How Clean Is Your Customer Database?

Back in September, I got engaged. Over the past few weeks, wedding planning has really ramped up, and it’s been interesting to see how my future wife and I have divvied up responsibilities.

As an account manager at Interrupt, I regularly work with our clients to develop budgets, keep track of jobs with status reports and have even dabbled with the agency’s CRM as it pertains to new business.

So, what have I been tasked with managing in planning our impending nuptials? You guessed it: The budget, to-do-list and guest list.

This past weekend, I focused on finalizing the latter. Coming up with the names of who we want to attend our celebration was the easy part, but what shocked me was how incomplete or wrong the contact information was for so many of our friends and family members. Granted, we don’t send mail to these people on a regular basis, but it’s easy to see how a contact list can become obsolete in relatively short order when it’s not carefully maintained.

That got me thinking about Interrupt’s database and those of our clients. Maintaining a database is time consuming and tedious. It’s typically not at the top of anyone’s list and, as evident by my own Rolodex, can easily fall out of date. While this wasn’t a big problem in my personal life, the cleanliness of a database has a far greater impact for a business.

I’ve often viewed the contact information in Interrupt’s CRM as the lifeblood of the agency. While others may not agree, I suspect it should be the same for all businesses. What continually amazes me is how often a client or prospect admits their database is dirty or that they rarely do anything to target their lists.

Everyone knows maintaining a customer is far more affordable than finding new ones. Someone who’s chosen to do business with you will likely welcome your insights, new product information and monthly specials. Reaching these individuals through one-to- one communication via email, direct mail and mobile marketing can be highly effective and is also highly trackable. But it’s only effective when your database is clean and properly maintained.

As our clients work through their strategic planning process for next year, I hope their 2012 objectives include placing greater attention on existing customers. While this will require a conscious and probably tedious effort to clean up the database, the benefits will far outweigh the drudgery.