5 tools to collect customer data
Data is key these days. Organizations are willing to make a lot of effort to gather customer data. Not only email addresses or phone numbers but also behavioral data is necessary to make reliable conclusions. In this article, 5 easy but convenient ways to gather customer data are explained to you.
- Data collection forms
The data collection forms are, by far, the most traditional way to gather customer data. You are trying to seduce visitors of your website to leave their data behind. They’re not doing this for free; you have to convince them to with something appealing in return. It would be best to offer something in return, such as a newsletter subscription, whitepaper download, or E-book download. These are just a couple of the most common ways to obtain valuable customer data. The key to gathering personal data from your clients is what you have to offer in return. People aren’t keen on sharing their personal information for nothing. You’ve to make your clients feel like you are giving them an opportunity they don’t want to miss. Because the forms are connected with your personal CRM system, the customer data is stored automatically in your CRM database.
- Surveys
Surveys are a precious method to gather insights from your clients. The main goal is to learn more about how the clients experience your services and what you could do to improve the customer experience.
Surveys can be anonymous, but you could ask for some basic demographic data such as age, gender, and profession. This can facilize the process of making connections between the data. Keep in mind that the main goal stays the same: Gathering customer feedback about your service. If you want to make it more attractive for the respondents, you should add rewards whenever they've completed a survey. When they want to claim the reward, you could ask for some basic personal information.
- Loyalty Cards
Nowadays, loyalty cards are a must-have tool for every organization. The main goal is to improve the clients’ loyalty by rewarding them for each purchase that’s made. Organizations are never handing out free presents or rewards without an angle to achieve their own goals. With Loyalty cards, you can easily ask for some (missing) personal data of your customer. For example, ask their phone number to send them offers by SMS.
Loyalty cards are powerful since customers feel more connected with your company. Whenever someone’s trying to sign up for your loyalty program, you should be aware that the customer is ready to leave (some) personal data behind. Signing up for a loyalty program is a major sign your customer wants to have a connection with you.
- Digital Coupons
Coupons have always been an easy way to obtain customer data. Back in the days, print coupons were the way to go. They still work, but gathering and sorting your data has become much easier with digital coupons than traditional print coupons. With digital coupons, obtaining customer data is easier than ever before.
The admin creates its own coupons, distributes the coupons, sets claim requirements that have to be accomplished to claim the coupons, and finally securely validates the coupons. Requirements for claiming the coupon could be: Fill out a registration form with personal data, share the coupon on Facebook, watch a video, or make a payment, install an app. Those are just a couple of requirements possible at the Coupontools platform.
Nowadays, the threshold to pass your personal data has been lowered with the possibility of using a social login such as Google or Facebook. You don’t have to fill out your personal details yourself but click on the ‘social login button,’ and all the necessary information will be passed. The improvements of the GDPR laws are also helping to keep the threshold low. Customers are sure their information is used for the right causes and won’t be abused.
- Analytics
Data includes more than only personal information. Getting to know the behavior of clients can be a huge asset. That’s where analytics comes in; there are many client gestures on your website that are trackable and help you understand their needs. Analytics tools are often overlooked as data collection tools. If you can connect your analytics insights with your other customer data, you will be more likely to understand your clients’ behaviors fully.
If you're searching for innovative customer data collection methods, you should definitely give the Coupontools platform a go!
