2021 seems to have had the longest Winter ever, going right through May with cold winds and rain. Suddenly Summer arrived with June, and is very welcome, but it feels like we may have missed Spring! Spring is a time to get ready for Summer, clean out the cobwebs from Winter and sort out our houses, our gardens, our lives, all dusted down and ready for action.
This is also true of our CRM systems and our databases. We ploughed on with work, mostly from home, through the long dark days of Winter and we may have been unmotivated to maintain and service our workflows, databases and systems. So how can we dust down and spruce up our CRM systems to maintain and enhance data integrity? Here are our Top Tips.
Simple Database Cleansing
You can start your data integrity exercise with your contacts:
- Update any leavers in a way that’s easy for everyone to see, so that people in your organisation don’t communicate with them unnecessarily, and that the correct person is contacted instead.
- Enter as much information about new prospects as possible. Contact details, notes (don’t forget you can dictate them), documents, even observations! It helps to build a rich picture of who this valuable new contact is, to make all communications go smoothly and easily.
- Keep customer information updated. It’s easy to take certain things for granted – like what we know about long-standing customers – but make sure your notes are up-to-date and relevant. It’s good practice for yourself and for your colleagues.
- CRMs contain a plethora of nifty features to help you manipulate your data to keep it tidy, although you may want to leave bulk updates to your System Administrators!
GDPR
Ensure your contacts are correctly identified for GDPR purposes. In particular, if your contact does not want to be contacted by email, phone, mail or any other form of communication for sales and marketing purposes, then make sure the “Do Not Solicit” (or similar) field is correctly marked. Updating any contacts who Unsubscribe after a Marketing Campaign is one way of making sure you are compliant.
For Maximizer CRM users: Read tips on How To Clean Data For Email Campaign Management.
Date Last Contacted
There’s a very simple way to ensure this information is kept up to date – and that’s by using your CRM system! Whether the communication is by email, phone, or (virtual) meeting, your activities will get logged as notes in your CRM system if you use it correctly. By knowing when you last contacted your customer or prospect, it becomes quick and easy to check where you are in that relationship. For example, you can schedule a task to get in touch if a certain period has passed.
For Maximizer CRM users: Here’s a recap on How to use the Advanced Search.
Set Reminders
Setting to-do tasks and reminders for your regular spring cleaning jobs ensures nothing gets forgotten.
Use Saved Lists and Searches
Favorite lists and saved searches are a brilliant way to save you time. If you run a report weekly, monthly or even annually you can speed up the process with saved searches. To make it even simpler, use shortcuts provided by your CRM software, such as icons for easy access in the toolbar (in Maximizer CRM, this is called “Quick Access Toolbar“).
Use Dashboards
Dashboards can be set up to keep all your metrics in one place. Your go-to for leads, prospects and sales opportunities. Or, if you are a Sales Manager, your team’s metrics and meetings in the diary, as well as their pipeline.
Customer Services can also set up dashboards for case management and create processes to keep on top of workload in a slick, automated fashion.
Document Library
Make sure all your collateral, whether it’s related to Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Management or Internal Processes, is stored in your Document Library to save everyone time and keep it at your fingertips. And here’s another tip – remember to replace old document versions with the newest, latest one!
Email Management
How many emails do you get in a day, week, month? Probably a lot. If your CRM is integrated with your email system, you can easily send and save your relevant emails into CRM, as well as any incoming emails to the relevant customer folder.
For Maximizer CRM users: Further reading is available here:
- How To Save An Email To A Maximizer Entry From Microsoft Outlook.
- How To Set Up Microsoft Outlook Integration.
More Information about Data Integrity
If you need more guidance on how CRM can help you become more productive, efficient and profitable, talk to us.
- Tel: +44 (0)1992 661244
- Email: enquiries@avrion.co.uk
- Web form here
- Subscribe to our YouTube channel
