When you’re part of a team of people who use the same customer databases, neglecting to update the information regularly can cause major headaches. You can try to fool yourself into thinking that your coworkers will do the updating, but they could be thinking the same thing of you.

Instead of waiting for someone else to get to it, take the following tips to keep your customer databases in slick shape:

• Update as you go. This may seem like an obvious fix, but you really need to make it a habit to update contact information while you’re working with that customer. You may be tempted to just make a little note to yourself on any old piece of scrap paper, but scrap papers get lost or recycled. And by the time you finally get around to updating, a coworker could need the new contact information and be on a wild goose chase trying to track it down.
• Update at the end of each day. If it’s impossible for you to update contact information at the time you are working with the customer, make a list or a stack of notes of customers whose information needs updating. But then, do it at the end of the day before you leave. If you plan to spend the last 15 minutes of each day updating databases, you won’t get behind.
• Remove duplicate or incomplete information. If you come across a section in a database that doesn’t make sense because it hasn’t been completed properly, take it out if you won’t be able to find the missing information easily. Also, most databases have a feature that shows when specific pages of content were last updated, so you can see which duplicated page is more recent. If you need to, double-check before completely removing information.

If all the members on your team do their part in keeping the databases updated, you’ll be sure to reduce the frequency of getting wrong numbers when you try to contact your customers.

Filed under: Customer Service Corner