Limit the use of free-form text fields
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 9:31 am
“I’ve seen many CRM systems where salespeople used comment fields for extremely important information about their customers or deals,” says Gabriel Gheorghiu of G2 Crowd .
"Except for [these salespeople], no one could find, let alone thailand code phone number understand, the customer relationship. And when the salespeople leave the company, the information is practically useless."
Gheorghiu's recommendation: "Custom fields should only be created by administrators. It's also important to clearly define what the new field is supposed to do, how it will be used, and who benefits."
And, when you can, limit text fields. “Text fields are the worst.”
“Adding new options to existing lists is also a bad idea. I had a client who created a country called Scandinavia because he had few customers in Denmark and Sweden. When this changed, he started using the names of the two countries, but in old transactions Scandinavia was still used as the country, so the reports were not accurate.”
It's also a good idea to limit text fields on customer forms, he says.Martha Madero de Grou.
"We have come across databases that only use fields such as email or name, and then have open fields such as message or 'what are you looking for', which allow the user to write whatever they want."
“This is tricky to use because you need to be able to analyze profiles, needs, and other things like timing and budget, and without structure in the way you capture information, it’s going to be hard to identify consistent keywords that can help you spot trends.”
"The solution to this is basically to structure the fields you use in your forms correctly and try to get closed-ended responses.""It's important to determine the right number of fields you want to use in a form and the right amount of information to ask for," Madero says.
"Don't just ask anything, determine what you need to analyze and then ask for that piece of information."
"Except for [these salespeople], no one could find, let alone thailand code phone number understand, the customer relationship. And when the salespeople leave the company, the information is practically useless."
Gheorghiu's recommendation: "Custom fields should only be created by administrators. It's also important to clearly define what the new field is supposed to do, how it will be used, and who benefits."
And, when you can, limit text fields. “Text fields are the worst.”
“Adding new options to existing lists is also a bad idea. I had a client who created a country called Scandinavia because he had few customers in Denmark and Sweden. When this changed, he started using the names of the two countries, but in old transactions Scandinavia was still used as the country, so the reports were not accurate.”
It's also a good idea to limit text fields on customer forms, he says.Martha Madero de Grou.
"We have come across databases that only use fields such as email or name, and then have open fields such as message or 'what are you looking for', which allow the user to write whatever they want."
“This is tricky to use because you need to be able to analyze profiles, needs, and other things like timing and budget, and without structure in the way you capture information, it’s going to be hard to identify consistent keywords that can help you spot trends.”
"The solution to this is basically to structure the fields you use in your forms correctly and try to get closed-ended responses.""It's important to determine the right number of fields you want to use in a form and the right amount of information to ask for," Madero says.
"Don't just ask anything, determine what you need to analyze and then ask for that piece of information."