I would be rich. I’m not. But I would have been had it not been for one small mistake on my part. Really, it was a sin of omission not commission. But the punishment is the same: regardless of the cause the effect remains the same. I’m not rich.

But I would have been and I soon will be, thanks to small correction in my customer service habits and a little help from you!

If I had the contact information on every person who has read one of my books or attended one of my speaking engagement I would be stone cold rich.

No matter where you are in your career if you haven’t already, start collecting customer data now!

What will make me…and you rich are the data we are going to collect from our customers.

Why? Because when know what the customer wants, when you know how the customer likes to buy (or be sold), when you know who your customer is and who is the customer owned by your competition you can make accurate strategic business decisions that produce happier customers as well as a rustling sound when you put your hands in your pocket!

Principle One: Don’t Ace Anything!

You never know when that odd bit of data that seems so useless will become so useful. I have a data conflict in my life that consists of a large but rather haphazardly constructed database and a wife who hates waste. The problem is you never know when something that looks like waste today will turn to treasure tomorrow.

“Honey? Didn’t we have a file of small speakers bureaus somewhere on the hard drive?”

“We did,” is the word from Brown Eyes, “but they weren’t booking us and they were just taking up memory so… I aced ‘em!”

Memory is cheaper than paper. It takes up less space. Archive good. Ace bad!

Principle Two: Keep Your Data House in Order

Data that can’t be found is data lost. Begin with the end in mind. Before you start dumping data indiscriminately think about how you will retrieve it. Think big and think long range. Ask yourself not how you can use the data but rather how you could use the date.

Think.

What if we grow? What if we change our product? How could an extensive database increase our value if we ever decide to sell?

Think.

Principle Three: Give to Get

Customers know full well their data is valuable to you and rightfully question why they should give it to you. If you want it, be prepared to give to get. Just like you traded your contact data for this article your customers will give you theirs… provided you give something of value in return.

It helps to tell the customer what you intend to do with the data.

“We’re considering a new line of products.”

“We’re measuring our service to see how we can serve you better.”

“We’re interested in knowing why you shop with us so we can be even better!”

Principle Four: Honor the Data

Demonstrate your dedication for confidentiality. Don’t ask for data you will never be likely to use or if you must, ask in a way that doesn’t link requested data to an individual customer. This is particularly relevant to questions about income, home value, or other personal data.

It’s not that customers are uncooperative, they’re just wary. Be up front. Tell them about your privacy policy, let them know you will not sell or share their private information.

Get permission first if you intend to use their data to contact them in the future. Notice that on this site in order to receive our RSS feeds you have to personally make the request.

Principle Five: Use Multiple Methods

‘Hey! How am I doing?” That was a phrase that made Ed Koch one of

New York City ’s most beloved mayors of all time. Like Dr. Frasier Crane telling his

Seattle radio audience he was listening, “Howm Eye Doin” Announced to New Yorkers that the top dog at City Hall was really interested in their opinions.Perhaps the best but least often used method of collecting useful customer input is to pick up the phone, walk around the counter, or otherwise put yourself belly to belly with the guy who pays the bills and simply ask, “HowmEyeDoin?”Putting Principles 3,4, and 5 together a restaurateur might ask…

“If you have a minute I’d like to buy you a slice of pie and ask your opinion of

our food and service tonight. Just between the two of us. I really value your

opinion and it help us make this an even better place to dine.”

Principle Six: Value the Un-customer

Stu Leonard was famous for loading up a van with department leaders and hitting the road for a field trip to the competition… and sometimes to non-competitors all in a search for discovering new ways to serve Stu Leonard customers. Stu was always wondering why people were not buying from him.

If you can answer why some customers are choosing the competition you are close to a strategy for getting them to switch.

Principle Seven: Link Data

Individual data increase in value when linked to other data.

Knowing the profile of customers who purchase the higher profit products may help to discover additional high profit items you should offer. It may give you a clue to selling customers with different profiles and, best of all, it may help you discover are the high profit customers so that they can be pampered while at the same time the no-profit customers are being shown the door!

Be prepared! You may be surprised to discover that customers you think are your best customers… really aren’t!

Seven Principles but only one imperative: Begin collecting customer data… NOW!

This entry was posted on Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 6:53 pm and is filed under T. Scott Gross. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.