In today’s increasingly digitized world, most small businesses require an efficient and reliable customer relationship management (CRM) system to help them streamline business operations, nurture valuable relationships with customers, and boost brand engagement. But is your CRM database collecting the right kinds of information? Are there any valuable CRM data categories you’re overlooking? To help answer these questions, we’ve put together a guide to making the most of your CRM data.
What types of data do CRM systems capture?
A high-quality CRM such as Townsquare Interactive’s business management platform will capture all sorts of information designed to help you reach your business goals. Below, we’ve divided this information into four different types and included some reflections on how you can apply this data to your best advantage.
1. Identity data
Identity information related to existing customers, leads, and other relevant contacts will support your communications and promotional efforts. Of course, you’ll need to ensure you collect this data with people’s permission to avoid any compliance breaches and ensure your small business retains its excellent reputation. Examples of useful identity data include:
- First and last names
- Business and home addresses
- Email addresses
- Telephone numbers
- Personal information (e.g., date of birth)
- Social media handles
- Preferred contact method
How to use identity CRM data
Identity data is essential for communicating with both existing and potential customers. Naturally, you will need mailing and email addresses to send goods and update customers about their orders. You may also need information about a customer’s date of birth if you sell age-restricted products, for example.
As well as helping you conduct customer transactions, identity information can help you turn leads into valuable conversions. Capturing email addresses from potential customers is a great way to build a strong customer base and improve revenue in the long term.
Say, for example, you’ve just opened a new restaurant. You could offer a free drink or money off customers’ first check if they sign up for your newsletters using their name and email address. Once submitted, you can store this data and use it to send further promotional offers and marketing emails that enhance your restaurant’s reputation.
2. Information about lifestyles and personal preferences
While identity data is often vital for running business operations and marketing strategies, qualitative lifestyle and preference data can help you learn more about customers and better cater to their needs. Good examples include:
- Information about customers’ careers.
- Education data.
- Details of customers’ marital status and whether they have children.
- General hobbies and interests.
- Health information – Such data is vital if you’re running a medical facility, for example. However, you must ensure you comply with HIPAA when storing and accessing patients’ medical data.
- Goals and aspirations.
- Esthetic preferences.
How to use CRM data related to lifestyles and preferences
As you can see, there’s a wide range of data you could collect about your customers’ lifestyles and personal preferences. As such, business owners should tailor the types of data collected in CRM platforms to suit their needs.
Imagine, for example, that you own a small gym. Potentially useful pieces of information to store could include fitness goals, preferred classes, any medical issues that could affect someone’s ability to work out, and favorite times of day to exercise. Armed with this information, you or a personal trainer could tailor your offerings and marketing strategies to different clients’ needs.
If you own a contracting or interior design company, on the other hand, insightful and actionable information could include design goals and budgetary constraints to help you deliver the best projects possible.
Finally, demographic information such as job title and industry can help you tailor your marketing efforts. You could, for example, send different promotional offers and messages to different leads to align with their primary needs and desires.
3. Feedback data
Collecting and analyzing customer feedback will ensure your small business is always growing and improving. Broadly speaking, it’s a good idea to ask customers for feedback after they’ve used your goods and services, ensuring your CRM sends automated follow-up emails to customers following recent transactions. You should also keep track of complaints and interactions with customer service personnel that may provide insights into operational issues. Finally, sending out regular customer surveys will help you identify common problems and strengths.
But what kinds of feedback should you ask for? Potentially valuable data points include:
- Information about the functionality and quality of your products
- Overall satisfaction rates
- Shipping and delivery experiences
- Net Promoter Scores (NPS)
- Insights into how your products compare to competitor products
- Suggestions for improvement
How to use feedback data
Once you’ve collected substantial amounts of user feedback, you should analyze the data for any recurring issues or insights. For example, if customers love your customer service but feel less positive about the quality of your products, you’ll know to invest in better raw materials and manufacturing processes. Just remember to regularly refresh feedback data and compare your performance over time, as this will help you develop effective growth strategies.
4. Quantitative data
Finally, quantitative data that measures the performance of your business will help you identify what you’re doing well and where things are potentially going wrong. Examples of quantitative data include (but are by no means limited to):
- Sales data
- Information about how customers interact with your website (e.g., page views, bounce rates, downloads, click-throughs, and more)
- Data about how frequently customers use your services
- Number of repeat purchases
- Cart abandonment statistics
- Average order value
- Services tickets completed
- Social media engagement statistics
- Click-through rates for marketing emails
- Conversion statistics
How to use quantitative data
Use quantitative data to analyze customer habits and develop insights about how your business could improve. For example, low click-through rates for marketing emails could suggest you need to improve your messaging or send more targeted communications. High cart abandonment rates could suggest that your checkout process is too complicated. Finally, high website bounce rates suggest your site is difficult to navigate or looks unprofessional and unappealing, meaning it’s time to brush up on your web design.
Collect and store data securely with Townsquare
CRM data represents the bedrock of any thriving business. So, it’s time to invest in a CRM database that will safely store and collect the information you need. Townsquare’s cloud-based CRM is built with small business owners in mind, featuring seamless contact management and data tracking features to help you exceed customer expectations. For more information, contact our team today.