Thread by @darth_na

@ecomchat A2.

CRMs are simply a data house for several related types of data,
including things like Customer Details and Purchases/Orders.

There's 4 types of data:

1) Common/Required
(Name, address, purchases etc.)

2) Uncommon/advanced
(DoB, team/dept, campaigns)

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@ecomchat 3) Industry/Sector specific
(Legal/Regulatory requirements, dispatch notes etc.)

4) Optional/potentially useful
(Personal details, holidays, web account, credit details etc.)

Each set of data has it's own set of uses, some may apply, some may not.

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@ecomchat From such data, you can obtain insights and make decisions

Things like:
* Market Basket Analysis
* Customer Lifetime Value
* Purchase Cycles
* Seasonal Trends/Shifts
* Product/Price fit
* Repurchase nearness
* Loyalty score
* Team/Dept performance

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@ecomchat If the CRM doesn't carry such data, or permit the creation of, or easily allow for export/import to platforms that do,
then it's not worth looking at.

And that's the issue with CRMs.
It's a costly endevour - for time/effort and learning :(

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@ecomchat Story:
Back in 1997/8 ... I ended up in telesales for a little IT software resale place.
I altered a copy of their database (MS Access), to include personal details for customers, and added tables and scripting for purchase patterns (basics).

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@ecomchat Doing those little things (holidays, dentist trips, purchase rate, avg spend etc.) allowed me to plan and program alerts for making calls, preempting customer needs, personal touches.
I increased sales and earnings by 15%+ in 4 months.

That's what CRMs can do!

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@ecomchat But you have to feed them, and nurture them, and use them properly.

Simply slapping random bits of data in, and then looking over basic numbers it churns out is mostly useless.
Though some come with out of the box reports that are generally applicable ...

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@ecomchat ... you still want to customise/adjust for your business, your industry, your consumers - if applicable.

Or find a complementary tool suite that will work with the CRM that permits such (be aware of costs!).

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@ecomchat If you set it up right (with/without additional customisation/3rd party tools etc.),
you can start to generate alerts and utilise automation.

You can not only preempt purchases, you can see when customers "disappear", and try to reclaim their attention (and money).

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@ecomchat You can be alerted to drop offs, poor performance, unexpected increases (some things your e-com platform should be doing, and your web-tracking as well!).

This is as well as feeding other parts of the business (such as purchase decisions, email/ad-campaigns etc.).

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@ecomchat And don't forget the personal side of things.

That ranges from silly birthday cards, through to notifying them of the latest X offer on product Y (because they bought the last 5!) etc.

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