Minimum CRM Data Dictionary for a Small Service Team

Copy the minimum dictionary

• Contact: person the team communicates with; do not use an organisation name as a substitute.
• Organisation: business or other entity associated with the work; leave unknown rather than guessing.
• Request: what the person asked for, linked to its source.
• Source: known origin of this request; distinguish it from later contact channels.
• Owner: person responsible for moving the conversation forward.
• Current position: evidence-based status of the request or opportunity.
• Next action: concrete task, owner and review date.
• Last meaningful contact: actual exchange, not an automated system update.

For every entry add: example | required when | who updates it | update trigger | allowed unknown. Keep the dictionary alongside the process, not only in a developer’s notes.

A fictional record with distinct meanings

Casey submitted a website form after a recommendation. Record the known origin as “recommendation” if Casey supplied that fact; “website form” can describe the submission channel. An email reply the next day does not change the original source to email.

Current position is “assessing service coverage”. Next action is “Rae confirms the location with Casey on Tuesday”. Last contact is Monday’s customer reply, not the Tuesday date entered for a future task.

Avoid fields that pretend uncertainty is knowledge

Allow “unknown” where the fact is genuinely missing. Do not fill a budget, company size or lost reason with an invented value to satisfy a required field.

If colleagues use “Pending”, “Waiting” and “In progress” interchangeably, define the distinctions or consolidate them. Adding more labels without definitions makes later summaries harder to interpret.

Review one field before adding another

Take three sample records and ask two colleagues to populate the proposed field independently. Different interpretations reveal a definition problem. Resolve it before relying on the field in a report.

This is an operating dictionary, not a claim about default fields in a particular product. Ask for only information needed for the work and manage access through your actual policies and system controls.