Small business owners constantly tell us one of their biggest pain points is efficiently storing and maintaining customer information. Customer management is a headache when they store portions of customer lists in different locations, such as personal phone contacts, email inboxes, and Excel sheets. Some even keep it old-school and just have their customer information written in notebooks.
The power of organizing your customer list
While storing customer information this way might be a passable short-term solution, it’s not ideal if you are trying to improve efficiency and grow a business. A long-term customer management system should provide you with a way to easily access all of the information you know about a customer, such as email address, street address, phone number, and perhaps even their purchase or appointment history.
Getting your customer list organized with this level of detail takes some time and effort, but there’s no better time to start than now. A smart customer management system improves business processes and customer communication.
Gain insight into your business
Once your customer management system is organized in a way that lets you easily add and track information about a particular contact, you can start to identify trends. With some digging, you can gain valuable insight into:
- How many customers you actually have.
- If you have a lot of repeat customers or one-time purchasers.
- How much the average customer spends in a transaction.
- Which products or services customers are most interested in.
This level of insight will help you make informed decisions that will help you to be more efficient and effective. As any small business owner knows, this is crucial.
When you have all of your contacts organized in one customer management system, it’s much easier to use tools like automated emails or texts.
Tailor customer messages
Once you have detailed information about customers, you can start to group customers who have similar qualities; location, purchase history, etc., into separate lists. Then you can start tailoring marketing texts or emails to each customer list so your message is more personal and impactful. For example, you could send your most loyal customers a special promo code.
When you have all of your contacts organized in one customer management system, it’s much easier to use tools like automated emails or texts.
Keep personal and business communications separate
If you store your customer list in your phone, it really blurs the line between personal and business communication. One way to differentiate and organize your contacts is using a 2nd phone number like the one offered by Sideline.
When you use Sideline, business contacts can have their own ringtone and caller ID, so it’s easy to identify business calls and answer in a professional manner. We are also building and beta testing a new generation of features that will make organizing your business communications even easier.
To learn more about Sideline’s features and how they can make your life easier and grow your business, take a look at some of the blog posts listed below.
- 4 productivity tips for small business owners
- 4 tips for small business owners: How to organize your customer info
- 3 customer re-engagement tips for small business owners
- Small business marketing: The power of re-engaging your customers
Header Image: jacoblund via iStock
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