Customer Data: How to Collect and Store It Properly

Why customer data is needed

Customer data is required to make marketing personal. It is practically important for marketers: such data yields insights, clear offers, and increased conversions. Once you understand your customers' preferences and behavior, you can segment your audience, create personalized offers, and fine-tune your advertising. For instance, if you know a customer's birthday or interests, the system may automatically send them a congratulatory message and a relevant promotion. Loyalty increases along with repeat purchases.

This same data strengthens marketing management: it helps you decide which campaigns to launch, how to allocate your budget, find out where users get stuck in the funnel, and which communications perform best. Detailed customer data provides fuel for analytics: you can identify valuable groups by spending level (ABC) or by recency and frequency of purchases (RFM) and focus your efforts on the most profitable segments, supporting them with loyalty programs.

How to collect user data

Here are the main sources:

• What a person discloses themselves. This includes data that the user voluntarily provides when interacting with the company: during a sign-up, placing an order, subscribing to newsletters, filling out an application form, participating in a survey or questionnaire. Typically, this includes contact details, age, interests, needs, etc. Data collection is only carried out with explicit consent: the person must understand why the information is required and confirm that they agree to provide it.

Data collection during sign-up

• Behavior on the website. Web analytics tools track which pages a person viewed, what they added to their cart, which source they came from (via UTM tags and referral links). Modern tag managers, such as Google Tag Manager or Altcraft Tag Manager, help automatically mark necessary events and gather this data. Cookies and pixels are also used: they let you analyze conversions and launch retargeting to demonstrate ads to those who have already shown interest.
• Data from external channels. Information about customers also comes from offline sources or third-party systems. In retail stores, purchases are recorded via loyalty cards; call centers record calls and conversation outcomes; advertising platforms provide metrics on clicks, impressions, and conversions. These advertising channels indicate how well marketing messages resonate with the audience and whether they lead to sales. Data can also come from social media, mobile applications, loyalty programs, and partner organizations. It is best to combine all this information (for example, in a CDP) to create a single 360° customer profile for a complete understanding of their interactions with the company.

It is necessary to understand in advance which specific pieces of information will actually help in your work. The principle of data minimization is simple: collect only the information that helps address specific tasks. A nonsystematic "collection of everything" bloats databases, irritates users, and rarely brings benefits. The best option is first-party data, meaning data obtained through your own channels (website, application, offline points). Focus on internal sources and develop a data culture within the company: train your team, regularly clean and update databases, and automate data collection where possible using reliable tools.

Protecting personal data

Collecting personal data without clearly informing the user and getting their consent is prohibited. Users must be able to see exactly what information you're requesting, why it is needed, and what they're agreeing to. This is typically accomplished through checkboxes in forms, offers, and a public privacy policy.

Methods of storing client data

An important question is where and how to store accumulated customer data. For small businesses starting out, simple tools like Excel spreadsheets or Google Sheets, where a list of clients and their contacts is manually maintained, are often sufficient.

However, as the volume of data grows, such databases become unreliable: there is a high risk of errors, data loss during failures, and a lack of backups. Therefore, in professional marketing, client data is typically stored in specialized databases: either internal (on company servers) or in cloud systems.

Local storage (On-Premise)

This option involves a company deploying its own database on its own servers or in a data center. This provides complete control over the data and is often used in environments where privacy is particularly important (e.g., banks, government agencies) or where there are legal requirements to store citizens' personal data within the country.

Cloud data storage

This refers to the use of external services (SaaS platforms, cloud CRM, etc.) to host a client database. Popular CRM systems operate in the cloud and handle technical support for the database. Advantages include high reliability, scalability, and accessibility from anywhere via the internet. Disadvantages include reliance on third-party providers and potential risks of data transfer to third parties.

In practice, combined approaches are possible, such as storing some important data locally and less critical data in the cloud (hybrid infrastructure).

For managing a large client base, it is best to use specialized systems. The most common option is CRM (Customer Relationship Management). This is a fully-fledged work tool that stores huge amounts of data, automatically organizes it into categories (contacts, deals, activities), gathers information from social media and other channels, and provides segmentation, statistics, and reports.

Essentially, a CRM solves more than just storage issues. Every interaction, from emails and calls to website visits, is automatically recorded so customer profiles are always up-to-date. The system can automatically remind customers to call back, suggest the next step in a deal, or launch a triggered email. Yet there are some downsides, too: implementation and team training are time-consuming, and some useful features are often only available in paid plans. But the benefits usually outweigh these costs. A properly configured CRM or customer data platform (CDP) brings order to the database and eliminates the chaos of disparate tables and files.

Managing customer data and marketing automation

A CDP collects audience data from multiple sources, links different identifiers of the same client, allows for audience segmentation in near real-time, and transfers these segments to other marketing tools.

A distinct advantage of Altcraft is that it can be deployed on-premises without losing functionality. Unlike many foreign CDPs, which operate exclusively in the cloud, this gives large companies with databases of millions of contacts complete control over their data and compliance with security and local storage requirements.

The capabilities of Altcraft cover the entire cycle from collection (including its own tag manager) and profile integration to flexible segmentation, omnichannel campaigns, reporting, and ML modules, such as a module for selecting optimal sending times. The customer data platform becomes the "heart" of the marketing ecosystem: it collects information and helps launch personalized promotions and offers.

Conclusion

Customer data is any information about customers and leads that helps businesses understand their audience and target them more accurately: contacts, demographics, purchase history, website and app behavior, campaign responses, and support requests.

Collect only what solves specific problems. Update records regularly, remove duplicates and inactive contacts, segment your database by value and behavior. Clearly explain why you need the information, obtain consent, store it securely, and comply with the law. Without customer trust, personalization becomes ineffective.