Building your customer database: a goldmine for your business

By Rita Hassani Idrissi

Published: 26 October 2024

At a time when Big Data and digitisation have revolutionised the way businesses operate, customer databases are becoming more than just an address book - they are becoming a real performance driver. They play a major role in the implementation of an effective marketing strategy.

Customer knowledge is essential for any company wishing to build long-term customer loyalty. The information contained in a customer database may relate to their purchase history, their contact details, their average basket, and so on.

However, although this data is essential, it is often little or poorly exploited, due to a lack of time and tools. Yet there are powerful customer file management solutions. They enable you to maintain and enhance your customer databases.

Here's a closer look at the concept of the customer database, a real goldmine for businesses.

See all software Customer relationship management

Customer database: definition

The customer database or customer data management, also known as the CRM database, is a file that stores all the data relating to your customers. It enables you to personalise and adapt your commercial offers to each customer.

Depending on your areas of activity and therefore your needs, a customer database is mainly made up of :

their purchase history
their contact details
their average shopping baskets
their purchasing path (media used, tools, etc.)

Why set up a customer database?

To improve the performance of your sales teams by providing them with all the relevant information about your customers.
👉 This enables them to adapt their exchanges with customers and make decisions based on clear, constantly updated data.

Encourage customer loyalty by providing them with personalised offers tailored to their needs.
👉 Listening and personalising exchanges and offers are major levers in any optimal loyalty strategy.

Increase sales by building loyalty and attracting new customers.
👉 The more tailored your offers, the more you will increase customer engagement and therefore sales.
Reduce customer acquisition costs while improving your customer relations.
👉 In other words, the satisfaction rate and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).
Strengthen your content and lead nurturing strategy with personalised data.
👉 Your content (articles, infographics, white papers, etc.) will be much more effective if it reaches a specific target. Thanks to the customer database, you'll be able to find out what your target likes, what media they use, etc.

Types of data to be collected and explanations

Collecting customer data must be rigorously organised and structured. Keep only the information you really need, so as not to spread yourself too thin. Too much data can be a hindrance to your marketing strategy; too much information kills information.

So the aim here is to create a database by retaining only the most relevant information to get to the heart of the matter. The nature of the data varies according to the target.

B2B data

Concentrate on the company's legal and administrative data, such as :

company name
SIRET, VAT and RCS numbers,
sector of activity,
the size of the company
the position and contact details of the person you are communicating with

B2C data

Data intended for a B2C target is more or less important and includes :

customer age
the gender of your customers
consumption patterns
buying behaviour and customer journey (average basket, social media),
their purchase history
their interests and complaints, etc.

5 steps to building your customer database

1 - Adopt a database management solution such as CRM

The tools most commonly used to store, create and manage your customer or prospect database are CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software packages. They also enable you to monitor your customers' activity accurately and in real time in the form of marketing KPIs; which further optimises your marketing and sales campaigns.

🛠 . A comprehensive, intuitive, easy-to-use solution like monday.com CRM centralises, stores and processes your customer data on a single platform. Save time by exporting your Excel customer file with a single click; the tool automatically imports all the information on a template that you have previously customised!

2 - Set up points for collecting customer information

Newsletters

The newsletter is an excellent way for your business not only to establish and maintain a regular link with your customers, but also to collect valuable information through its subscription.

💡 However, make sure you offer a newsletter with quality content that is as personalised as possible. To do this, you can include the customer's first name in the email for greater closeness and empathy.

By subscribing to your newsletter, customers will give you valuable information such as :

their email address
telephone number
postcode
their birthday
and age.

Satisfaction surveys and questionnaires

Satisfaction surveys and questionnaires are highly relevant, not only because they enable you to find out what your customers think of your service/product, but also because they give you access to valuable information.

Even though questionnaires are generally completed anonymously, they allow you to gather information about your target audience:

age
interests
motivations
barriers, etc.

Competitions

Competitions are very popular with customers, and not only help to improve the brand image of the retailer, but also collect essential information about participating customers or prospects.

To take part in a competition, participants are usually asked to :

either fill in a form containing all their contact details,
or to subscribe to the brand's social networks,
or to subscribe to the newsletter, etc.

Downloading documents and content

You can also collect information via landing pages. For example, you can post a Word or Excel template on your site's blog that requires downloading via a CTA (Call to Action) button.

Although it's free, the reader still has to provide their email address and often other information. For example:

3 - Confirm the user's consent

Customer databases are certainly highly relevant for a company, but they also require a certain amount of control.

Indeed, the RGPD (General Data Protection Regulation) requires companies to communicate clearly with users about the collection and use of personal data.

💡 It is also important to give users the opportunity to request the modification or deletion of all their personal data.

📣 It is therefore compulsory for all the above-mentioned means of collection and contact forms to have checkboxes asking Internet users to confirm their consent to their personal data being used.

4 - Storing customer data

The storage of your customer data must be structured and organised. It is possible to use an Excel file, but this is not very intuitive. It is therefore preferable, as we said earlier, to equip yourself with an essential tool: CRM.

This will centralise and store all your data easily and intuitively. They will be more easily accessible from anywhere. In fact, most CRM platforms have mobile applications that allow you to access your data anytime, anywhere.

5 - Process the data

Now that your data is centralised and stored, you can process it to offer better , more tailored and personalised campaigns. You can also improve your brand image and customer engagement through personalised emails.