How do you mine your CRM’s customer database?

When it is well-built and effectively mined, a CRM database helps significantly improve the customer experience. By being familiar with the way your customer moves through your company, and making sure that your service is satisfactory, you can more easily build customer loyalty.

Going after new leads is good; keeping and building customer loyalty is better. To do this, you need to be able to offer an above-average customer experience. In this article, we’ll tell you in practical terms how your CRM’s customer database can become an asset to the customer relationship.

Centralize and visualize the information in the CRM customer database

With CRM software, the customer database becomes the cornerstone of your customer management and marketing strategies. All your customer data gets centralized in the same place. Information no longer gets lost between accounting and the marketing department. Every stakeholder in your company who needs it can check up-to-date information in real time.

This sharing and availability of information helps you and your team know your customers better. You know how they came to your business, when they did so, and what their habits are. A 360-degree view of your customer data gives you a head start on your competitors.

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How to use artificial and business intelligence to evaluate CRM customer data

Because you’ve installed a customer database in your CRM, you immediately have specific knowledge about your customer. But that doesn’t even take into account the artificial intelligence (AI) or business intelligence (BI) support that your CRM can provide you. Your CRM’s customer database acts like an enormous content aggregator. By consolidating all the information in the same place, the CRM helps you analyze your customers’ behaviour, and can even suggest marketing scenarios to advance your business development.

Installing a CRM with a customer database or importing your already existing data into your CRM helps you to know more about your customers’ habits: how loyal are they? Have they needed after-sales service? Are they a good payer?

When you start up your CRM software, you’ll see a dashboard. This is, in a way, your customer console. It’s the “flight deck” where you make your decisions because, here, all the information you need to make the best decisions is at your fingertips. All the data is in one place to help your business take off and help you reach your targets.

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Make better decisions with your CRM’s customer database

At this point, maybe you're still asking yourself how a CRM and its customer database can help you, as decision-support tools. That’s easy: this IT tool allows you to listen closely to your customers. So, you’ll be able to make better decisions based on better data, analyzed by your CRM. For example, if you’re looking at your two best-selling products, why not suggest a combined promotional offer? Your CRM will tell you what your customers’ needs are. All you need to do is meet those needs!

Given that all your customer information is now centralized in one place, you can more easily develop customized options. Whereas before, this may have been a time-consuming process, now, thanks to IT tools, you can provide an individualized customer experience. The customer will appreciate this, and in so doing, you’ll ensure their loyalty.

Targeting is also made easier. You can see which customers haven’t interacted with your company in 3 to 6 months, or you can thank your loyal customers by sending them a promo code, for example.

automation system, not only will you stand out through the value of the offers you make to your customers, but your non-value-added (NVA) tasks will disappear.

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Maximize points of contact with the customer, thanks to your CRM’s customer database

Better knowledge of your customers will, without a doubt, help you improve your marketing campaigns. Indeed, CRM tools give you an in-depth understanding of your customers, while providing you with many ways to improve your marketing campaigns. As we noted above, automation will become an asset for your sales strategies. Everything will be planned to minimize the risk of mistakes and oversights, while meeting your customers’ needs.

Today, the majority of companies which are successful and innovative in marketing have set up a multichannel presence to meet their customers’ needs. In other words, they have centered their strategy around the customer. In this, the CRM and its customer database are the most useful: with properly configured IT tools, you will be able to interpret the meaning behind your customers’ habits. You may even find yourself a step ahead, taking an innovative approach to your customers.

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Use your CRM’s customer database to create customer experiences.

Even though the tools have evolved, and technologies have become more sophisticated, something essential remains: the customer experience. No app, no software program can compensate for a disappointment that may have occurred as part of a customer’s experience. Even the biggest promotional campaigns can’t change a negative perception resulting from a customer’s bad experience.

Using a CRM and its customer database will help you establish deeper, lasting relationships with your customer base. You have all the data you need to fine-tune what you know about your customer.

The secret to a lasting relationship is the deeper knowledge you have of that person. When we know someone well, we’re better able to understand them, anticipate their actions, and their reactions. It’s the exact same thing with a customer. But because you don’t see your customers every day, you need a tool to help you get closer to them.

This is what the client portal included with our CRM software does. The client portal’s a bit like your customer’s living room. Here, you can review and understand their habits. Your interactions with them are targeted ones. Whether it’s a personalized email on their birthday, a promotional offer rewarding their loyalty, or access to their invoices at all times, all of these types of interaction play an active role in improving the customer experience.

If you’re able to increase customer loyalty by satisfying them and meeting their needs in specific ways, you’ll waste less time developing new prospects. Your satisfied customers will talk about you to their associates, and your customer database will continue to grow, organically.

Remember: it’s easier and more cost-effective to make a customer a loyal one, rather than to go find new ones.

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Used effectively, a CRM with a customer database will provide you maximum opportunity to mine your data, and to use your expertise to serve your customers’ needs.

At Gestisoft, we sell CRM software that meets all of these criteria. First and foremost, though, we’re ready to support you. Our CRM and ERP specialists will be able to appreciate the specifics of your situation, and help you discover the solutions that work best for you, to help your company grow. Get in touch to learn how a CRM can boost your bottom line, and make the experience you offer your customers an unforgettable one.