In many SMEs, customer relationship history is not stored in a centralized system. Instead, it resides on salespeople's cell phones, in personal WhatsApp groups, or in private cloud storage. This practice hides a serious strategic risk: the loss of control over one of the organization's most valuable assets.
Each interaction generates valuable information, such as service preferences and the status of proposals. In this way, this set of data forms a profile that allows anticipating needs. However, when the history exists only on personal devices, it belongs to the employee, not the company.
The danger of Shadow IT in business operations.
The use of personal tools for corporate tasks is what experts call... Shadow IT. While While it may seem like a quick solution for everyday life, the risks are direct and dangerous. In this senseThe most common impacts on the business include:
- Data Loss: If a salesperson leaves the company, they take their entire network of contacts and negotiations with them.
- Violation of the LGPD (Brazilian General Data Protection Law): Using personal accounts to process customer data exposes the company to severe fines.
- Lack of traceability: Without centralization, it's impossible to know who served the customer and what the agreement was.
Additionally, there are several leisureScattered data prevents an integrated view of the sales funnel. ThereforeThe lack of control transforms the operation into a collection of individual efforts without any governance or security.
The financial impact of data loss.
Data loss is, above all, an economic problem. When a company fails to track its sales history, its ability to forecast sales drops drastically. As a resultNearly half of companies report forecast deviations exceeding 10%.
In addition to predictabilityLost data means lost opportunities. A lead that was well-served but not properly recorded can be forgotten in follow-up.follow-up). Like thisHe ends up closing a deal with the competition without anyone in his company realizing what happened.
How to establish data governance
The solution to this chaos is structural. First, the company needs a single place where all data is kept and securely accessible. The first step is to adopt a... Integrated CRM, which automatically records interactions.
Next, it's essential to integrate communication channels, such as WhatsApp, directly into the system. Nextcomm, we offer the Next_CRMThis solves the problem by allowing the use of agile tools under corporate control. Finally, protecting customer history is a decision that ensures growth with predictability and operational resilience.
