Commercial Benefits of Keeping Your CRM Data Updated

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.

As we all continue to 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 manage their new day-to-day reality. 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In fact, before the pandemic struck, it was found that 40% of CRM contacts sourced by attorney address books were outdated. 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 This means that every year, CRM contacts become outdated by about 25%.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.

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. Schedule a regular database checking

Another important thing that you should accomplish regularly is your CRM database checking. Clean your database regularly and remove any duplicate or unimportant data from your database. You should also update your customers’ records often 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.

1. Streamlined communication during crisis

No matter the market condition, maintaining a healthy communication with your teams, customers, and stakeholders will always be important. An updated database will help you handle your crisis management better. With current records, you can be sure that every communication you send to your customers is properly routed and that all of the concerns that they raise can be addressed promptly and appropriately.

2. Understand your customers better

Understanding your customers will always be important regardless of your line of business. Implement processes to maintain positive relations with your existing customers and to communicate with them at the right time using the right message. This can improve your customer support and enhance your customer retention rate as well.

3. Efficient approach to digital transformation

With the way the pandemic has impacted how we conduct business, digital transformation is definitely important. If not done accordingly and immediately, it can gravely impact the way you handle your business. With more accurate and updated customer records, you can rely on automating your communications without worrying about whether your messages are received by your target audience.

4. Better decision making

Every record in your database can affect how you make decisions for your business. If your data quality is poor, each inaccuracy in your customer records can skew your perception of customer feedback, prospect and pipeline projections, product performance, and addressable market. Inaccurate customer records can also impact how you manage customer support and, in turn, alter how customers view your business.

Outsource Your CRM Database Management

Keeping your CRM database updated regularly can be very tedious. The processes for proper management can take large amounts of time, manpower, and other resources when not processed accordingly. If you want to make the most of your CRM without taking away too from your core business functions, you might want to consider outsourcing. 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.