We collect data in CRM: steroids for the company

The digital era has thoroughly entered our life, now the world is a data set. This applies not only to ordinary people, IoT or scientific research. First of all, it concerns business. Any, from a startup on the knee to a mega holding. Now almost every company has such a competitive environment that they have to act like on the battlefield: collect data, analyze and make strategic and tactical decisions. Otherwise, the client simply does not show interest in your development, product, service. Questions arise: what data to collect, where to get it, how to store it and in general - why waste time on it? We know the answers.


Customer data is an asset along with your fixed and current assets. If you collect, store, process and interpret them correctly, then you have every chance to get a pool of loyal customers and increase your profits.

In fact, a business does not always collect customer information — more precisely, information that will be enough to build relationships, rather than trying to get a couple of additional sales by email or SMS. Even according to our previous article and comments to it, it is possible to judge what information is most often collected: name, contacts, and when you bought it. This is not enough. Believe CRM experience: whatever system you take, there are a lot of fields in the client's card, filling out which makes the customer base more qualitative.

In the process of developing RegionSoft CRM, we also made the card the main entity of the system. It provides many tabs that include all commercial information: from banal contacts to aspects of financial security. All actions, documents, transactions, call logs, etc. also available from customer card. Thus, users of CRM-systems receive a maximum of data, access to which is provided in just a couple of clicks.
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Data collection helps to approach each client individually, based on their needs and profile. Such personification makes the purchase more valuable for the client and profitable for you - all because the buyer receives what he wants.

It’s obvious to everyone, but we’ll remind you that by giving your personal and financial information to you, customers expect it to remain safe (everyone knows about tightening 152-FZ from July 1?) And you will not abuse trust, like selling data to third parties , spamming a couple of times a day, casually storing data, etc. By the way, there is such a common situation as the departure of the manager from the client base. This is one of the problems, a partial solution of which lies on the CRM system. So, if your manager "leads away" or sells data, this is a double problem: first, the loss of a part of the client base, and second, the transfer of information to third parties who will potentially gain commercial gain. That is, in fact, the company did not cope with the protection of the data transferred to it.

What data to collect and why?

Personal Information

In general, you need to collect any data - a good analyst does not know the details and does not tolerate a scornful attitude to the facts. First of all, the business needs the contact details of the client, its demographic and geographic data, as well as information corresponding to the company's goals (for example, how old a car is for a car dealership or what brand is a phone for a salon). These data are collected during the first interactions and with the help of a personal questionnaire (hello, 152-FZ, questionnaires with certain data should also be stored in a special way).

By the way, if you think that the personal parameters of the type of car brand are only in the B2C sector, then you are mistaken: in the B2B sector there are also preferences that could potentially affect your relationships. This, for example, the presence or absence of corporate transport, features of corporate culture, preferred software, brands and models of working PCs, etc.

Transaction data

After personal and personal data are collected, it is important to carefully collect transactional data: all points of interaction with the client must be recorded. From the transactional information it also becomes clear how valuable the customer is, how often and how much he spends, how quickly he pays the bills and whether he forms the accounts receivable, what his preferences are. In transactions there are no trifles, managers should fix everything: from the minutes of personal meetings to the facts of no answer to the call. Transactional information will let you know how much the client is in contact, talkative, what and when he buys, how often he applies to technical support, and whether you can trust him. And such information is not just a source of pre-sales, but also a way to resolve conflict situations.

Relatively recently, a story happened to us, when our CRM system helped us out, because managers write every little thing in it, and documents, history of correspondence and records of negotiations are stored on the card. It was like this: a user on a public resource accused us of the fact that our product was raw and part of the functionality did not work as expected. Lunge from his point of view was beautiful. However, we picked up the information and found in his client card a lot of denials to him, as well as a letter of guarantee in which he refused to complain about a product that he strongly bought in beta. The attack was repulsed. Generally, when all data and transactions are recorded, the company is as difficult to defame as false information - on your side will be the facts.

Communication data

Another important block of information is communication. First of all, you need to measure the client's response time to letters, calls, other messages, count the number of incoming and outgoing communications. It is imperative to monitor and analyze which customer responds better: for example, the introvert will select e-mail and will be happy to chat, and a busy person will prefer quick telephone calls or rare letters. This will allow the company to make communication comfortable and businesslike, and not to turn it into annoying spam.

Where to get customer data from?

There are many sources, and each company has its own secrets of extracting valuable business information. The only important condition is that all methods must be legal, and the data must be “clean”. Otherwise, you can run into a fine and in the conditions of the ubiquitous Internet pay a reputation.

• Information when registering on the site. Create forms on the site that will help you collect data from customers. Rules: do not require data for minor bonuses (such as downloading an advertising booklet), collect data step by step (part - during registration, part - while placing an order), do not forget to prescribe the data processing policy (do you still remember 152-?) .
  
  
• Information from the online presentation. Try to collect data during the registration of the application, as well as during communication with the client. Rules: ask leading questions, prepare for working with the client in advance, create a standard questionnaire (for example, in the RegionSoft CRM questionnaire - built-in function).
  
  
• Information from the chat. Ask for a name and email in chat. Many applications have built-in ability to query customer information. Rules: do not use annoying pop-up buttons to “call back”, in case of unwillingness to leave your data, the client should be able to continue chatting on the site.
  
  
• Information from telephone conversations. Specify the necessary data while talking on the phone with the client. Rules: record calls and save them, it will provide opportunities for training managers and save you from hundreds of conflict situations (we have provided such a thing - in RegionSoft CRM all conversations are recorded and saved).
  
  
• Information from orders on the website or online store. When ordering, you can collect a lot of different information, from having children to the preferred methods of payment. Good results are given by questionnaires based on the results of the purchase or service. Rules: do not overload the fields with unnecessary questions, the client may refuse to purchase. Provide a formal bonus for full registration or offer to connect to the bonus system after filling out a detailed questionnaire.
  
  
• Information in exchange for information. Offer useful information in exchange for customer data. These could be interesting newsletters, articles, video tutorials, etc. Rules: do not slip into infobusiness and do not drive cheap content, work on content.
  
  
• Personal communication in sales. During a conversation with a client, managers can find out the client’s needs, tasks for the future, and much more. By the way, no one prohibits making inquiries about a client on the Internet either. Rules: do not be too intrusive, do not insist on your questions if the client deliberately and rigidly avoids them.
  
  
• Internet of Things (IoT). Works great for retail, B2C. Put NFC tags, customer flow counters, interactive screens - so your customers will tell about themselves. Rules: everything must be within the law.
  
  
• Analytics systems. The most generous and secure way to collect data. Use familiar Yandex.Metrics and Google Analytics, expand your arsenal of BI systems, use trackers, parsers, etc. Rules: the information on you will literally flow, but this does not mean that you can correctly process and interpret it. Choose and use valuable data, compare, look for new patterns.
  
  
• Social networks. In our opinion, the way an amateur and almost always only for B2C. However, if you can collect data from social networks and use it correctly, then this should be done, because an extra source will not hurt. Rules: remember the private part of your clients life.
  
  
• Customized research - both target groups and potential users in general. An excellent method, as a result of which you will receive a clear informative document with conclusions and even recommendations. Expensive. Very expensive. Rules: use this method only if it is appropriate. Before ordering a study, make an analysis, set goals that you need to achieve, and hypotheses that need to be tested during the study.
  

- Where you dig, where will you get new clothes, How do you expect to overcome the fence?
- Who are you ?!
- I am a business analyst.

How to store information?

As we have already managed to find out, there are enough Excel followers in our country - in fact, this is one of the most common ways to store the client base among those enterprises that have not yet implemented CRM systems. To some extent, it is even convenient and familiar to a wide class of workers, but, of course, one of the most unsafe. Also, office workers have a habit of storing all contacts and interactions in email clients. It is also fraught with security problems (especially when it comes to free email applications), data loss, “leaving” the database along with the manager.
To store and analyze information in the most efficient, safe and appropriate way to use CRM-systems. By the way, they have already evolved and combine several solutions: project and task management, personal and group planning, telephony, etc.

It is worth remembering about two important rules for working with client data. First: do not collect all the information at once - interact in batches and extract valuable data from each interaction. Second: do not extrapolate information about a single client or a narrow group to the entire client base or even a wide segment. Most likely, you will be mistaken with conclusions and assumptions that will make sales on data ineffective. And yes, do not forget to leave the opportunity to unsubscribe and to interact with you.

Methods of collecting and processing information

Of course, information, its processing methods and analytical tools are very different from company to company. In any case, the collected data should be processed and used, their simple presence is not a recipe for success, they are useless in their “raw” form.

• Documents, certificates, statements and other papers - this method is good for obtaining official data. Plus - accurate and comprehensive information, minus - collection takes time, a lot of legislative restrictions (most often there is no agreement on the processing of personal data and you need to fake it).
  
  
• Surveys, polls - an excellent method when you need to collect specific information in a short time. Plus questionnaires in their voluntariness and sometimes - anonymity, minus - in the need to find a way to get answers from the respondents, in the filling errors and false information.
  
  
• A telephone or personal interview is a good way to “get closer” to a client, “take off” a psychological portrait and get the necessary data. Plus - in communicating with the client and data coverage, minus - requires time and labor, the interviewers must be trained.
  
  
• Observation is a great way for a business that knows what it wants. Information about users is collected from the outside and looks like a conclusion. Plus - no legal restrictions, minus - difficulties in personalization, interpretation and classification of data.
  
  
• Research - own and custom. A very good source of information, gives a complete correct picture, allows you to identify complex and non-obvious trends and patterns. Pros - a powerful means of collecting information. Cons - either by professionals and expensive, either independently and for a long time, with preparation and careful study of each panel question, as well as links between questions. We wrote about amateur research errors by our own example.
  
  
• Focus groups are dead. Joke with a share of joke. Rather expensive and in-depth research of target groups with the possibility of survey, discussion, etc. Pros - a quick way to get a lot of information, the simultaneous promotion of the product in a group. Cons - very expensive, requires professional questioning, it is difficult to assemble a group. And they are dying out because an advanced business is looking for cheaper digital ways and tries to avoid gross generalizations.
  

Business invests in analytics (at a minimum, it pays for software and salary to marketers, analysts and accompanying programmers), which means it should receive a return on investment. That is, information is not enough to get - it is important to be able to analyze it. We have already written about the principles of analytics in business, but we will repeat several basic ways to use this asset.

• Operational analytics: intelligence and work with data during product promotion, operational reporting.
  
  
• Descriptive analytics: consumer segmentation, creation of a client's portrait, development of a loyalty program.
  
  
• Predictive analytics: predictions, predictions, behavioral patterns.
  

What to count and how not to screw up?

There is a whole group of information that is strictly compulsory for any business, since it reflects its “health” and its adequacy to the requirements of customers.

• Consider the conversion and use the sales funnel. The data on how many incoming calls have turned into purchases will immediately tell you how well the commercial service works and how well the implementation logic is built.
  
  
• Constantly review the range, use the product matrix and ABC-analysis. This applies not only to stores or online stores, but also to companies with a narrow range of products (for example, software development companies). In case of low demand for a product, you can recycle it or stop working on it, shifting efforts to more promising areas.
  
  
• Measure sales channels. It is difficult to find a company that would sell its product through one channel. Check whether all channels are profitable to avoid leaking money to those that have the highest selling price. But do not fall into a typical trap: the channel can have a high selling price, but it can effectively maintain, promote, lead leads. Be sure to consider this.
  
  An example from life. The company sold its services and its products through mono-brand stores, dealers, agents, postal kiosks and offices, an online store. after research it turned out that the sale price in a mono brand is 10 times higher than the average price across channels. Two monobrends were closed - the revenue from subscriptions in the semi-annual period decreased significantly. It turned out that mono-brands brought the most highly profitable and loyal customers who came to the salon with "serious intentions", and did not take the product "to drive a week."
  
  
• Financial and cash flows. Be sure to keep track of where exactly the money comes from and where it goes. Any aggregation and aggregation of indicators in such matters is the worst that can happen.
  
  
• Information on customer support. Analyze the number of calls, the quality of service, the duration of the client's communication with the employee, collect feedback and suggestions - sometimes there are great insights. And yes, in our ultra competitive time, the one with the best service wins.
  
  
• Staff information. Be sure to analyze the internal processes - and this is definitely not a delay or Internet logs. if a person works productively and gives you a planned result, why control him and provoke disloyalty. Analyze KPI, speed of task performance, try to evaluate which tasks succeed better and build a team on this basis.
  
  
• Information noise around your company. Collect maximum external information about your company: reviews, references, citations, etc. The more noticeable you are on the market, the more noise. But even small companies are obliged to monitor absolutely everything in order to avoid reputational losses or in order to use the right moment. Here you will come to the aid of special requests in search engines, google alerts, etc.
  
  
• Information about competitors. You should know everything about them - not only in order to copy the best, but in order to build up and occupy your niche. Carefully study your rivals in the market, do not disregard new products, price changes, mastering technologies and markets.
  

Responsiveness of information is its important property. You can take a moment off from reading the article and think about how quickly you will learn about the change in the dynamics of the most important indicators for you. You can bet that the sysadmin will know almost immediately about a change in the number of working nodes or a critical drop in the connection speed to the server, but the sales manager and his manager will know about a sharp drop in sales after 24 hours at best - and if they daily monitor the situation. And so the most common interval - a month, and then a week.

Meanwhile, the sooner a company finds out about a problem, the cheaper and more effective its solution will be. So why not know about the information?

1. Incorrect reporting period. You can skip the crisis point or compare with the wrong base period. To avoid this problem, use different monitoring segments for different indicators: real-time, real-time, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, etc.
   
   
2. The company does not pay attention to analytics. Yes, unfortunately there are many such companies. They can have billing, CRM, BI, and anything, but they won't even put a metrics counter on the site, preferring to work on a whim. Such a position does not end with anything good, the company will simply lose itself in a competitive environment, because it will not be able to assess and predict its condition.
   
   
3. Companies, analyzing the data, do not take into account the seasonality factor and as a result receive errors and make wrong conclusions. For example, indicators of peak business activity and a recession period can be compared. The same error occurs when planning - the plan for any periods is set without taking into account the season. While each company has its own recession and growth intervals within the year, respectively, they need to be taken into account both when analyzing information and when planning and forecasting.
   
   
4. Data is accumulated in several corporate information systems, between which the interaction is configured weakly or not at all. We have it here at number three, and in the hearts of CRM players and other vendors of business automation solutions this is number one and the grand prix among the reasons for the analytical files of the business. There is an excellent study that shows that on average, companies use 14 business applications in their work. Among them, there are often intersecting analytics, as well as those that should complement each other (for example, CRM and billing, CRM and 1C). So, the lack of integration makes the data patchwork and reduces their information content and usefulness for business.
   

What is good for collecting and storing information CRM-system?

Speaking about analytics, it will be useful to dwell once more on the role of a manager. Some top managers firmly believe in the effectiveness of their team and completely trust it in managing key situations. Well, they say they are sure, in fact, they are just too lazy or uninteresting to delve into operational work. Such a situation is fraught - without active control, a business can go in a completely different direction, where its founders and leaders would like. We are not talking now about micro-management, which for the most part provides nothing for fuss, we are talking about periodic monitoring of indicators and activities, as well as analysis of management activities. The manager must have access to all basic indicators with the possibility of their specification (for example, to the manager or to the region).


So keep in mind that these numbers are just as accurate as the dummy data, ridiculous assumptions and wishful thinking on which they are based!

By the way, such control is easiest to implement in the CRM system using planning tools, plan-actual analysis, sales funnels, etc. The boss gets access to important business indicators in real time, can have remote access to the workplace. Repeat for the hundredth time, CRM is a tool for monitoring operational work and tasks, and not a tool for total control and surveillance of employees. The system does not know how to spy (we are about our own, of course), and indeed, it’s going to be “fu”.

Save time on reporting. You can praise Excel as much as you want, but your employees are guaranteed to spend too much time on it. To make a report in spreadsheets, in 90% of cases it is necessary to make an effort - this applies to numerical data. The situation is worse with tasks - for example, if an employee has to report at the end of a day or a week how long it took him for what task. You do not just get the material, the creation of which killed about an hour and a half - you get a stream of inspired lies. While in CRM you will see completed, overdue, and deferred tasks for each of your subordinates.

Improving productivity and company performance. Bob Parson, the founder of GoDaddy, remarked: “Everything that is measured and observed is improving.” Accordingly, if both the manager and employees can constantly monitor their results on dashboards, charts, progress bars, with the help of reminders, they will even psychologically strive to improve performance, correct the situation with a backlog. By the way, it reduces the level of nervousness and stress in the company. In domestic business practice, the legacy of “catching up and overtaking” and “five years in four years,” is alive, so attention is almost not paid to stress management. Meanwhile, a calm team, able to control their work and their time, works much more productively.

No Big Data or why we didn't “screw” machine learning to RegionSoft CRM

On Facebook, we were asked if there was machine learning in our CRM system . Let's not make intrigue of this question - no. Just because so far our system does not need such functionality. And that's why.

To begin with, we will give a simple explanation of what machine learning and artificial intelligence are in relation to a corporate information system (CRM, ERP, etc.). This is a software and hardware complex or just a program that collects, stores and analyzes information automatically. Artificial intelligence lies in the fact that a program on the basis of big data “learns” to find patterns and relationships in data, and then when it comes to entering similar data, simulate a situation (again, everything is based on probability theory — this is a Bayes theorem that works on big data , according to which it is possible to determine the probability of an event, provided that another statistically interdependent event occurred with it). There should be a lot of data for training the system, an enormous amount. And this is precisely the problem of the slow introduction of such technologies into CRM systems: small and medium businesses are almost unable to generate such a quantity of relevant information, and for processing their data for regularities, the basic CRM tools and the intelligent human head are quite sufficient. capable of deduction and induction.


“So how's your big data project, Hoskins?”

Machine learning is relevant in banks (this is a really huge amount of data), in telephony and other forms of communication at the federal level, in the safety of citizens and traffic, in large transport companies, in industry. Basically, the machines inside the information systems of companies in these areas learn to recognize critical situations, fraud, fraud, etc.

The introduction of machine learning in CRM for small and medium businesses is possible (that is, we, the developers at RegionSoft, can take and sip a self-learning neural network), but this is an expensive and rather lengthy development, which greatly increases the price of the license and makes the software overloaded and inaccessible for customers. While not arguing, marketing is beautiful. We also want everyone to start with basic automation. And in this process, alas, even the light at the end of the tunnel is not always visible.

If you own the information, you have a competitive advantage. You'd be surprised, but while the world is learning machine learning, big data and data mining, most of the competitors of small and medium-sized businesses do not even bother to look at current indicators and analyze the sales profile. In general, everyone is able to count money, but only a few can competently ensure their growth. So, you can safely overtake your competitors at the expense of competent analytics and smart business management.

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