Part 15: Customer-Record and CRM Infrastructure
This part of the guide has 7 pages so far. Each page answers one question, shows what to do, and ends with an audit check you can use on your own business.
15.1 Select the Customer-Record System
Section titled “15.1 Select the Customer-Record System”- 15.1 Choosing a CRM: How to choose a simple customer records system that holds contacts, companies, leads, estimates, customers, and message history, and lets you export it all.
15.3 Create Contact and Company Records
Section titled “15.3 Create Contact and Company Records”- 15.3 Contact and Company Records: Set up clean customer records: required fields, duplicate checks, lead source, a follow-up owner, customer type, and service history you can act on later.
15.4 Create Custom Fields and Tags
Section titled “15.4 Create Custom Fields and Tags”- 15.4 CRM Custom Fields and Tags: The seven CRM fields most local businesses need: service, location, urgency, lead quality, status, risk flags, and source, with fixed choices that keep reports clean.
15.5 Import and Clean Existing Records
Section titled “15.5 Import and Clean Existing Records”- 15.5 Importing and Cleaning Records: How to import contacts into a CRM the safe way: confirm you may use them, map fields, merge duplicates, fix bad data, keep opt-outs, and log every import.
15.6 Define the Customer Lifecycle
Section titled “15.6 Define the Customer Lifecycle”- 15.6 Customer Lifecycle Stages: Eleven simple customer stages from first inquiry to closed, inactive, or do not contact, with what each means and when to move a customer to the next stage.
15.7 Create Sales Pipelines
Section titled “15.7 Create Sales Pipelines”- 15.7 Sales Pipeline: Set up a sales pipeline that fits a small business: clear stages, one owner per deal, entry and exit rules, value, close date, lost reasons, and next follow-up.
15.8 Create Lead-Source Tracking
Section titled “15.8 Create Lead-Source Tracking”- 15.8 Lead-Source Tracking: Track every lead from source to profit: source, campaign, keyword, landing page, referrer, cost, and the sale and margin it produced, including paid leads.