Short answer
A customer database needs one place for customers, contacts and communication history, with access rights and a history of changes. It can be built in an off-the-shelf CRM or a custom system. When moving from Excel, it’s important to clean up duplicates, agree on mandatory fields and follow personal data protection requirements.
Why Excel isn’t a database
An Excel spreadsheet is handy at first, but over time you get duplicates, different formats, several versions, and you can’t see who changed what. Access can’t be restricted by field, and protecting personal data becomes hard to control.
How to build a good customer database
- Structure. Companies and contact persons kept separately, linked to each other.
- Mandatory fields. Only the ones that are really needed.
- Uniqueness. A check by registration number or e-mail, so duplicates don’t appear.
- History. Communication, deals and invoices on the customer card.
- Permissions. Who can see and change what.
- Integrations. Data from website forms, e-mail, accounting and the company register (for example, Lursoft).
Personal data
Keep only the data you need, know why you keep it, and delete it when it’s no longer needed. If you use AI, see is it safe to give AI company data.
A customer database is the foundation of a CRM — more: what is a CRM system.