You need one central place for all customer information that every department has access to rather than three or more databases floating around the business.
The information you should capture is:
- Trading Name of the Customer i.e. the name over the door
- Legal Name of the company – who you send your invoices to
- Various addresses if appropriate: Trading address, delivery addresses, invoice address, statement address, etc
- Various people you will need to contact: The person who places the orders, the person who is responsible for paying the account, the person who signs the cheques and every relevant person in between. You should capture their direct dial phone numbers and their e mail addresses and the main number for the company.
- Pricing deal and special price agreements
- Do they need order numbers? If so set a switch on your system that prevents orders being sent without a valid order number.
- What sales rep in your organization is responsible for this account?
- If you are in the distribution business – what van or depot is this account assigned to?
- What area do they belong to?
- What category or class does the customer belong?
- What is the economic outlook for the sector?
- Who are their bankers?
- How much credit are you prepared to extend to them?
- How long do they have to make payment?
- Their website
- Depending on the value thresholds you should credit check every customer to make sure they are credit worthy.
- Details on Trade References
- Do they require Statements?
- Will they accept electronic invoices?
This list is not exhaustive but represents the type of information you should have on every customer. This will ensure you can get accurate sales analysis and understand your business better and know the areas to focus on to grow and the unprofitable areas to avoid.
It also documents your requirements and makes life easier for everyone.
Setting the information up correctly at the start, having an ongoing mechanism to update it regularly and then have the ability to follow up relentlessly is your secret to success.