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Data has become one of the front drivers for most businesses because there is a need to document all operations for accountability. From audits to follow-ups and lead nurturing. A good CRM has features to handle all this.
When you know what you want, it becomes easy to identify what you need to work on. When you identify what your customers want, it becomes easy to work with them. This is because you have all their details through the captured data. This data includes demographic information, the likes and preferences of prospects and customers. The customers' behavior regarding this data would guide your operations. Data is important for proper management of the business, business projection, setting a business strategy, planning for the business’s sales and marketing, production and many other business functions.
Poorly collected data negatively impacts business performance. These effects are felt in the form of cost. According to research by IBM, bad data costs a business an amount that is about $3 trillion per year. Furthermore, there are other related costs like fixing bad data errors whose cost increases over time. There are also costs related to preventing inaccurate data from entering CRM systems, such as the fees for addressing a problem in case of failure and annual decaying lists. Collectively, these increase the cost of doing business as defined by the 1-10-100 data quality principle.
A good CRM is defined by the data it stores. The results of this data are determined by the information you feed the CRM Software. Accurate data is used by the sales and marketing teams, reducing the costs incurred in manual interactions. A good CRM makes data make sense. Effective decisions are made when you have the most relevant customer data. A good CRM has features to help with that.
The Data You Should Include In Your CRM
Data to include in CRM is categorized into four different types: identity data, descriptive data, quantitative data, and qualitative data.
1. Identity data
This is data that bear details that you can use to identify your customers, contacts and prospects. Therefore, it is data aimed at targeting your ideal audience. A good CRM should have components to handle identity data. Here is what you need to have or include in your identity data;
Your contact’s names
Email address information
Physical address information
Telephone contacts (commonly used contact for effective communication)
Social media handles (preferably active handles where information can be delivered.
And then personal information - This could include the date of birth and any other that you might find relevant or important to you and your customer.
2. Descriptive data
This is data that highlights the lifestyle and behavior of your prospects. A good CRM should have components that inform you of the kind of people your prospects are. Descriptive data includes;
Career/work details
Education background information
Marital status and family background details
Interests, likes and of course preferences
Detailed general lifestyle information, for example, ownership of a car, and much more information in that line.
3. Quantitative data
This information helps you to measure and know how your prospects have interacted and contacted your company. This data can be in the form of;
Purchases that a person has made from your company/business and the quantity.
The number of times they have visited your website in a given period, what they look at and usually interact with while exploring the website, and how they got or usually get to your website.
Social media engagement with your company’s social media platforms and how often they do that
Service tickets filed.
4. Qualitative data
Qualitative data is detailed data. This data describes the behaviors, attitudes and motivations of the customers. This information can be collected either through one-on-one interactions or individual surveys, through group discussions. A questionnaire is a popular go-to option for the collection of this kind of data.
How pleased were you with your last purchase?
Why were you interested in that particular product?
For whom did you purchase?
Would you please rate your customer service experience?
How To Organize CRM Data
Disorganized data is costly. It does not matter how relevant the data is; as long as it is not organized, it is next to useless. You ought to learn how to store it for it to be useful for your business. Let us take a quick look at how you can keep your data organized in CRM.
1. Life cycle stage
This is the lead management and nurturing stage. It deals with the following;
New subscribers engaging with the company products for the first time
An incoming prospect.
Qualified prospect - one who qualifies to buy company products
Sales qualified lead - one who the company looks at as a potential customer
Opportunity - one who is engaged with company products
Client - one who has made a purchase
This stage is presided over by an evangelist - one who markets and promotes a company's products. CRM data grading helps you know the stage of a customer in the sales process to give information that aligns with their stage. More focus should be given to contacts/ leads getting closer to making a purchase.
2. Prospect/lead status
This focuses on knowing your lead status so that you can grade them accordingly. The stages here include; new, progressing, unqualified, open deal, connected, attempted to contact, connected and bad timing. Knowing your lead status smoothens communication in sales and helps to know who is next in line.
3. Customer stage
These help to keep and maintain vital data in your CRM. Additionally, it helps the selling teams log and grade the relevant data that may not be falling into predefined contact options, thus allowing them to leverage relevant data.
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