Where to Find the
Database For Your Customer Mailing List IN-HOUSE SOURCES
Before you think about a list
of prospective customer names, you should first
create a database for current customers' names
and develop a mailing list. (Remember, your
current customers are most likely to respond to
your future offers.)
Finding the data to include on
the customer portion of your mailing list can be
fairly straightforward if you have your own
in-house records. But even then you may have to
develop more sources to obtain additional data
about your customers.
Here are some of the in-house
records you can use to develop your customer
database:
- Sales
Receipts/Invoices/Order Forms:
These documents can give you the
following information: date of last
purchase, dates of all purchases over a
period of time, and amount of money spent
with you. You may also be able to
determine what products/services were
ordered from you. When using invoices to
compile your customer list, be aware that
in businesses they may be addressed to
the Accounting Department rather than the
individual/title most likely to purchase
from you.
Especially if your
customers are businesses, they may use
two addresses. One is the
"Ship-to" address, where
ordered items are sent. The other is the
"Bill-to" or
"Mail-to" address, where
invoices and catalogs are sent. Make sure
you're using the correct address every
time you correspond with the customer.
- Shipping Records:
Shipping records can be an
important source of customer names,
particularly if your product is sold
through a dealer or distributor, and you
don't have direct access to customer
order forms. Again, be aware that some
customers may have different billing and
shipping addresses.
- Membership Lists:
Every organization is sure to
have a list of its members. If your
organization has several membership
categories, this information should be
associated with the member name when you
add it to your list.
- Registration Forms:
If your organization does not
maintain a membership list, you may still
be able to identify your customers from
the registration forms and sign in sheets
you use at your events. One approach to
collecting names is to ask attendees to
add their names to your mailing list.
- Contest Entries:
The entry forms for a
sweepstakes, contest, or raffle can be
used effectively to get the names of your
customer. This approach might be most
useful if your organization lacks
customer records because you provide your
product or service free of charge.
OTHER SOURCES
Sometimes, your own records
don't hold enough information about your
customers or members. You may have to rely on
other sources to capture additional database
information:
- Warranty Cards:
Warranty cards included in
packages of merchandise can be an
effective way to gather information about
customers. On the card, you can request
that the customer complete the
demographic information and return it
when he/she registers the product.
- Surveys:
Phone or mail surveys are
another way to gather (and later update)
information on your customer database.
Phone surveys can be
used in a number of different ways to
collect database information. For
example, you can call customers and
administer full questionnaires to gather
complete information about them. This can
be a very costly way to collect data -
especially for a large number of
customer. Mail surveys (which will be
discussed later) may be a better
technique for this type of database
information collection.
Phone surveys are
useful if you are updating or adding
single fields to your database. You may
avoid the phone cost altogether by asking
a few short questions each time a
customer calls in - to place an order,
get a price quote, etc.
Mail questionnaires can
reach a larger number of customer at a
lower cost than phone surveys. Mail
questionnaires can be sent individually
to customers. However, to save postage
costs, surveys can also be inserted in
mailings, included in packages of
merchandise, or printed on any other
correspondence with customers, such as
invoices.
If you have a store or
office, you can also conduct surveys by
having customers fill out questionnaire
cards when they visit.
Other sources you can use to
build your list include:
- point of purchase
questionnaires.
- membership application
forms.
- questions on purchase
orders, statements, invoices.
Your customer names are the
core of your mailing list. This report has
described some sources for collecting database
information on current customers. You should
consider every contact with a customer a
potential source for collecting such information.
After you collect this
information, you need ways to initially get it
into your database and then to regularly make
sure it's current and accurate. (Out-of-date,
inaccurate mailing lists waste money and reduce
results.)
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