Best Practices for Using a CRM System

In this guide:

• Maintaining high-quality CRM data
• Effectively organizing and managing your CRM data
• Collecting the data you need from customers
• Protecting customer data stored in your CRM
• Regularly optimizing your CRM system

Maintaining high-quality CRM data

A crucial best practice for using a CRM system is ensuring the accuracy and quality of the data you collect and store. You need accurate customer data so your sales representatives and marketing team can make strategic decisions to grow your business. After all, a CRM is the most useful when it’s able to provide you with a complete picture of your contacts and the leads moving through your sales pipeline.

Effectively organizing and managing your CRM data

Your CRM data may be accurate—but can your team easily and quickly find what they need? If you’re spending too much time looking for the right records, your CRM isn’t living up to its full potential.

Organizing your CRM’s information in an easy-to-access format ensures that it’s accessible to your sales reps when they need it. That way, your team saves time searching for data and everyone is on the same page regarding your customers’ and leads’ information.

Collecting the data you need from customers

How do you get data into your CRM in the first place? There are several ways to collect data from customers, including integrating your CRM with other tools. Two essential methods for gathering information about your leads and customers are custom fields and data forms.

Custom fields enable your team to manually record information in your CRM or import data from a platform where it’s already stored, such as from a CSV spreadsheet or other sources of data like a productivity platform or another CRM. Data forms allow you to collect customer information from form submissions on your website and sync the data with your CRM. Finally, validating the data you gather from customers ensures that the data you collected is accurate.

Protecting customer data stored in your CRM

Attacks against CRM data are harmful to your customers and your business. To protect your customers’ and leads’ information from malicious actors, you need to be sure you’re taking the appropriate security measures.

One aspect of data security is implementing user controls and permissions in your CRM platform. By creating access controls and permissions, you take control of who can see sensitive customer information. Enforcing these measures ensures that only authorized users can access, edit, and work with your CRM data.

Regularly optimizing your CRM system

With your CRM set up, your data organized and accessible, and security measures in place to restrict users’ access, you want to be sure that your CRM continues to bring your team value over time. After all, software designed to streamline your sales process and make customer relationship management easier should live up to its claims.

A final best practice for using your CRM is regularly reviewing and optimizing the system to be sure the platform is performing adequately and meeting your company’s needs. Check out the article below to learn how to review your CRM’s efficiency, identify areas for improvement, and adapt your system to perform as it should.

Nutshell’s support keeps your sales team sane

When you need a CRM that will make it easy for your company to take the reins and collect, manage, organize, and optimize your data, turn to Nutshell. Our Ann Arbor-based customer support team is always friendly, fast, and helpful, and we include free customer support in every Nutshell package.

With so many powerful features to explore, Nutshell provides the tools you need to grow your business. To see for yourself, get a free 14-day trial.