When it comes to CRM strategy, most businesses place the lion’s share of their energy at the top of the funnel in acquisition. New customers feel exciting. They fuel the growth narrative. But long-term success comes just as much,if not more, from retention and growth.
To retain and grow your customers, you need to understand their journey. And to understand the journey, you need the right
data in your CRM platform - not every possible datapoint, but the ones that matter.
Here are the essential data categories every business should track to move customers seamlessly through their lifecycle:
1. Core Contact Details
The basics still matter. Accurate names, emails, phone numbers, and addresses are the foundation of customer communication. If you can’t reach your customer reliably, the rest of your strategy falls flat. Data hygiene here is critical: duplicates, outdated contacts, or missing details erode trust and impact campaign performance.
2. Preference Centre & Communication Choices
Empowered customers want control over
how, when, and why they hear from you. Tracking preferences—such as communication channel, frequency, or specific interests, keeps your messaging relevant and respectful.
- Opt-ins and opt-outs must be managed carefully to ensure compliance (think GDPR, CAN-SPAM, or local legislation).
- Beyond compliance, preferences allow for meaningful segmentation, ensuring customers feel heard, not spammed.
3. Transactional Data
This is the heartbeat of retention. Every purchase, booking, or gaming session is a story about what customers value and when they value it. Key elements include:
- Date of purchase/visit (helps spot frequency and lapses).
- Basket size or spend value (to identify high-value customers).
- Product or service purchased (to fuel recommendations and next-best offers).
- Channel of purchase (online, in-store, mobile app, gaming floor).
Tracking transactions over time helps you distinguish between occasional customers and loyal advocates.
4. Lifecycle Engagement Data
Retention isn’t only about the sale, it’s about the
experience in between.
Useful data points include:
- Onboarding touchpoints completed (Did they activate their account? Attend their first event? Claim their welcome reward?).
- Engagement with campaigns (opens, clicks, logins, redemptions).
- Loyalty program activity (tier progression, points earned/redeemed, status changes).
These signals tell you where a customer is thriving, or where they’re at risk of slipping away.
5. Feedback & Sentiment
Don’t just measure what people do, capture what they think. Surveys, NPS scores, reviews, and support tickets offer direct insight into satisfaction and friction points.
Even better:
offboarding feedback from customers who leave. It’s uncomfortable but invaluable for refining your offering.
6. Behavioural & Contextual Data
Where possible, enrich your CRM with data that provides context:
- Channel behavior (do they browse on mobile but purchase in-store?).
- Timing patterns (weekday vs. weekend visits, seasonal spikes).
- Location data (venues visited, regions of activity).
These help personalise experiences, making your CRM more than a record, it becomes a prediction engine.
Retention Starts with the Right Data
The truth is,
not all data is created equal. A CRM overloaded with vanity fields and unused integrations creates “data debt.”
What matters is focusing on the metrics that drive retention and growth:
- Are you capturing clean, usable core details?
- Do you respect and leverage preferences?
- Can you see purchase and engagement history in one place?
- Do you track lifecycle milestones and feedback signals?