How to Get a Customer Database off the Ground

Published September 14, 2010 by Doug Mansfield

One of the cornerstones of a good online marketing strategy is a customer or client database. This is also one of the biggest challenges for me, and for small business clients who have never used one. The steps to set up a new database and start using it are simple enough. What’s tough is getting everyone on board in the real world where each day can be a series of fires to put out and everyone is accustomed to running fast and loose.

Nearly everyone I discuss this with agrees, yep - we should be capturing every contact in a database. The benefits are clear; Measure your return on investment, email and snail mail marketing, follow up on lost leads, valuable marketing data, etc. But everyone also agrees they should get their oil changed more often. I have seen first hand how this little step can boost marketing efforts and even make everyone's life easier, really. Here are some of the challenges faced and practical solutions.

Forces are Trying to Keep Your Database Grounded

• The customer database faces big hurdles before it can take flight:
• It does not solve any urgent problems
• It does not generate new revenue right away
• It does not make the life of your customer service people any easier

All of these will be proved untrue if it takes flight, but they seem real enough when starting.

Starting to use a database can be a disruptive process. Everyone needs make some effort: No more post-its with customer information, every call gets entered in the database, even the bad ones. Remember that if you are to measure the effectiveness of your marketing it is just as important to record the unqualified leads as the qualified ones. That means still capturing a referred-by or lead-source and basic contact information even when you can’t sell what the lead wants to buy.

Choosing the right software or platform is also a big challenge, or seems to be. You set out with a simple database in mind and soon find CRM and sales solutions promising features you didn’t consider and don’t need - And expensive license fees that don’t make sense to the first time shopper.

Suggestions for Getting Airborne

• Don’t buy complex or expensive solutions until you are truly committed and understand the role this is going to play in your business.
• Keep the list of required data fields short, really short. Don’t ask “What information would we like to record?” instead ask “What information do we really need to record?” A common mistake is to build a cumbersome entry form with too many required fields. It looks good to the generals but the soldiers will work around it to get their jobs done.
• I prefer to use a list in Microsoft SharePoint with just a few fields to capture data; Name, Address, Phone, Notes, REFERRED BY, etc. Microsoft Access is handy but gets out of control quickly, sometimes more quickly in the hands of experts. Heck, make it an Excel spreadsheet if that’s what it takes to get on board at first. The point is, keep it simple and easy to use at first.

You will know when the wheels of your new database have left the tarmac when customer service counts on it to do their jobs, when “Don’t ask me. What does the database say?” can be heard echoing in the halls.

The usual disclaimer - Your business is unique and your database will be too. My point is just to keep it simple and try to design it first to help with internal procedures and second for marketing data. That will help insure yours takes flight.