns one-time buyers into lifelong fans, much like the principles in 'Rich Dad Poor Dad' emphasize building assets that work for you over time. The completed puzzle isn’t just efficient; it’s a masterpiece of customer-centricity.

#featured

#business integration

#customer experience

#data silos

#brand loyalty

#system fragmentation

#Sollis Health

#enterprise technology

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