Restricting the use of free text fields
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 9:32 am
"I've seen a lot of CRM systems where sales reps used the comment fields for very important information about their customers or orders," says Gabriel Gheorghiu of G2 Crowd.
"Nobody else could even find the customer contact, let alone understand the customer relationship. Once the sales reps leave the company, that information is pretty much useless."
Gheorghiu therefore recommends: "Custom fields should only be created thailand country code by an administrator. It should also be clear what the new field is for, how it is used and who benefits from it."
And, if possible, limit the number of characters in text fields. "Text fields are the worst."
"Adding new options to existing lists is also a bad idea. I had a customer who created a country of 'Scandinavia' because he only had a few customers in Denmark and Sweden. When that changed, they used the two country names, but old transactions still had 'Scandinavia' as the country, which caused errors in the reports."
It's also useful to limit text fields on customer forms, says Martha Madero of Grou.
"There are databases that only have fields like email and name, and then there are these free text fields like 'message' or 'what are you looking for?' where users can just write whatever they want."
"The data from these is difficult to use because it needs to be structured so you can analyze profiles, requirements and other things like timeframes and budget. If this information is not recorded in a structured way, it is difficult to identify trends because it is not possible to search for consistent terms."
"The solution to this problem is basically to structure the fields used in your forms correctly and to provide closed questions with possible answers wherever possible." "It is important to determine the right number of fields for a form and only ask for the information you need," explains Madero.
"Don't ask for everything just because you can, but rather determine exactly what information you need and only ask for that."
"Nobody else could even find the customer contact, let alone understand the customer relationship. Once the sales reps leave the company, that information is pretty much useless."
Gheorghiu therefore recommends: "Custom fields should only be created thailand country code by an administrator. It should also be clear what the new field is for, how it is used and who benefits from it."
And, if possible, limit the number of characters in text fields. "Text fields are the worst."
"Adding new options to existing lists is also a bad idea. I had a customer who created a country of 'Scandinavia' because he only had a few customers in Denmark and Sweden. When that changed, they used the two country names, but old transactions still had 'Scandinavia' as the country, which caused errors in the reports."
It's also useful to limit text fields on customer forms, says Martha Madero of Grou.
"There are databases that only have fields like email and name, and then there are these free text fields like 'message' or 'what are you looking for?' where users can just write whatever they want."
"The data from these is difficult to use because it needs to be structured so you can analyze profiles, requirements and other things like timeframes and budget. If this information is not recorded in a structured way, it is difficult to identify trends because it is not possible to search for consistent terms."
"The solution to this problem is basically to structure the fields used in your forms correctly and to provide closed questions with possible answers wherever possible." "It is important to determine the right number of fields for a form and only ask for the information you need," explains Madero.
"Don't ask for everything just because you can, but rather determine exactly what information you need and only ask for that."