CRM: Everything you need to know about your customers

One of the main reasons that justify the implementation of a CRM system (Customer Relationship Management) to handle business, marketing and/or customer care processes is the fact that thanks to this tool it is possible to collect a greater volume of information on customers and, what is more important, use it to generate value.

Today, getting to know our customers is essential in order to offer products and services on time, in place and in the most suitable format for each one of them. Customising the existing offer as much as possible and constantly following-up any opportunities that arise, is the key to ensuring the success of any business.

Below we have included all the relevant information about a customer that a CRM system must be able to gather in order to provide a genuine overall understanding of a customer.

What a customer likes

Knowing the tastes and interests of our customers is essential to making products that are attractive for the final consumer, not only to suit their needs, but also with a view to ensuring that our offer will develop in line with current trends, thus preventing our products or services from becoming outdated or unattractive to the general public.

The use of a CRM solution will allow users to obtain all this information through the integration of this tool with various corporate websites or major social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Google+).

In addition, you can also measure the results obtained in the various marketing campaigns conducted and learn what products or services have resulted more interesting to each Internet user, thus improving the existing segmentation for future marketing campaigns thanks to which we will see a significant increase in the number of accesses, clicks, and the return on investment generated by each action.

What bothers customers or what they do not understand

Whether they like it or not, all organisations have to deal with complaints and queries from dissatisfied customers. Ensuring an appropriate customer service is also important when it comes to satisfying our users or to achieve high standards of service quality.

Unlike some years ago, today the channels through which customers express their misgivings or complaints in relation to a product or a service are extremely varied.

From the traditional telephone and/or face-to-face contact with a customer at an office or distribution centre to new virtual channels, such as live chats, complaint or query forms (found on each company’s website) or complaints via email or social networks, with the poor image this may entail if not resolved quickly and satisfactorily .

The use of a CRM solution will enable you to register all the information relating to these complaints in your CRM automatically with a view to resolving them as soon as possible, thus avoiding disgruntled customers and a poor brand image on the corporate social networks.

What their latest purchases say about them

As we well know, it is much less costly to obtain the loyalty of an existing customer than to gain a new one.

Consequently, taking advantage of valuable current information on our existing customers in the CRM system (information such as: budgets, previous contracts on products or services acquired in the past) is essential for future offers on these products or on similar products that are in line with the purchase patterns displayed by a given customer.

This will result in much a higher rate of successful sales and our customers will also feel that we know them, that we are familiar with what they like and, consequently, their level of satisfaction and loyalty to our brand will increase.

How they got to know about us

Knowing the origin of leads may not seem very relevant at first sight, but the truth is that it is important when it comes to the approach of our sales and marketing strategies for the future, the commercial channels on which we want to place greater focus, where we want to invest more or less, etc…

Therefore, it is important that the CRM solution should record where each customer came from. In fact, it is advisable to make this field mandatory so that it must be filled-in by the agent or marketing expert when a new entry is made in the CRM solution.

This information can be used to create reports that deliver results on the channels that are generating more customers or more profitable customers and, therefore, the ones in which we must invest more with a view to the conducting marketing campaigns.

These are some examples of interesting customer information that all businesses should save in their CRM solution. The ultimate goal is to improve business, the reputation of the brand and ultimately, customer satisfaction regarding the products and services offered.

Intelligence Partner, as experts on CRM solutions, can advise you on everything you need to take full advantage of the information you have on your customers.