Are There Any Hidden Jewels in Your CRM Database?

Effective decision making requires the availability of up-to-date information at the right time for the right person. Information drives CRM and enables businesses to understand the needs and preferences of their customers. Also, the decision makers are now found at different levels across a company and they all need to be viewing a single truth about the customer.

Today’s decisions get made at all levels within the organization. Cohesive decision-making is critical to the success of companies. You can study the data from different perspectives so that different types of information are revealed which puts decision makers from different departments on the same platform and yet they can take decisions keeping the responsibilities and interests of their department in mind. This means more people stand to benefit from a well-planned CRM strategy as it raises the potential for even greater contribution from each employee to the top line. The analytics tools today fill the gap between the database and the applications so that information which was earlier unavailable can now be used to plan marketing and sales strategies.

There is a lot of information that is present in your data but is “hidden”. Once brought to the fore, this information is very useful in narrowing down the people who are most likely to become new customers, those who like to make cross-purchases and can be up-sold, customers who have reached the end of their relationship lifecycle with the business, and those who can be persuaded to stay for longer. The information results in large savings of time and effort as you can target your prospects according to the message. The data can even throw up information on the channels of communication that will yield the maximum return communication from those contacted; you can also predict whether a customer will act with or without the carrot of an offer.

If you’re in a business with a strong consumer focus such as retail then you are in a position to really benefit if you can find out what links factors such as price, staff training, customer focus, etc with things such as inflation, customer demographics, competition etc. The formerly mentioned factors are in your control while the latter are external factors. Data mining tools can let you take a lot of information at a glance by summarizing it so that even your staff on the move can take quick decisions by referring the data on mobile devices.

The information acquired allows your customer-facing executives to be better prepared regarding customer preferences and you can follow a policy of targeting individual customers if you so wish. Not only you but also your channel partners will benefit from the data analysis. The information can have a direct impact on your supply chain and how you manage your inventory.