6 Different Ways to Gather Important Customer Data

Businesses, especially businesses that have most of their sales online, will do well to learn different ways to gather important customer data. Collecting customer data is legal, so long as the customer is made aware of it through a privacy policy. The privacy policy also needs to state what the business plans on doing with the data, such as selling it, using it to improve the website, or anything else. Below are some of the easiest and best ways to collect new customer data.

Web Scraping Results

One way to collect customer data is to scrape your website for data that customers have already put into your website. This could involve data like email addresses, names, and other information customers may have put in when they signed into the website. There are a variety of web scraping softwares online businesses can use to scrape their websites. Using these softwares is the easiest way to scrape a website, but it can also be done manually by IT experts.

Customer Service Transcripts

If your business has a customer service portal, whether it be via voice chat or text-based chats, your business can set up a system to record these interactions with customers. By doing this, you can collect customer's names, email addresses and/or phone numbers. Using customer service transcripts is also great for when you need to find flaws with your website, services, or products. 

Social Media Engagement Records

Using social media analytics is another great way to know how customers are interacting with your content. There are many social media analytic tools available online that can help business owners know what content social media users connect with the most. Collecting this type of data can help businesses to improve their online reputation and get higher social media engagement results.

Customer Surveys

Probably the most straightforward way to collect customer data and information is to simply ask customers for it. Businesses can make surveys online, which is one of the best options if the business is primarily run online. Business owners can customize surveys to collect only specific information. For example, a business owner might want to know how much a customer would be willing to spend on a specific product. This, along with anything else, could be asked about in a survey.

After creating the survey, the most important part comes from getting customers to actually take the survey. One of the easiest ways to let customers know that your business is offering a survey is to promote it on your business's social media page. Offering some kind of incentive for taking the service, like a coupon or other discount, is a great way to get more interaction as well.

Loyalty Programs Sign-ups

Another way to encourage customers to willingly share specific data and information is to ask for the information (like the customer's name, email address, phone number, zip code, and more) when signing up for a loyalty program or another discount program. Providing customers with an incentive to share their data will likely encourage them more than if they were offered nothing. Of course, if you decide to do this, customers still need to be alerted as to how their data will be used. As mentioned earlier in the article, this can simply be put in the website's privacy policy.

Google Analytics 

Another great free online tool that any website can use, whether the website is used to promote a business or not, is Google Analytics. This tool is great for any business owner who wants to know what content Internet users connect with most often. Google Analytics provides plenty of tools for website owners to learn every last detail about their websites-- even the details that don't catch the eye.

Using Google Analytics is best for when a business owner wants to know what articles are being read most often on a website and what links people are clicking on. One cool feature of Google Analytics is the ability to find out if there are links to your website elsewhere on the web. This can be valuable, as the more people who are linking to your website, the higher your site is likely to appear in Google search results; the higher your website appears in search results, the likelier that more people will check out your site!

Running a website can be tricky business but collecting the customer data you want from it can make the process a little easier. Try the websites and programs listed above to make running your business easier and more productive.