4 Tips for Keeping Track of Your Customer Information

In today’s business world, customer data is invaluable. Your ability to mine, store, and analyze this data directly impacts your business on many levels. If your business is like many others, you may have accumulated an incredible amount of data, and it may seem as though the volume of data grows by the week. These tips can help you to improve data management so that it yields the most substantial benefits. 

Update Data Regularly 

Older data may no longer be relevant. Storing it takes up unnecessary space and may increase the difficulty of effective data analysis. One effective way to update customer data is to simply ask your customers to log into their account and to update their profile. You can also request customer surveys and gather updated information in other similar ways. All data files should include a date for the last date of verification or updating. 

Gather and Store All Relevant Facts 

Data that may seem irrelevant today could be invaluable in a few months when various factors change. In order to maximize the benefit of customer data, you need to store all relevant data even if it is not useful today. However, you must have a threshold so that you know which data could reasonably be discarded. 

Eliminate Duplicates 

Many of your customers may go by different names. For example, Robert may also go by the names Rob, Robby, Robbie, Bob, and other similar variations. There may be duplicate records in your database based on first name variations, misspellings in first and last names, address input variations and more. Fuzzy name matching technology is now available to effectively eliminate or combine duplicate profiles or records. 

Secure Customer Data 

Customer data must be stored in a safe, secure location. The data should be backed up regularly, and it should be impermeable to hacking and other cyber threats. When customer data falls into the wrong hands, you may face a serious customer relations crisis, legal issues and more. Ensure that only authorized personnel have access to the data that your company has collected. 

Your business must have an effective way to gather customer data, and it also needs to find ways to update that data, eliminate duplicates, analyze the data and store it securely. Data management plays a major role in most businesses, so it makes sense to look for ways to improve your efforts in these areas today.