Updating CRM data is a common method that allows users to search for updated information for a specific customer or contact. This approach generally involves manually searching for data, by clicking on an “Update” button from the customer file. This method has its advantages, including simplicity and the ability to target specific data. However, it also has significant limitations.
Benefits of the update:
Direct Control: Users have direct control over the data update process, which can be useful for critical information.
Selective Targeting: Users can choose what specific information they want to update, which can be effective for specific needs.
Immediacy: Data is updated in real time, which can be useful for cases where information needs to be up to date immediately.
However, updating CRM data manually also has some notable disadvantages:
Disadvantages of the update:
Time and effort: Updating manually can be tedious and time consuming, especially for large databases.
Risk of Errors: Users are likely to make mistakes when updating data, which may result in inaccuracies.
Lack of Proactivity: The update is based on user initiative, which means that some crucial information may be omitted or updated late.
Unlike updating manually, the proactive approach to CRM data enrichment involves constantly monitoring changes and movements related to customers and contacts. This approach aims to provide up-to-date information without requiring manual user action.
Benefits of the proactive approach:
Current Data: The data is constantly updated, ensuring that it is always up to date.
Reduced Workload: Users don't need to spend time updating manually, allowing them to focus on more strategic tasks.
Better Quality: Human errors are minimized, which improves data quality.
Identifying Opportunities: The proactive approach makes it possible to detect business opportunities and trends more quickly, by providing information on changes in customer behavior.
Informed Decision Making: Up-to-date and accurate data allows decision makers to make more informed and strategic decisions.
How does the proactive approach work?
The proactive approach to CRM data enrichment relies on the use of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). These systems are capable of monitoring a multitude of data sources in real time, such as social networks, news, public databases, etc. They identify relevant changes in customers and contacts, such as a job change, a move, or a new interest. This information is then automatically updated in the CRM.
Comparison: Update vs. proactive approach
To better understand the benefits of the proactive approach, let's look at a hypothetical scenario where a business uses either of these methods to manage its CRM data.
Scenario 1: Update
A business uses manual updating of its CRM data. When a sales rep wants up-to-date information about a specific customer, they have to update it manually, which takes time. As a result, some information may remain out of date, and the business may miss out on new opportunities.
Scenario 2: Proactive approach
Another company is using a proactive CRM data enrichment approach. Its monitoring systems automatically identify customer-related changes, such as job changes, relocations, or new interests. Sales representatives have constant access to up-to-date information, which allows them to act quickly on new opportunities.
Another interesting way to update CRM data is based on the principle of co-opetition between users, much like what we do in Waze by indicating dangers on the road or by giving notes on such or such products or by indicating in the CRM medical place the new practice sites for Health Professionals that have not yet been returned to public bases. In this model, updated public data is shared with all CRM users. This allows you to be sometimes more reactive in updating databases, especially when these updates come from external sources that are not updated as quickly as desired.
Benefits of Co-opetition:
Shared data collection : This approach makes it possible to pool the efforts of users to keep the data up to date. When a user updates a contact's information, that up-to-date data is shared with the entire team.
Improved responsiveness: By using external data to update information, users can be more responsive to changes in the customer environment.
Reduction of redundant work: Rather than having each user manually update the same data, this approach reduces duplication of effort.
Reliability of external sources: By using external sources, it is possible to improve the reliability of the data, as it often comes from trusted sources.
However, this co-opetition approach is not without challenges:
Management of external sources : External sources need to be carefully managed to ensure their quality and relevance.
Protection of privacy : Data collection and sharing must comply with privacy and security regulations for data.
Coordination : Effective coordination is essential to ensure that data is up to date in a consistent and reliable manner.
Respect for business law : not all data is shared. Only public ones can be. Thus data, such as telephone, contact emails or an installed database, should not be shareable because it represents a research effort for those who implement them.
CRM data enrichment is essential for maintaining accurate and up-to-date customer databases. Implementing manual updates offers direct control, it has drawbacks in terms of time, potential errors, and responsiveness. It cannot be considered in isolation. A proactive approach to data enrichment can complement it and offers significant benefits in terms of up-to-date data, reduced workload, improved quality, and the ability to detect opportunities early.
Complementary, co-opetition between users to update CRM data, is an interesting approach that combines the advantages of manual updating and the proactive approach. It allows users to share up-to-date data from external sources, improving the responsiveness and reliability of customer information. However, it requires careful management of external sources and effective coordination within the team. Ultimately, choosing the approach for updating CRM data will depend on the specific needs of the business and its customer relationship management goals.
