Do you have a bucket load of business cards and have no idea what to do with them?
Often times, people keep mounds of cards and struggle with what to do with all the information. It seems folks hope that something miraculous will happen. With a bit of pixy dust, all the cards would get organized in nice neat stacks of importance. Then, like magic, they would know when to follow-up with their contact.
Some think that scanning ALL cards is the answer. I’m not opposed to scanning, but that’s not enough. It’s what you do with the information once obtained that is the most important.
To grow your business, you must have a good customer database. If you’re technically challenged, a database is NOT Excel. A customer database isn’t MailChimp or Constant Contact. It’s not necessarily Quickbooks either. Excel, MailChimp, Constant Contact, and Quickbooks are all good tools for specific purposes. Use those tools in conjunction with a good customer database. Find one that works well in your industry. There are so many options available out there to fit in anyone’s budget.
If you are truly serious about building your business, you must have a customer database. Here’s three reasons why:
Organize
A database is designed to help you organize your contacts. You’ll be able to categorize people into groups like: customers, prospects, vendors, email lists, etc. It’s great how database products will allow you to tag people in any way that makes sense to you.
For example, in my database, I have some of the following groups: Print Customers, VA Clients, Mailed Newsletter List, eNews List, Free Report List, ICE Chapter Members, SCORE, etc. Each group helps me better identify how I know the contact. My contact may be in one or many of the groups.
Grouping is just the first step. In a database, you are able to capture so many pieces of information. Things like demographic info, email records, phone records, projects, reminders to follow-up, meetings, misc. notes, etc.
Capturing the data keeps you organized.
Analyze
Once the information is in your database, the pixy dust is in the analysis.
You think you know your customers, but do you really? Once information is in your database, you can start tracking the things that matter the most to you.
Start out analyzing the simple things. For example, you may think all your customers are women. Then, you run a report and find 20% are men. That is important information and should be used in your marketing efforts.
The best part of a good customer database is the reporting. Analysis of data will uncover things that: 1) will confirm what you already know, or 2) surprise the heck out of you.
Delegate
Let me tell you a secret…the magic really comes in play when you delegate!
You must get what is rattling around in your head out and into a database. You’ll then transition into managing and running your business instead of doing everything.
Who said that you have to be the one to do all the data entry? What if you came home from a conference with a stack of cards? You thumb through them and narrow down the ones that are the most beneficial and discard the rest. Then you hand off the data entry to your handy-dandy virtual assistant. Not only is data entry done, but they put your contacts in the right category, send a follow-up letter or email (if necessary), and enter a follow-up task for a future date.
It may not take your virtual assistant too long to do the task, but you move on and focus other things. You want to be in a proactive position instead of a reactive position.
Other things can be easily delegated when you use a database. For example, if you want to send birthday cards to your customers with a coupon, all you’d have to do delegate. You set the expectations of deadline and content. Your assistant would use the database to run a report for all birthdays within a given time period, prepare the mailing, and make the notes in your database. In essence, magically, it will happen while you are focusing on other things. The best part, you are consistently fostering the relationship with your customer, without having to attend to all the details.
Bottom line: A good database is the number one tool any business must have.
If you use one, YAY! Keep evaluating it to make sure it fits your needs. You may find you’ll outgrow what you currently use and must move into a new database with more bells and whistles.
If you don’t have one, make the investment and get one. If all this technology intimidates you, don’t fret, just contact me and let’s get you on the right path.
Remember, it’s not that you have the data, it’s what you do with the data that is important.