Turn a customer spreadsheet into a working CRM

A CRM should help someone decide what to do next for a customer. Start with useful records and follow-up behavior rather than importing every column unchanged.

This is an illustrative workflow to adapt and test, not a timed product benchmark or a verified customer case study.

Define the information and the work

Separate customers, contacts, opportunities, and interactions. Use stable identifiers, normalize statuses, and keep the original note when creating a model-assisted summary. Define ownership and which information staff may share.

Write these decisions into a brief before polishing the interface. A useful brief explains what someone can do, what should be saved, and how another person picks up the result. Keep the original material available while reviewing the first version so differences can be checked rather than guessed.

Try a concrete review scenario

Import a few customers with more than one contact. Add an interaction and a next action, then filter overdue follow-ups. Review duplicates before merging and verify the result under a second account.

Record the steps, expected result, and any difference you find. Ask for one focused correction, then repeat the same scenario. Include an empty state and a failure as well as the successful path. This gives the first version an acceptance test and later changes a practical regression check.

Give the result a home in your App Cloud

Use the database for customer relationships and activity records, files for supporting material, and access rules for the people responsible. A language model can draft a follow-up from approved context. Keep draft preparation and sending separate, and show the original interaction behind the proposed message.

Create and refine this experience in Studio. Keep the first version focused enough to test with the scenario above.

Publish and keep learning

Check the account’s current allowance and the usage of the capabilities you selected. Publish the reviewed app from Studio, then repeat the essential task on the shared link.

Follow what people actually do with the app. Use observed problems and measured usage to decide the next change; completion times, savings, and business outcomes depend on your own workflow.

Continue with the related guide · Explore the building blocks · Understand your App Cloud