Amperity recently won another patent for how we handle customer identities — U.S. Patent 10,922,337 for “Clustering of data records with hierarchical cluster IDs.” This award is our fifth patent granted as we continue to re-imagine how customer identity can be a more effective and reliable basis for helping businesses use data to serve their customers.
Our proprietary innovations focus on the challenges of customer identity because we’re focused on our users’ outcomes: better consumer experiences, stronger customer loyalty, and more robust revenue. Work backwards from there — the kinds of customer experiences that drive loyalty and revenue require personalization. Personalization means having access to a clear understanding of customers. A clear view of customers is impossible without reliable customer identities.
We wanted to build a Customer Data Platform (CDP) that supports personalization at enterprise scale across the organization, throughout the customer lifecycle, so we knew we had to totally reinvent identity resolution to make it actually work. It’s the first step. All the other elements of using customer data — accessibility, insights and intelligence, activation and connections — are essential, but if you don’t get identity right first, none of the other steps can reach their full potential.
Details on the new patent
The patent for “Clustering of data records with hierarchical cluster IDs” covers an algorithm that organizes different customer records based on the degree of certainty in the match. From working with the companies that use Amperity, we’ve learned that the level of confidence that the person being contacted is exactly the person you think they are varies depending on the type of interaction.
There are some cases when personalized messages make the most sense, and others when a generic message may be more appropriate. For instance, an engagement like 'How was your store visit' requires high confidence that you know exactly who you’re talking to, whereas a product recommendation email can be more broadly applied. This invention makes it easy for users to control how the records are matched based on the confidence required, which vastly improves marketing efficiency and reach.
Amperity is the only CDP with patented intellectual property. In addition to this recently-awarded patent, we’ve received four others covering different aspects of our proprietary approach, with links below to detailed patent filings for those of you who want to take a super deep dive:
Maintaining a Stable ID: U.S. Patent No: 10,503,696
Constructing Ground Truth When Classifying Data: U.S. Patent No: 10,509,809
Dynamically Merging Database Tables: U.S. Patent No.: 10,599,395
Transitive Stitching and Fusion: U.S. Patent No.: 10,853,033
Clustering of data records with hierarchical cluster IDs U.S. Patent 10,922,337
We’ve got other new methods and inventions cooking as we continue to work on improving the ways to turn customer data into great experiences and great business results. In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about how our patented technology can help you, get in touch.