by MarkC
25. November 2009 11:39
Why do you need to use a data cleansing service to tidy your customer data? Here's my top 7:
- Reduced marketing costs
This is the biggie - cleansing your data saves you huge amounts of money when you come to your next marketing campaign. By not sending out mailers to people you know don't live there any more, or ensuring you only send one to each household, you can instantly slash your direct mail spend.
- Improved customer experience
When a customer calls, how quickly can you find their details in order to answer their question? If you have their name and address in a standard format, you can get there much quicker.
- More accurate analysis
Data is the heart of any business, but only when you can use it effectively. There's little point producing flashy management reports if the data underpinning them is inaccurate. By removing customer records that are duplicates, goneaway or deceased, you get a much more accurate picture of the real potential of your customer base, and by standardising addresses you can produce more accurate breakdowns of customers by regions.
- Legal compliance
Keeping customer data up to date and accurate is one of the requirements of the Data Protection Act, and is a must for any company. TPS screening is another requirement for anyone doing telesales campaigns.
- Better targeted marketing
Why send your lovingly crafted direct mail piece to people you know aren't going to be interested? By effectively segmenting your customer base you can target campaigns to the right customers rather than blanketing everyone, and MPS screening removes people that don't wish to receive direct mail and therefore aren't likely to respond.
- Environmental awareness
Don't waste resources on unnecessary direct mail. Duplicate entries in your database are a simple waste, along with entries with incomplete addresses that can't be mailed, and customers who have moved away or died. You can also choose to use telephone marketing instead of direct mail by appending telephone numbers for customers you don't already have them for.
- Brand image
What are customers going to think of your brand if they receive your direct mail piece twice, poorly addressed or sent to a recently deceased loved one? You can avoid all these problems with our standard data cleansing services.