Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Have you Kept A Database Of Your Customers?


If you are fortunate enough to have a Database of customers, you now need to maintain a Database of those customers.

The more information that you have regarding your customers, the better you can target what you can market to them. Find out things such as their interests, desires, needs, if possible their birth date etc. The more you know about them, the more you will be able to market to them.

Let's say you have a garage and one of the things you do on a continual basis is change oil and filters. Now most people know when to change their oil and filter. However, if you send that customer a post card or even call them before their next oil change is due, you can beat your competition to the punch. Not only that but you will be surprised how your customer will appreciate this personal reminder.

When I was growing up as a teenager, I had a Milk Route. It was my job to know exactly when my customers needed milk. We later expanded that list to cover just about all the dairy products. Now days, your local stores and supermarkets really hurt your local milkman. The point I am making here, is to set up a way to build rapport with your customer. The more you interact and communicate, the more likely that customer will be loyal to buy from you rather than your competitor.

Now with the event of the huge department stores and supermarkets, building a relationship with your customer is more important than ever. A relationship with your customers, is the edge that you will have, that the big chains do not.

Now we have been talking about supermarkets, stores etc., but as you can reason things out this Data Base marketing can apply to any business.

Tomorrow, we will discuss some marketing tools to accomplish the organization of your Database.

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