Today, information helps companies stay competitive and stand out of the crowd when others are trying to go with the flow. In the effort to win the battle and be first on the market, businesses collect data, analyze it, and make strategic decisions. Otherwise, customers won’t be interested in your products or services. Let’s consider why collecting information is so important and how a typical CRM system may help you do this.
Why Is Information About Clients Is Very Important?
Customer data is one of the most important assets you have. If you gather the information correctly, you have a chance to get loyal customers and boost your sales. Companies, actually, don’t always gather the data in the right way. If you know only the full name, contacts, what and where the person bought, then you have nearly nothing. Having a comprehensive CRM can help you get the fullest data about your leads, prospects, and customers. The system will also help you build the most accurate image of your buying persona.
A good CRM allows accessing important data about clients with a few clicks. Collecting valuable data about clients allows bringing an individual approach to communicating with each of your customers. You will know the preferences and needs of every person that is interested in your services and goods. Thus, you’ll be able to offer the best-suited products according to those needs.
What Customer Data Should You Collect?
Actually, you can collect as many data about your customers as possible. Learning more about people that deal with your goods and services will help you craft an efficient strategy to boost your sales or improve customer satisfaction.
Personal data
Firstly, you should have contacts, demographic and geographic data about your customers. Secondly, you should get the data which is closely related to your company’s needs. For example, if you build your buying persona according to the size of the company in which your client works, you need to know how many employees are there. To learn this, you can include the question into the website form.
Points of interaction with clients
After all personal data is collected, start gathering the information about all the points of interaction with your customers. You should learn how valuable a given client is, how often and how much he/she spends money on purchases of your products, what his/her preferences are.
Communication
You should also pay attention to communication data. Learn how soon your client responds to your emails, calls, or other types of messages. Analyze what type of communication your customer prefers. This information will make the interaction more comfortable for both customer relationship manager and your clients.
Main Channels of data Insights
Every company has its own channels of communication with customers. The most important thing about the data collection is that this procedure should be completely lawful and clear. Thus, make sure you adhere to the following rules.
Registration data – Build forms that will help you as much information as possible. Don’t demand personal data just for downloading an e-book. Gather the required data step by step on different stages of your interaction with customers.
Online Presentation – Try to get some data when a person applies to take part in an online workshop or a presentation. Many CRM systems have already in-built survey forms to ask clients what you need.
Chats – Learn your customers’ names and emails while having a live chat with them. Many CRM systems already have in-built functionality to require clients’ data.
Calls – Ask people the information that is valuable for streamlining your business. You can record and save your conversations to avoid any conflicts and misunderstanding.
Orders – During orders procedure, you can get to know a lot of important information about your customers. Use forms and surveys to learn what you need.
Analytics – it is one of the safest ways to collect information. You should accurately choose what information to process and compare to get valuable insights about your customers.
IoT works best for retail and B2C sector. You can use NFC tags, interactive screens, and customer flow counters to get information about buyers lawfully.
Social networks work best for B2C. If you can collect some data about your clients from social networks, it’s good. Just process it correctly to make this data work for you.
Research – this way of data capture is the most expensive, however, if research is done by professionals, you can benefit from a comprehensive research report containing lots of insights and recommendations.
How to Use Data Properly?
There’s information which is compulsory for every kind of business. Below is the data that you should definitely make use of:
- Conversion and sales funnels
- Assortment
- Sales channels
- Financial flow
- Personnel data
- Information about competitors
Why Is CRM System the Most Efficient Way to Collect Data?
CRM systems allow business owners and managers to monitor planning, research, sales funnels, etc. With a good platform in place, you have access to important data in real time. A custom-built CRM from a trusted software development Ukraine partner offers different modules that make the work easier. For example, you can make a report as there’s a bunch of useful tools for doing this in a typical CRM.
Customer management software improves productivity as it offers dashboards, progress bars, notifications that can significantly simplify the working process. People having the possibility to work without stress are more productive.
Information can help any company stay competitive. If you can process and analyze data correctly, you’ll get valuable insights about your customers. Intelligent analytics and right tools should become your secret weapon for success on the market.