3 Ways to Improve Customer Care through Data Hygiene by Accutips.com

In many ways, the rules of creating a great direct marketing program for your customers is a lot like those for any other project: keep things clean and efficient, keep track of the details and do a thorough job. Find out how cleaning, enhancing and filling the gaps in your house file will increase your profitsâ??and keep your customers happy too.

1) Keep a Clean List—For Your Customers' Sake

What details are missing from your database right now that could boost customer sales, prospecting and lifetime value? You may be surprised. In fact, almost every company's customer and prospect database has certain gaps:

* Phone numbers with no addresses
* Outdated information
* Valuable insight into your market area, such as flagging seasonally—occupied or vacant homes
* Missing details that could change your marketing and messaging strategies, including demographics such as homeowner, online households, presence of children, income level, marital status and more

This information (or the lack of it) clearly could be hurting your business' bottom line—but it also can have a detrimental effect on your customers' loyalty and perception of your business. Making sure your house file is complete, using data hygiene services (sometimes called "scrubbing" your file) is an important facet of any direct marketing campaign. By improving deliverability, it saves you money on printing, mail-house fulfillment, postage and more. Even more importantly, cleaning and enhancing your data is a solid, proven and valuable way to ensure that your customers are happier and more responsive.

Looking for another reason why address hygiene is so important? Studies have found that on average, up to 20% of records within a typical house file are undeliverable, seasonal or vacant. In addition, up to 5% of records are identified as small- to mid-sized businesses, which may or may not require different messaging than a consumer campaign.

2) Connect with Customers via Data Enhancement

Looking for another way to improve your customer relationships and increase the effectiveness of your house file? Take the time to learn about the people behind those records. When you know who you're dealing with, you know how best to approach them. Here's a tip: Enrich your data with appended information. Here's just a few examples of popular appends provided by the most reputable direct marketing data solutions firms:

* Add postal addresses to records that only contain email addresses. Or add phone numbers, names or business titles to your current file
* Add revealing consumer details, so that you can target your messaging for a higher response. You can find out whether your records include homeowners, parents, members of particular ethnic groups, or even customers who are connected to the Internet.
* Add revealing business details, including SIC codes, sales volume, business site type (for example, headquarters or branch office), number of employees, or contact names.

3) How Data Hygiene and Enhancement Boosts Your Bottom Line Sales Results

* Saves you money on printing and mail-house fulfillment
* Allows you to control mailing waste and save on postage
* Gives you the opportunity to target your selling messages to the right audience at the right time
* Opens up new channels to reach your consumer or business customers using the methods they prefer
* Drives higher response through more specific, personalized offers (as opposed to generic, one-size-fits-all promotions)
* Helps build loyalty programs that drive up lifetime value
* Leads to more profitable prospecting, through modeling and forecasting

Data enhancement and hygiene can open doors to new sales opportunities, make your marketing efforts more efficient and cost-effective, and help you get the most return on investment for any campaign. Most of all, it keeps your customers happy and loyal, by making their mailings more relevant and accurate.