How Pulse works¶

Pulse turns scattered customer data into one trusted, real-time view — without an engineering team. The idea is simple: you connect the systems you already use, Pulse brings the data together, and it quietly unites everything it knows about each person into a single profile you can act on.

This page follows your data on that journey, from the moment it arrives to the moment you build an audience from it. Everything described here is private to your workspace — your data is stored securely and is never visible to anyone outside your team.

The journey of your data¶

flowchart LR
    A[Connect a source] --> B[Land in a dataset]
    B --> C[Pulse unites profiles]
    C --> D[Build audiences]

1. Connect a source¶

You start by connecting the systems where your customer data already lives — a SaaS tool, a streaming feed, or a simple file you upload. Each connection is a source. Once connected, Pulse pulls data in for you, and keeps pulling as new data appears.

See Connect a source to bring in your first system.

2. Land in a dataset¶

Incoming records land in a dataset — a secure, organized home for one kind of data, such as your customers or your orders. Each dataset follows a schema, which describes the shape of the data so Pulse can validate it and trust it. Describing your data once means everything downstream stays consistent.

Learn more in Schemas & your data model and Datasets.

3. Pulse unites profiles¶

This is where Pulse earns its keep. The same person often shows up across many systems — as an email here, a phone number there, a loyalty ID somewhere else. Pulse automatically links the records that belong to the same person and assembles them into one profile, in real time. There's no nightly wait and no manual matching.

This linking is based on identifiers people genuinely share, not guesswork. See Identity and Customer profiles for the details.

4. Build audiences and understand customers¶

With unified profiles in place, you can finally answer the questions that matter — how many real customers do we have?, who hasn't bought in 90 days? You group customers into audiences by describing who belongs, and Pulse keeps each audience current as your data changes.

Ready to try it? Follow Build an audience.

Next steps¶