Every business needs to track its clients. In this article, we will show you the steps you need to take to achieve this and how to find the best customer tracking system.
How to Utilize Customer Tracking In Your Business Wisely?
In any business, customers are a key part. Why is it so important to track them and their interests? Because every six months, a person’s thinking changes, and accordingly, his or her preferences also change. Therefore, you need to make time to keep track of your customers’ needs and desires, or your business will suffer sooner or later.
In this article, we will show you how you can follow your customers’ needs, as well as provide examples of applications that will help you do just that.
6 Customer Tracking Methods You Can Apply
Before looking at some useful apps that will track everything for you, let’s take a look at the very basic things you should remember and use regularly when tracking your customers.
1. Always Keep Track of Your Clients
The first thing you should create is a customer database that you will regularly update. Even Google forms with your questions can be suitable for tracking interests. Of course, it is possible that not all clients will willingly answer all your questions, but some of them will do so, which will allow you to understand the status of your business in the eyes of your customers and if necessary, make some changes.
2. Gather All Information About Customers
The basic data about customers that a company should collect – gender, age, how much they are willing to spend per year on a certain type of product and how often they shop for your product. This will allow you to divide your customers into segments and, possibly, consider and improve services for each segment separately.
For example, if you are printing on T-shirts and you know that some customers are interested in cryptocurrency, then it’s time to introduce a new print!
3. Use Effective Follow-up Techniques
If you have the necessary information about customers (including emails), then it’s time to get started with mailing and follow-ups. The most important thing is to know the limit and not send emails every day, because then you risk annoying your customers and maybe even losing some of them.
4. Arrange Polls of Your Current/Past Customers
Remember: it is important not only why the customers chose you, but also why they left you. It will not be superfluous to clarify (for example, in the form of a survey) the reason for the client’s departure. There are times when they really didn’t like something about your service, and you will have a chance to improve it and, perhaps, the client will return.
5. Use Social Media
Why is everyone paying so much attention to social media? Because this is one of the most widely used platforms on the internet at the moment.
Let’s say you have an Instagram or Facebook profile.
This will help you to:
- receive feedback from customers and show them to your entire audience
- add bright images with your products
- conduct live videos, do regular polls and discounts
- use different ways to promote your profile and, accordingly, your business
6. Apply Website Analytics for Customer Tracking
This point applies to those businesses that have a live website. Analytics will help you:
- see which products are most interesting to customers
- see what is more convenient for the client – the mobile or desktop version of the site
- see traffic dynamics, etc.
How to Keep Track of Your Clients’ Information?
Not all information can be obtained using Google forms or analytics. Here are some other ideas to help you to keep track of clients information:
- Utilize a Customer Tracking System
- Employ Invoicing Tools with Client Tracking
- Use a File System to Keep Customer Data
- Use Online Calendars for Client Engagement
- Label & Filter Your Email Correspondence
Let’s discuss each of them in detail.
Utilize a Customer Tracking System
One of the best ways to track customers is, of course, a CMR system. You may develop it on your own, but we recommend you to use the custom software development services of a company like MLSDev that can organize everything professionally.
Employ Invoicing Tools with Client Tracking
When you create invoices, they are not only used to indicate the amount and method of payment. You can use the customer data that is usually required to create an invoice (email, location, etc.), to populate your customer database.
Use a File System to Keep Customer Data
Ideally, information about each client should be in a separate folder. If, within the framework of your business, it is more convenient for you to store it in one place (for comparison, etc.), then the file in which this data is collected should be organized and allow you to conveniently search for the information you need.
Use Online Calendars for Client Engagement
If you have hundreds of clients, then there is a very high chance that you will forget to communicate with someone when needed. Therefore, it is very important to have an online calendar in which you will enter all your plans.
Label & Filter Your Email Correspondence
Again, the more clients, the more emails you will receive from them. In order not to miss an important email, put labels on those dialogs that are important to you from a business point of view.
Best Customer Tracking Systems
Here are some of the best tracking systems available today.
TOP 5 CRM systems:
- Hubspot
- Zoho
- Salesforce
- Zendesk
- Pipedrive
Below we are going to discuss each of them.
Hubspot
This is a cloud client tracking software with a wide range of marketing functions: advertising mailing, live chat, traffic and conversion analytics, contact management and more. Well suited for B2B companies, online services, IT companies. It is possible to use Hubspot in conjunction with other CRM systems. For example, direct integration with Salesforce is available.
Zoho
The program has all the necessary customer tracking tools to improve the efficiency of the business. But, unlike most other CRM systems, it is focused more on the business owner. The program is able to process information about customer interaction by itself, and on the basis of this it generates statistical reports on sales. Zoho tracks customer activity and monitors traffic sources on the site.
Salesforce
The American company Salesforce is considered a well-deserved leader in the field of CRM systems. It has the largest market share – over 14%.
The main advantage is taking into account the industry specifics of the client. There is also a handy set of analytical tools. This allows you to track lead traffic and analyze your sales performance.
Zendesk
Zendesk is a cloud-based information collection system for personalized customer communication based on tickets, and is the best solution for organizing support services.
The customer contact software includes an integrated customer support system, online chat, analytics and reports, sales automation, etc. For the convenience of communicating with customers, the creation of personal tickets is provided.
Pipedrive
This is a customer tracking software for small business created by experienced sales managers in 2010. Now the client tracking system is fully operational in 140 countries of the world. The functionality is focused primarily on sales management, marketing, collaboration and reporting.
To Conclude: Importance of Customer Tracking Apps in 2020 and Beyond
Tracking customers and their interests is a must in any business. Some part of this task can be done on your own – collecting basic contact information, polls, follow-ups, and other parts can be efficiently taken over by tracking systems.
We hope the steps we have covered above will help you keep track of your customer’s wants and needs and help make your business a success.
About the Author
Mia Anderson – the author of a big number of articles about future technologies, blockchain, the best Bitcoin wallets, digital marketing, and software development services.
