How To Efficiently Manage Your Customer Data
Managing your customer data is a really big thing for businesses, you need to make sure that you do it perfectly. This is because your customer data is one of the most valuable resources that your business can have and it needs to be treated with the utmost care. If you don’t look after it, or don’t know what to do with it, then you might cause your business some serious damage and miss out on getting your business to the next level.
Managing your customer data is a really big thing for businesses, you need to make sure that you do it perfectly. This is because your customer data is one of the most valuable resources that your business can have – “the oil of the digital era” – and needs to be treated with the utmost care. If you don’t look after it, or don’t know what to do with it, then you might cause your business some serious damage and miss out on getting your business to the next level.
Of course, you don’t want to end up with a data breach if you don’t know what you are doing. Consider what happened to Uber back in 2016, they were hacked and around 57 million people had their private data accessed. This cost them $148 million in the settlement alone, but not only that, it affected their reputation as well. It’s not something that you really want to risk. So how do you make sure this doesn’t happen, well here’s a guide to help you efficiently manage your customer data.
Take Security Seriously
According to one study, the average cost of a data breach is $3.86 million, but this does differ for small and medium sized businesses, but it is obviously not something that you want to risk as it is a lot of money. When you gather personal data about clients, either from their home phone number and addresses to details about their company financials, you need to plan how to keep that information safe. This can help build trust and save your business further down the line.
You can do this by investing in an automated CRM system, investing in a back-up system, or investing in customer-data training for your employees. These are all worthwhile investments, as it should help save your business from a major security breach. Investing in the security of your data, is an investment in your company’s future, which is money well spent and if you haven’t already done so, then you need to do it as soon as possible.
Collect the Right Type of Data
Of course, when it comes to collecting data, you need to make sure that you collect the right type of data. A truly effective database needs to identify the type of data it is collecting, as well as its value. There are many ways that you can collect data though, and if you have no idea where to begin, then it would probably be a good idea to look up customer data integration to help you understand the subject better.
There are four ways that you can think about data though. These are: identity (personal information), quantitative (getting to know them on a personal level), descriptive (learning demographic, family, lifestyle, career information) and qualitative (the reasoning behind a customer’s decision) data. The most popular one is identity, this is when you are after the name, personal information, address, telephone etc. You can do through by reaching out to them or when they check out with their payment’s details. Of course, as a business you have to decide what is the right course of action for you though.
Choose the Right Tool for the Job
When your business is small, you might think that it is acceptable to just use a excel spreadsheet and manually input the information, but as your business grows you will find that this is not an adequate way to do things. You might find that you get lost in the complex, voluminous data, and you might have a lack of valuable insights that could give you a competitive advantage.
Sooner than later you will need to get an efficient software to store, track and make sense of all the incoming information. There are several systems out there but a quick search such as what is sitecore will lead you to find some fantastic options that will help you manage and optimise your customer experience which will improve customer satisfaction and increase loyalty.
The best thing that you can do though is invest in one straight away to avoid any information being lost, or before you have a poor reputation. Spend the money now before you regret it. If you are still trying to figure out why data can help you (or how else to use it), then it might be a good idea to check out this article here about where you should be using your data to improve your business.