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Unlock the Potential of Your Customer Database

Press Release

By: Zendor
12 October 2004

Zendor, the distance-shopping expert, provides a portfolio of services to retailers interested in moving into multi-channel retailing. As part of these services, Zendor works closely with retailers to help them define and understand their customers through analysis of customer databases.

Zendor provides the following step-by-step advice to retailers on how to use and interpret customer databases to ensure maximum return on investment:

Get to know the customer- Variables, such as age, spend levels and demographics, can be used to better understand the customer, including how one variable such as age impacts on another e.g. spend. This ‘profiling’ of the customer allows the retailer to communicate with the customer more effectively.

Use modelling and segmentation to make informed investment decisions - Statistical modelling techniques should be used to identify which customers are most likely to respond and/or generate higher levels of sales. Once the customers have been ‘modelled’, they can be grouped and ranked into segments based upon their future expected worth.

Build a contact strategy for a targeted approach - Contact strategies, based upon reaching the customer at the right time and through the right channel, should be built-up using the information obtained from the profiling, modelling and segmentation stages. This will enable the retailer to invest into the different types of customer as effectively as possible.

Develop a single customer view - All customer information across channels (post, phone, web, loyalty cards) should be integrated in order to obtain a single customer view.

Ensure data is cleansed - It is vital that data is cleansed before any marketing activity is carried-out as this will save both money and time. This includes de-duplication of customer records and deleting/amending change of addresses or ‘goneaways’.

Interpret the data for future success - Data can be used to help understand how different areas of the business, besides marketing, can affect customers’ long-term behaviour. For instance, data analysis can provide a quantifiable insight into how poor customer service (due to out-of-stock goods or delivery problems) can impact on customer retention and turnover.

Outsource if necessary - If the retailer does not possess the in-house knowledge and expertise to conduct database analysis, they should outsource to an expert who has a thorough understanding of both database analysis and the home shopping market.

Therefore, through analysis of customer databases retailers can target customers more effectively, resulting in increased response rates, reduced costs and ultimately, increased profitability.