Database Tips
Whatever you call it - contact management, customer
relationship management (CRM) or sales and marketing
database. It is one of the most valuable marketing and sales
tools you have at your disposal; image if you lost all your
customer data, where would your business be? So here are
few tips to ensure that your database is giving you the
business you want.
Tip 1
Plan— Before you buy any database software, STOP and think
about what you want your database to do for you. Create a
document which outlines what type of information you want to
record and why and how the database will be used. Once you
have done this, then search for a product which most closely
meets your needs and can be tailored in key areas to address
your specific requirements.
Planning is vitally important and should always be undertaken
before investing in technology. Remember, software is only the
enabler, you have to know how you are going to use it to get
results.
If you already have a database and don’t feel that it is working
for you, then still undertake this process. You might find that the
database doesn't follow your sales and marketing processes
and needs customising to ensure you are getting the most from
your investment.
Tip 2
Keep it clean - the information you hold about your customers
can be vital to your business success. Information becomes
out of date very quickly and if left, over time you can find you
have lots of useless information that has to cleaned and
updated which can take a long time. Wouldn’t it be better to
keep your data updated as you go along?
Tip 3
Data entry - rubbish in means rubbish out, ensure that any
data entered is accurate and in the right data field. For
example, adding post codes in the “Town” field and vice versa
can make it difficult to search for particular types of contacts
you may need at a later date. So make sure that everyone in
your company is aware of the importance of data entry.
Tip 4
Consistency - drop down lists with pre-defined entries for
things such as job titles ensures that building mailing lists for all
your “facilities managers” is made much easier. It ensures that
accuracy of job titles is maintained and reduces mistakes
made by spelling errors and omitted information.
Tip 5
Data - If you obtain, store or use personal details from
customers, suppliers or other contacts, it is a legal
requirement that you comply with the Data Protection Act.
For more info—www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk
Tip 6
Purchased—knowing what your customers have purchased is
vital, ensure that you keep up-to-date records. This ensures
that you can build accurate mailing lists in the future, and
means that you don’t mail contacts who have already bought a
particular product. It also means that if you have an update or
add-on which you want to promote you can easily find those
customers who may want to buy it.
Tip 7
Culture & Training — Make sure that everyone who is
responsible for entering data has been trained effectively on
how to use the database both from a technology perspective
and also how to input data.
Set guidelines for data input and check the quality regularly.
Make employees aware that entering accurate information will
save them time and effort at a later stage.
Tip 8
Integration — are you aware of the different departments
within your organisation that hold data such as sales,
accounts, marketing and support desks? Do they all run
databases that contain similar or conflicting data? What would
happen if more credit was given to a customer who was
flagged as a STOP account within the accounts department
but this was not reflected on the sales database? It is
important to think about how all this information can be
integrated in a meaningful way which ensures that information
about customers does not slip through the net.
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