What is a customer record and how do you keep them organized?
A customer record contains relevant business information about your customers, prospects, and other contacts. They typically contain a name, email address, phone number, company name and website. Customer records could also include information about purchase history, interaction with your website and emails, birthday and other information that would be necessary for communication and future sales.
The information that we store about our contacts could, however, be subject to Data Protection rules, like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) if your contacts or your company resides in Europe. There are different rules for different countries and regions, and you should make sure that you are up-to-date with the relevant ones for you and your contacts. A general rule of thumb is to only store necessary information, and make sure that you are organized with your contact records and only send them relevant communications.
Why you should use a system to keep your customer records
Sticky notes, several apps, and spreadsheets will only get your company so far, even for the most organized of business owners. That’s because content records are strewed across multiple sources, rather than kept in one centralized place.
Storing your customer records in a system designed to do so helps you stay organized and compliant by enabling you to store, access and manage your customer information from one central, synced place accessible by your entire organization.
When choosing your system, you should be focusing on not only robustness, but also ease of use.
A system that keeps your contact records is called a customer relationship management (CRM) system.
Keap is one such system for entrepreneurs and small businesses that's been rated “Best CRM all-in-one software” by G2 Crowd in 2019, and “Best CRM Software for Ease of Use” by Business News Daily in 2021. You're able to access the CRM from your smartphone or computer to update contact records wherever you go.
Here are the 5 best ways to organize and keep your customer records:
Organized customer information ensures that your business can run smoothly and that records are available when and how you need them for email marketing, appointment booking, reporting, and more.
1. Use a robust CRM system to consolidate your contacts
A robust online system like Keap offers the features you need from your CRM system and allows easy access for all users from anywhere.
2. Determine what information is relevant to keep about your contact
Standard information like name, phone number and email is necessary for basic communication. A person’s birthday could also be relevant if you are sending out birthday wishes or giving them a special deal on their day.
3. Keep track of contacts’ interactions with your content
Purchase and interaction information is relevant to be able to send personalized communication to your contacts. This includes purchase history, abandoned cart, opens and clicks on emails and more. This information helps you understand contacts’ interests related to your products and/or services, and enables you to send more relevant offers and communication to them.
4. Segment your contact records
Organize your contact records into relevant segments. This could be newsletter subscribers, which stage in the customer journey they are in, or which product or service they are interested in. It could also be how much they engage with your content, and hence how “hot” they are.
5. Check for duplicates
Make sure that you do not keep duplicate records as this will prevent you from getting a good overview of your contacts and the information you store on them. A CRM system like Keap will help you prevent duplicates by not creating new contacts from a webform etc. if the contact already exists, and you can run regular duplicate checks on your contact lists.
Knowing how to keep contact records helps you grow your business
Customers are the essence of your business, and without them you would not be a business. To be able to grow your business you need to have a relationship with both existing customers but also prospects which are the future growth of your business. To build the trust and relationships needed, you need to communicate with your contacts with the right information at the right time.
This is why a powerful tool like Keap helps you be on top of your contacts and segment them to send them relevant information.
It also gives you a centralized place for your records that everyone in the business can access. This prevents duplicates, people falling through the cracks, and lets everyone work towards the same goals. And, by everyone working efficiently in the same direction, your business will grow faster, and you will create better relationships with your prospects and clients.
Start organizing your contact records with a free trial of Keap’s CRM.
About the Author
Ines is the CEO and Founder of Pine3 Marketing, a full-service digital marketing agency based in beautiful Cape Town. She is motivated and inspired to help businesses grow and always goes that extra mile to help. She also drives her scooter to work in high heels, and she doesn’t eat onions.
