As a business owner, you know that one of the essential things to your business is good customer relations. Yes, your employees are important and your vendors, but if no one buys what you’re selling, then you’re out of business. When your business starts to grow, you want to make sure that you’re keeping up with essential information about your customers with customer tracking software.
69% of customers said they quit doing business with companies they had dealt with in the past because they had perceived an attitude of indifference.Jan Carlson
Source
This is the time to retire your paper system of customer information management and choose a customer tracking software that meets your company’s need. Even if you’re using a software program that adds a customer tracking feature, you want dedicated customer tracking software to make the most of keeping up with your customers and grow sales to those clients.
Maybe you’ve considered purchasing customer tracking software in the past but hesitated over the cost. Here are the top reasons to add customer tracking software to your office computers.
History
Customer tracking software offers you the entire relationship history of a customer in just a couple of clicks. With the customer history at your fingertips, you can see when you’ve contacted that client and topics discussed.
It’s possible that a customer was interested in a product a couple of months ago and decided to wait to purchase. With customer tracking software, you have a record of that interest and can follow up with a phone call to get that sale. Customer tracking software provides you with all of that history.
The saying goes that those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it. With customer tracking software, you can identify issues that a customer is having with your company and correct it before you lose that client and revenue stream. Having a customer’s entire history on your computer with customer tracking software helps you tailor each phone call and contact to that customer’s needs.
Organization
Good customer tracking software helps you organize all customer tasks into a single location. These types of software programs let you send emails, handle tasks and notate customer accounts after contacts and jobs done for them. It’s an organizational dream.
Customer tracking software allows you to organize all of your customer’s information into one convenient program. This includes things, such as calendars. You’ll get a unique perspective on your customer when you organize their information with customer tracking software.
The organization of customer records with customer tracking software helps to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks. If you have a client that you haven’t spoken to in a couple of months, the customer tracking software will help you identify them and provide the history of the relationship so that you can make a positive contact with them.
Good organization of customer records can help your business grow and help you keep your customers happy and ordering from you.
Customer Tracking Software Helps You Stop Relying on Memory
Yes, that young lady in customer service has a great memory, but it’s not nearly as good as the memory in a customer tracking software program. If you want to grow your business and add more customers, you need customer tracking software.
It was easy to keep up with customer information by memory when there were only a dozen or so, but as your business has grown, your memory abilities really haven’t.
A customer tracking software never forgets the information about clients that you enter. With almost unlimited memory, you can add whatever information to a customer’s record that you like. This can make your customers feel more like a part of a team.
For instance, if you have a customer whose daughter is getting married in June, then you can make a note to ask them how it went during their first phone call in July in your customer tracking software. This goes a long way towards building positive relationships and building sales.
Instant Access to Customer Status
With customer tracking, you can organize your customer information by the customer’s current status. This customer tracking software perk can help your sales and marketing department connect with customers and prospective customers who are ripe for a phone call.
You can note the customer’s level of interest in certain products or services with customer tracking software so that they sales staff instantly knows where the customer’s interests are and don’t need to ask.
The customer tracking software helps you identify customers who’ve had issues with your company in the past so that you can use a little tender loving care when they place a new order or call in for information.
You want to know as much about the customer’s frame of mind before you answer the call or make an outgoing one, and customer tracking software helps you identify their status. You can also use that status to sort customers and concentrate your efforts or make quick sales when you need to get your numbers up.
Emails in One Location
If you aren’t using customer tracking software, then you probably have all of your customer emails in one folder but not in the customer’s folders. It’s possible that you have some emails on your laptop, some on your desktop and some on your phone. With customer tracking software, you can have all of the customer’s email in a single location and connected to that customer’s information.
With customer tracking software, your sales and marketing team can quickly access all the customer’s emails to see what information has already gone back and forth. This helps your sales staff to avoid repeating work or leaving the customer feeling harassed.
Customer tracking software helps you keep an email record of anything that has been said between your company and the customer. This helps to ensure that you’re honoring any deals that you’ve made and that the customer is living up their side as well.
Secure Your Information
If you have a sales team that makes notes about customers on notepads or in notebooks, it’s entirely possible that the information will go missing. Customer tracking ensures that your customer information is secure. If the customer tracking software offers a cloud backup, then even an issue with the computer doesn’t mean that your information is at risk.
Keeping customer information secure is also important to the customer. You don’t want one of your sales staff losing a notebook with sensitive customer information written inside of it. Customer tracking software secures all of your client information in one central place.
Related Questions
What is customer tracking software?
Customer tracking software lets companies monitor ever customer interaction from that first visit to a website to the most recent purchase. It’s like a digital journal that never forgets anything about your customers – their likes and dislikes, how often they buy and what they’ve said in their communications. It’s as if you had a super-smart assistant who never forgets anything about your customers.
How do I track my customers?
Gather some basic data when customers first reach out to your company, such as their name, contact information and how they first found you. Keep a simple log of every purchase, call, and support ticket. The point, of course, is to take notes on their preferences and feedback, much as you would retain details about a friend. A lot of businesses start with a rudimentary spreadsheet before graduating to specialized software as they expand.
What is the best software for tracking customers?
The best tracking software for you will largely depend on your needs, but popular systems to check out include Salesforce (for larger businesses), HubSpot (for companies with a marketing-focused practice) and Zoho (for small businesses). Seek software that’s easy to use, works well with what you already use, and can grow with your business. “I always say the correct option should assign itself to you: —it should be the way you want to do things as if it is second nature to you by being and extension of how you already interface with something and not a foreign thing that you work around.
How do small businesses keep track of customers?
Small businesses tend to begin with simple tools such as spreadsheets or entry-level CRM solutions. They concentrate on getting key details into the notes — the person’s contact info, purchasing history and notes from important conversations. Some are email marketing systems with customer tracking, while others are pieced together by combining a few inexpensive tools. The trick is to begin with something straightforward and to gradually work up from there.
What information should I track about customers?
Log contact information, purchase history, the way they like to be communicated with and feedback. Jot down significant dates like your customers’ birthdays or the anniversary of the date of their first purchase. Write down any special needs or preferences that they mention. Consider what you need to know in order to serve them the best — for example, their favorite products or the best time to reach them.
How can customer tracking improve sales?
When you monitor how customers behave and what they prefer, you can identify patterns that enable you to be more effective in selling. You’ll know when your customers typically shop; what they like to buy, and which marketing messages are most effective. It can inform and improve your timing of your offers and help you tailor your offer, so that it resonates with a customer and makes them feel you understand and value them.
Is customer tracking software worth the investment?
For the average enterprise, tracking software justifies investment by avoiding lost opportunities and by maintaining a priority on customer relationships. It helps you remember critical details, follow up at the perfect time, offer better service. Consider spending on a system that will help you retain customers for longer and sell more to them over time.
How do I choose the right customer tracking system?
Begin by defining your deal-breakers and maximum price. Think about the number of team members who need access and any other tools the system has to work with. Try free trials of various alternatives and see which one feels most intuitive. The best system should make your job easier, not more of an ordeal.
What are common mistakes in customer tracking?
Many companies hoard data and put it to poor use, focusing on the wrong metrics. Some other common errors include not updating information or making it difficult for team members to input data. You need to be tracking information you are going to use, and keep the process so simple that everyone will do it.Withgoing to actually use and keep the process simple enough that everyone is on board.
How can I protect customer data in tracking systems?
Look for software with good security and regular backups. Create a hierarchy of access levels for team members according to what they need to see. Establish robust policies on how you handle data and train your team on best privacy practices. Keep in mind, defending your customers’ information is more than a security issue — it’s a trust issue.
What are the signs I need to upgrade my tracking system?
If you’ve let follow-ups fall through the cracks, lost customer information, or spent too much time doing things manually, it is time for an upgrade. Other signs to look out for are when team members start to make their own tracking systems or customers commenting that you have asked them for the same information more than once. A well-designed system should help your work go more easily, not create a choke point.
