Getting Your Customer Data into Akita
Akita makes it easy to sync your Customer data -- wherever it is! This article provides best practices for getting your valuable customer data into Akita so you can build a true 360-degree view of your customers.
Step 1. Who are your Customers?
The easiest way to insert your customers into Akita is to use our Javascript SDK. This is a small piece of code that your developers will insert into your web or mobile application. Once configured, it will send us account and contact information to Akita as your users interact with your application.
Alternatively, if you use Segment.com, you can send your data directly to Akita by enabling Akita as a destination in your Segment.com dashboard. You can learn how to enable and configure a Segment.com integration here.
You can also use our REST API to send your accounts and contact data to Akita. This can be done at any time -- not only when your users interact with your application. The REST API is perfect for businesses who don't have a web or mobile application or want to send data to Akita when their users are offline.
When you are sending us your customer data you will want to provide some or all of the common traits like NPS, Monthly Recurring Revenue, Renewal Date as well as custom traits specific to your business.
Step 2. How do your Customers interact with your application?
In Customer Success is important to know how your customers are interacting with your application:
Are they logging in regularly?
Are they completing important processes?
Are they visiting important web pages in your application.
Our Javascript SDK allows you to send us two types of data:
Page Views. As your users navigate through your website or application, you can send us a record of each page they visit.
Events. You can also configure special "events" that represent the actions your users are taking within your application. For example, a help desk software company would want to track events such as: Ticket Created, Ticket Closed, etc.
By sending Page Views and Events, we are able to determine when each user session begins and ends. You can then use this session data in Akita.
Step 3. How are your Customers interacting with other parts of your business?
Customer Success should be a company-wide effort. Akita allows you to sync 3rd-party applications that your business already uses. Software like:
CRMs;
Help desk, ticketing, and support software;
Live chat;
Accounting and billing software;
Learning Management Systems;
etc.
Akita connects with over 80 leading SaaS applications--the leaders in each of the categories above. And we are constantly adding new products. If you have an integration you do not see on our integrations list--let us know!
Connecting 3rd-party data sources is easy. The user that authenticates the connection between Akita and the 3rd-party integration will need to have privileges that allow them to access the data Akita will need. You can learn how to connect a 3rd-party integration here.
Advanced Data Integration
99% of the time, the steps above are all you need to get started with Akita. There are a few edge cases described below.
Sending Events from the Server
To send events to Akita from your server, you should follow the instructions here. This uses our tracking infrastructure instead of our REST API, allowing you to send your event data without exceeding our API limits.
Events received from the API are considered "user-initiated" and will cause a new session to be logged in Akita.
Tracking Account or Contact Traits over Time
Akita allows you to maintain a history of any numerical trait of an Account or Contact. All you have to do is specify the trait you want to track and Akita will do the rest. You can set learn more about how to set up here.
Sending Historical Metrics
If you send event data using our Javascript SDK or Segment.com, Akita automatically aggregates the number of events (of each type) for each user for each day, creating a historical record of these events. In addition, Akita maintains a historical record of certain numerical traits (NPS, MRR, CSAT) and any specific numerical Account or Contact trait you would like to follow.
You can use the REST API to provide historical values for two types of data in Akita: tracked metrics (account and contact traits) and events.
Manually Entering Tracked Metric Data
Sometimes, you want to need to pass in historical data from your system but can't send it via the tracking code. An example:
You sell hosted e-commerce software. You want Akita to track the total amount of sales for each of your customers, each day.
To send this data, you must first created a Tracked Metric in Akita (ex. Daily Sales Volume). You would then use our REST API /metric-data endpoint to back fill data. You can learn more here.
Manually Entering Event Counts
Often, a user behavior cannot be recorded via Segment.com or our Javascript SDK. This data must be sent from your servers to Akita using our REST API. An example:
You sell email marketing software. You want Akita to track the total number of messages sent (the 'message:sent' event) for each of your customers, each day.
Here, you need to wait until the next day before you can accurately provide the data. You can use our /event-counts endpoint to send these totals each day, for the previous day. You can find out more here.
Manually Entering Session Counts
If you do not use the Akita Javascript SDK or Segment.com to provide user clickstream data -- but instead track user sessions on your own server -- you can backfill session counts using the Akita /session-counts endpoint. You can find out more here.