9 Customer Profile Management Best Practices You Need to Implement Right Now

9 Customer Profile Management Best Practices You Need to Implement Right Now

Connecting with customers today requires high levels of personalization — people don’t respond to generic messaging anymore. In fact, 80% of consumers say they are more likely to make a purchase if brands offer them a personalized experience. 

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If you’re gathering data on your customers, they expect you to use it for their benefit, as well as yours. 

That’s where customer profiling comes in. 

When done right, customer profiles can help to improve customer service and boost sales for small businesses (and bigger ones alike). The way you manage your customer profiles can empower you to market and engage your customers better. 

In this article, we’ll take a look at what customer profiles are and how you can use them to boost your customer relationships and sales. 

What is a customer profile?

If you use a CRM, payment software, or other software to capture transaction and customer interaction information, you’re using customer profiles. Different platforms will structure them in different ways, but in essence, it’s all the same concept. Customer profiles capture customer information so that you can track the way they interact with your brand. 

How you use this information is really where the power is. A customer profile is nothing if it’s never put to use. 

Your CRM will tell you what contact you last had with that customer. Your payment software will tell you what transactions they’ve made. Using them together, as well as gathering more data, helps you to build a profile on that customer. 

Customer profile vs. buyer persona 

It’s worth discussing the difference between a customer profile and a buyer persona, as the two are often confused. 

A customer profile is built based on the data you gather as new and existing customers interact with your brand. Customer profiles are constructed through tangible touchpoints, real people, and real-time interactions. 

On the other hand, buyer personas are used by marketing teams to identify the ideal customer profile. A buyer persona is usually a fictional persona that describes the kind of customer you want to attract. They are not always based on actual customer data. 

In practice, buyer personas are the first step. They should be used when building your business so that you take a targeted approach to initially build your customer base.

Once you have customers interacting with your business (buying goods or signing up to your newsletter), then you must start to build their profile. 

Buyer personas are the nice-to-have ideas of what your customers look like. Customer profiles are data-backed profiles of actual customers. With that data, you can segment your customer base and improve your marketing to those existing customers. 

Customer profiling in practice

There are many layers that can go into customer profiling. When you set up your CRM or your payment software, like SwipeSimple, customer profiles can be automatically created when new customers engage with you. Once registered, any additional interactions will also be tracked. 

Having tools that capture this information is great, but now, that data needs to be used. 

Most customer profile software available today are quite similar with slightly different value propositions. What you need is a tool that can integrate with your existing platforms to build your profiles. Then, you want to be able to automate segmentation and workflows. The goal is to execute marketing strategies based on these profiles. 

Customer data you want to capture

Over time, the amount of information you can gather from customers can become truly extensive. Each piece of information allows you to get better and better at predicting their needs and offering content and services at the right time. 

The four key areas that make up your profiles will be: 

  1. Demographic
  2. Psychographic
  3. Behavioral 
  4. Geographic
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Let’s quickly expand on each. 

Demographic information covers details such as age, gender, job title, income, education level, and family status. These can broadly indicate what price point a customer may like or what kind of communication style they will respond to. 

Psychographics then paint a picture of that person — their lifestyle, goals, habits, values, interests, and pain points. Understanding the attitudes of your customer helps you craft a buying journey that fits their psychological profile. 

Behavioral information differs from psychographics in that it’s more about the actions than the attitudes. This would include engagement with your brand, measuring readiness to buy, transaction history, product usage, loyalty, and attention required. 

Geographic information is all about where they live — the city, area, state, country, etc. This is relevant when location affects how customers interact with your brand.

Depending on your business, some of these will be more interesting than others. Behavioral information, for example, is particularly helpful for organizations that prioritize the customer experience. Psychographics might be more interesting for businesses that like to capture impulse shoppers. 

9 best practices in customer profile management 

Not every organization will have the same customer profile management requirements. But, every organization, no matter the size, should at least be building profiles to some degree.

You may not have the capacity to use it now. But, if you’re building it now, you can leverage this goldmine in the future. Here are some of the best practices in customer profile management that you need to know of.

1. Identify your business goals

With so much customer information to be analyzed, you need to first identify what you want to do with it. Do you want to use it to narrow down your best customers? Do you want to use it to build better products? Do you want to identify different segments to craft better marketing strategies? 

Work with your sales team and marketers to identify the goal. Then you can capture information with this in mind. 

2. Set up systems to capture data

If you run a small business, your payment solution may be the only platform you’re currently relying on to track your customers. And that is a great start. At Payment Depot, we partner with SwipeSimple for payment software and solutions, so we’ll use them as an example here. 

Within SwipeSimple, all of your customers automatically get an individual customer profile. In this profile, data is captured, including their: 

  • Personal information such as name, email, address, and phone
  • Transaction history including the date, item purchased (if applicable), transaction type, amount, and result (approved or declined)
  • Saved card information (last 4 digits of card number and expiration date)
  • Scheduled payments information, including the payment description, status, start date, frequency, and amounts
  • History of past invoices 

When you set up your systems, you want to make sure that they are automatically capturing this information. You also want to ensure you can easily export this information to your CRM or customer profiling tool. 

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3. Invest in your CRM

If you’re running marketing campaigns, you need a good CRM. Your CRM will help you nurture your current customers and develop your marketing strategy based on your customer data. 

When setting up your CRM, you want to link your payment software so that all transactions are added to your customer profiles. You can then use your CRM to gather information on your customers. You’ll be able to track when they like you on social media, when purchases are made, when they click a link in your promotional emails, and so on. 

For marketers and sales teams alike, the CRM will be your most valuable asset to build and assess profile data. The information captured here will inform your marketing channels. It will help you set up workflows to boost engagement and retention. 

Everything should work through your CRM. 

4. Find your best customers

Every business should want to identify which customers are most engaged with their products or services. This can help you learn why. It can also help you maximize sales opportunities. 

You can find these people by looking at who speaks the most about you on social media. Who are your biggest lifetime value customers, according to your systems? You may not know them per se, but you can start to analyze them and narrow down the attributes that describe them. 

5. Review your analytics

Google Analytics is the best free tool to help you learn about your customers and how they engage with you online. By following the steps mentioned above, you will have obtained some information on your customers. Google Analytics can then paint a better picture. 

With Google Analytics, you can learn the age, gender, location, and devices used by your customers. This is extremely valuable information that can help you understand who you’re interacting with. 

You can find metrics on who engages with you on your social media profiles. All of this should go into your data management strategy and captured on your CRM so that you can review all of the information accurately together. 

6. Make a list of your “best customer” attributes

Once you know your best customers, use the criteria above — demographics, geography, psychographics, and behavioral information — to list their attributes. Review your top 10, at least. Find out how they are similar and also look at any attributes that clearly differentiate them. 

This will help you create buyer personas for new potential customers. You can apply this to your marketing and advertising to ensure you have a better focus on your target audience. 

7. Survey your customers

You can use the contact information of your existing customers to reach out and gather more high-quality insights. Tools like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms can help you create surveys to collect such information. 

Make sure that you tell them why you’re collecting this information — to help you improve your services. Then, craft your survey asking questions such as:

  • Demographic
    • Age range (or year of birth range)
    • Relationship status 
  • Socio-economic
    • Employment status
    • Income range
    • Education level
  • Psychographic
    • What are your hobbies?
    • What factors impact your decision to buy?
  • Geographic
    • Which region do you live in?
    • What’s the weather like there? 
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8. Create customer profile templates

With all of the information captured from the above steps, you want to build a template of your customer profiles. This helps your marketers and sales teams to visualize who they’re speaking to. The template will take on a similar form as a buyer persona. Here are the things you must include in your customer profile templates:

  • Name the customer profile
  • Add a stock photo (that looks like the personality you’re talking about)
  • List their demographic information
  • Detail their psychographic and demographic attributes
  • Describe their motivators, pain points, and goals
  • Include a quote from the customer (perhaps from an online review) to give them a unique voice
  • List the type of communication channels they most often use
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9. Segment accordingly

Once you’ve understood your different customer profiles, you will know the segments you want to target. This allows you to personalize your customer engagement. 

With all of this information on your customers, you know who to invite to particular events, who to promote particular products to, and so on. 

If you use a CRM with segmentation tools, you can automate the process and structure workflows to make your customized communication a smooth dream. 

Get the most out of Payment Depot + SwipeSimple

Automation systems can undoubtedly make your life easier. Some are ultra-compatible, while others are less so. 

SwipeSimple is our partner of choice because their convenience goes beyond just payments. Used together, Payment Depot and SwipeSimple offer a fully comprehensive solution for all of your payment needs. 

SwipeSimple not only helps you accept payments but also offers software to capture customer profile information that can amplify your marketing insights and boost your bottom line. And with Payment Depot’s transparent wholesale pricing, you can keep costs low and save up to $800 a month in credit card processing fees.

Learn how your small business can supercharge its payment and data management activities with Payment Depot and SwipeSimple. Contact our award-winning support team today.

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Quick FAQs about Customer Profile Management

Q: What is customer profile management?

Customer profile management is the process of creating and managing profiles of customers based on data gathered as they interact with your brand. This includes demographic, psychographic, behavioral, and geographic information. The goal is to use this data to offer personalized experiences and improve customer service.

Q: How can customer profiles boost sales and customer relationships?

Customer profiles enable businesses to understand their customers’ preferences, behaviors, and needs. This understanding can be leveraged to personalize marketing messages, improve product offerings, and enhance customer service, ultimately leading to increased sales and stronger customer relationships.

Q: What is the difference between a customer profile and a buyer persona?

A customer profile is built based on actual data gathered from customers, while a buyer persona is typically a fictional representation of the ideal customer you want to attract. Buyer personas are often used in the initial stages of building a business, while customer profiles are developed as customers interact with your business.

Q: How can customer profile management help small businesses?

For small businesses, customer profile management helps to understand customer behaviors and preferences. This can lead to more targeted and effective marketing strategies, better product development, and improved customer service. It also assists in identifying the best customers and learning how to attract similar customers.

Q: What information is typically included in a customer profile?

A customer profile typically includes demographic information (age, gender, job title, income, etc.), psychographic information (lifestyle, goals, habits, etc.), behavioral information (engagement with your brand, transaction history, etc.), and geographic information (location details). The emphasis on these areas can vary depending on the business’s priorities and needs.

Q: What are some best practices in customer profile management?

Best practices include identifying your business goals, setting up systems to capture data, investing in a good CRM, identifying your best customers, using tools like Google Analytics to understand customer behavior, using demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral information to segment your customer base, and leveraging automation systems to streamline processes.

Q: How can businesses use customer profiling data?

Businesses can use customer profiling data to personalize customer engagement, target marketing messages, predict customer needs, and identify opportunities for product or service improvement. It can also be used to segment the customer base and develop strategies to cater to each segment’s specific needs and preferences.

Q: Why is it important to differentiate customer profiles and buyer personas?

It’s crucial to differentiate these two because they serve different purposes. Buyer personas are used to attract potential customers, while customer profiles help to understand and serve existing customers better. Understanding the difference ensures that businesses use the right tool for the right purpose, maximizing effectiveness.

Q: What tools can help businesses in customer profile management?

Tools like CRM software, payment solutions, and analytics tools can play a significant role in capturing and analyzing customer data. Some platforms, like SwipeSimple, offer integrated solutions for payment processing and customer profiling. Other tools like Google Analytics can provide valuable insights into customer behavior and engagement.

Q: What is the role of automation in customer profile management?

Automation can make customer profile management more efficient and effective. It can help in automatically capturing customer information, segmenting customers, setting up workflows for engagement, and executing marketing strategies based on customer profiles. It makes the process smoother and less prone to errors.


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