
Apart from affecting our daily lives, the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically impacted the availability of various business resources across different industries. It has even temporarily stopped a number of major business operations and has also affected the usability of the tools that other businesses have in place, including their CRM. So if you think your CRM data is safe and unaffected by this pandemic, think again. As we all continue to survive and cope with this new normal, many of your customers will surely have to adjust the way they work, where they live, and other things that they need to do to survive. With that in mind, you can safely assume that a large percentage of your customer data will surely be obsolete by now, in one way or another.
In fact, before the pandemic struck, it was found that 40 percent of CRM contacts sourced by attorney address books were out-of-date. This is due to the fact that workers change their jobs every 4.2 years, on average. This means that every year, CRM contacts become outdated by about 25%. And with an inaccurate content, your CRM will surely be of no use to your business. So how do you go about updating it? Here are three ways for you to keep your CRM database updated.
- Use the power of email
During this pandemic, email can be one of the most effective methods for you to communicate with your customers and stay up to date with their whereabouts. You can use your customers’ email responses to scrape important information about your contacts. By checking their email signatures, you can rest assured that you are getting an updated record about your customers as people usually keep their signatures current. Using the data you gather from email signatures can help you maintain your CRM’s cleanliness. - Track the date of last engagement
Keeping track of your last interaction with a customer will help you keep your records updated, too. By knowing the last date of engagement with your customer, you can clean up your records and avoid including these obsolete contacts on your mass mailing list. - Schedule a regular database checking
Another important thing that you should accomplish regularly is your CRM database checking. You should see to it that you clean up your database regularly and remove any duplicate or unimportant data from your database. You should also update your customers’ records as often as necessary to make the most of your customer database.
Why Should You Keep Your CRM Updated?
Your CRM is more than just a collection of customer records. It is a treasure trove that can give you access to more customers, and with that, better business. This is why it’s important to keep your CRM updated. Here are some of the reasons why you should keep your CRM up to date.
- Streamlined communication during crisis
No matter what the condition is of the market, maintaining a healthy communication with your team, customers and stakeholders will always be important. An updated database will help you handle your crisis management better. With updated records, you can be sure that every communication that you send out to your customers is properly routed, and that all of the concerns that they raise can be addressed promptly and accordingly. - Understand your customers better
No matter what line of business you are in, understanding your customers will always be important. You should see to it that you maintain good relations with your existing customers and be able to communicate with them at the right time, using the right message. By understanding your customers better, you can improve your customer support and enhance the rate of your customer retention. - Efficient approach to digital transformation
With the way this pandemic has impacted how we do things, digital transformation is definitely important. If not done accordingly and immediately, it can gravely impact the way you are handling your business. With more accurate and updated customer records, you can rely on automating your communications without worrying about if your communications are received by your target audience. - Better decision making
Every record in your database can affect how you are making decisions for your business. If your data’s quality is poor, each inaccuracy in your customer records can impact the way you are handling your business. Inaccurate customer records can also impact the way you are handling your customer support, which will definitely affect how your customers perceive your business.
Outsource Your CRM Database Management
Keeping your CRM database updated regularly will be very tedious. It will eat up a lot of your time, manpower and other resources if this is not managed accordingly. If you want to make the most of your CRM without taking away too much resource necessary for your core business functions, then you might want to consider outsourcing this task instead. By letting a reliable outsourcing partner handle your CRM management, you can rest easy that your customer records are kept as clean and up to date as possible.
Not sure how to proceed with outsourcing your CRM database management? Schedule a consultation with us here at Assivo. We’d be happy to provide you with the guidance that you need to transition to outsourcing your CRM database maintenance.