GDPR: Make the right decision, not a quick decision

By Rachael Howard, Sales Manager, Synergy Technology

Customers in B2B markets are obviously company entities, but the relationships are between people.

In a B2B setting, business is about individuals interacting and sharing information with and about each other. Thus personal information is often used and stored as part of managing these business relationships.

How can your CRM support GDPR compliance?

GDPR impacts marketing, sales and customer service, therefore all personal data needs to be handled in a professional manner. Here is a checklist to help determine what your CRM system needs to help your business become compliant:

Ability to create bulk updates: Your CRM system needs functionality to enable you to make current customer and prospect data GDPR compliant using a quick and easy updating process.

Consent management: Make sure your system can digitally record consent from contacts to receive email marketing campaigns, state the legal basis for storing data, archive the source of consent (for example, a webform) and record when and who has updated the information.

Subscription management: Ensure your CRM system has the functionality to allow contacts to decide themselves what kind of information they receive and how they receive it.

GDPR is game-changer legislation. Doing nothing is not an option. If your current CRM system doesn’t support these GDPR compliant features, now is the time to find a new solution, before it’s too late! But note: adopting an effective CRM is only part of your obligations to comply with GDPR. It is each and every organisations’ responsibility to put processes in place for full compliance.