Customer data can come from all kinds of places. You can learn about your customers from website cookies, survey responses, third-party data providers, and more. The question is, how do you keep track of all that data?
Managing data across multiple channels can be tough, and the more channels you have, the more difficult that task becomes. Fortunately, there are ways to keep your multichannel data organized.
In this blog post, we’re going to cover three of the best ways to manage multiple data channels. Keep reading to learn more!
1. Find the right number of channels for your team
The first thing to consider when it comes to juggling different data channels is how many channels you can manage.
On the one hand, you don’t want to take on so many channels that you get overwhelmed and lose track of everything. But at the same time, you don’t want to take on so few channels that you don’t end up getting much data to work with.
By finding the right balance—enough channels to provide sufficient data, but not so many that you get overwhelmed—you can make the data management process much easier.
2. Delegate data responsibilities across your team
Another way to streamline your data management process is to strategically delegate data management responsibilities across your team. Designate certain team members with specific tasks related to your data. Ensure that everyone knows who’s responsible for which data tasks.
By eliminating any confusion over who handles which data and manages which channels, you can prevent any data from slipping through the cracks.
3. Centralize your data in a CRM
Probably the best way to manage multiple data channels is to centralize all the data in a single location. A great way to do that is to use a customer relationship management (CRM) platform. CRMs are tools designed to help you store, organize, and analyze customer data.
The primary benefit of a CRM is that it pulls all your data into one place. That means you don’t have to keep jumping between 16 different data platforms to perform your analytics—you can just set all those platforms to automatically import their data into the CRM.
Within your CRM, that data will be viewable by your whole team—including marketing, sales, and customer service—allowing everyone to access and learn from the information you gather on your customers.
Of course, CRMs come with other benefits besides just centralizing information from different data channels. Here are a few of the main features CRMs offer:
Data categorization and segmentation
CRMs don’t just store your data. They can also help you categorize it. If you have lots of different data sources, your CRM will inevitably end up pulling in tons of data. Segmenting that data can help you organize it.
Moreover, segmenting your audience can help you craft campaigns that are more personalized to each group. For example, you could segment your customer base by location and then build marketing campaigns specific to each location.
By segmenting your customer data, you can build campaigns that are more effective at converting your audience.
Data reports and analytics
Another major benefit of using a CRM to manage multichannel data is that you can analyze your data right in the CRM.
Most CRMs allow you to generate sales reports from the data you collect, and more advanced CRMs will also feature other types of reporting. You can view that data in the form of charts, graphs, and more. These reports help you identify trends that you can use to improve the effectiveness of your sales strategies and marketing campaigns.
For example, in Nutshell, we have an entire tab dedicated to reporting where you can generate reports based on a wide variety of customer metrics.
Sales automation
The third significant feature of CRMs is sales automation. Most CRMs come equipped with the ability to automate various sales tasks. They don’t handle the complicated stuff — that’s left for your team — but they can take over many mundane, day-to-day tasks. Those tasks can include:
Data importation
Sending emails
Report generation
And more!
The main advantage of this automation is that by managing simpler tasks for you, CRMs can free your team to spend more time on more complex and important projects.
Nutshell is the perfect CRM for your multichannel data needs
Looking for a CRM to help you with managing data across multiple channels? Nutshell is the ideal choice. Our CRM features all the benefits listed above, and we also boast a killer customer service team that can help you through any question or problem you may have. Not sure if Nutshell is right for you? Find out for yourself with our 14-day free trial!
