What is a customer database?

‍A customer database is a list of current and potential clients of a company. Each contact in the database can range from basic information, such as a name and phone number or email, to a comprehensive customer card. A detailed card may include documents, addresses, business sectors, and other relevant data. If the contact is a company, the company card may include legal entity details, documents, ownership structure, and company contacts.

It is important that the information you store provides business value and is not just kept "for the sake of it" or because "everyone does it." For example, if you are a hairdresser and you store clients’ birthdays in your database, it would be a great idea to congratulate them on their birthday and offer a personalized deal. Another example: for a B2B sales manager, having the "business niche" field in a client card allows for a more tailored proposal and helps address the client’s “pain points” effectively when presenting a commercial offer.

‍

Why do you need a customer database management program?

‍A program for managing a customer database, such as a CRM system, centralizes client information and optimizes interactions with clients. In a CRM, you can structure your client base by specific criteria, display essential fields for quick access, and view the entire history of communications, requests, and deals.

Confidentiality is also crucial. As your team grows, you may want to limit employee access. In a CRM, this is easy to achieve. For example, in Planfix CRM, you can restrict access to a contact or limit specific details about the contact (such as financial data) while keeping general access open.

‍

How does a crm help manage a customer database? client card personalization and customization

‍Modern CRM systems allow you to customize your client database to fit your business needs. In Planfix, for instance, you can add various types of fields to company or client cards: text fields, dates, dropdown lists, checkboxes, links, and more to store diverse client information. This flexibility lets you adapt the customer database to your business, whether it’s a recruiting agency, an online store, or accounting outsourcing.

Let’s look at how a client card might appear for an outsourced accounting company. We chose this example because accountants often store extensive information about their clients. In this example, you can see contact fields with data that is quickly accessible, as well as grouped panels that expand when clicked (details, additional data, company contacts (employees), company access rights, settings, and guest access to Planfix).

‍

‍

Company and contact card: a comprehensive approach

‍In addition to customizing client cards, it is also important to link contacts to companies. This allows you to manage your client database not only by individual clients but also by companies that may have multiple associated contacts. Such an approach makes it easier to manage relationships with corporate clients.

Let’s look at an example of a company where communication takes place through three contact persons who hold specific positions. These contacts can be seen in the company card under the "Contacts" section. You can immediately view their full name and position, and with one click, open their individual card.

‍

‍

Advanced customization for different industries

‍CRM systems allow you to customize the client database for various types of businesses. For example, an online store may include fields for tracking orders, accounting outsourcing firms may require fields for financial information, and recruitment agencies can have fields for filtering candidates.

Let’s take a closer look at an advanced candidate card for a recruitment agency.

‍

‍

Sources of contact creation

‍CRM systems allow you to automatically create new contacts from various sources by integrating with those platforms. For example, in Planfix, you can automatically add contacts from social media, messengers, phone calls, or emails. This significantly speeds up client database management and reduces the risk of losing important information.

However, manual data entry is also always an option. This can happen during direct communication with a client or through data imports from a file. Imports can be from another CRM system when switching to a new one or from your file if you previously stored client information in spreadsheets.

‍

Contact filters: quick information search

‍One of the key features of a CRM is the ability to filter the client database by any field. This is useful when you need to quickly find clients based on specific criteria such as region, contact creation date, source of addition, or order volume.

Let’s look at an example where a manager filtered clients they are responsible for and displayed quick access to their phone numbers and emails.

‍

‍

Analytics and Reports

‍To effectively manage your client base, it's essential to have the ability to generate reports, such as the number of new contacts over a specific period or from particular sources. CRM systems allow you to set up analytical reports that enable you to quickly assess the effectiveness of marketing campaigns or customer interactions. An example of a report showing the number of new clients coming from various sources over a period.

‍

‍

You can try managing your own database with Planfix. Planfix offers 14 days of free access to the system, which is enough to assess whether the system is right for you. After that, you can choose a pricing plan. The number of contacts you can store in Planfix ranges from 1,000 contacts on the free CRM plan to 100,000 on the highest pricing plan. Register today using the link https://planfix.com/?rid=64ba4ac33515 and unlock new opportunities for your business with Planfix!

‍

The article was prepared by Svitlana Lukich, CMO of ProcessFather.

🔗 Facebook
✉️ Telegram: @svitlanalukich

‍

‍