| In today's competitive market place, in order to | | | | predictable results, so they can take advantage of |
| survive, you must guard and maintain your | | | | the market trends in their industry. The inability of |
| current customer database. | | | | gaining access to the right data quickly will have a |
| You can have the greatest product in the world, | | | | high negative impact on any company. Which in a |
| the most expensive assets in your business; but | | | | highly competitive environment will prove very |
| at the end of the day, your business is only as | | | | costly. |
| valuable as its customer database. | | | | 3. Gaining the visibility of the customers With |
| Think about this for a moment. When was the | | | | customer data being stored in disparate data |
| last time you received a letter or a phone call | | | | sources from the CRM to excel spreadsheets and |
| from a place of business you where you | | | | access databases on machines throughout the |
| purchased an item of clothing? Or a flat screen | | | | organization, it makes it very difficult to see the |
| television set? A car? Or even a house? | | | | true picture of your customer. You need to get |
| When was the last time the company or sales | | | | visibility across you entire organization, only then |
| rep called you up asking you how you were doing | | | | can you run cost effective marketing campaigns. |
| with the item you purchased? I'd wager to say | | | | Implementing a Business Intelligence solution can |
| that around 95% of the time there was no follow | | | | help you solve this problem. With a Business |
| up call, mailing or anything. | | | | Intelligence solution in place, you will be able to run |
| Most businesses just expect that you will come | | | | ad hoc reporting, query and analysis at the click |
| back to them. They think if their product or | | | | of a button on any device whenever you want |
| service is excellent, their customers will | | | | and wherever you are. In addition to that, a |
| automatically come back and do business again. | | | | company will gain greater visibility of their |
| Not so! | | | | customer's activities enabling them to target the |
| Hoping is not a smart business strategy. | | | | right audience for their campaigns and increase |
| Businesses need to be more proactive when it | | | | the likelihood of success. |
| comes to customer retention. You need to | | | | With a Business Intelligence solution in place, |
| understand the buying patterns of your | | | | companies will be able to: |
| customers if you wish to keep them. Because if | | | | - Get up-to-date information on your customer's |
| you're not doing this, I can guarantee you that | | | | activity |
| your competitors are knocking on the door of | | | | - View that information whenever you want, on |
| your customers. | | | | demand |
| How then can you quickly find a way to access | | | | - Decide in advance how you can allocate your |
| your customer's information so that you can | | | | marketing spend |
| target the right customers in order to retain them | | | | - Look at past results and see what percentage |
| and also increase the growth and sustainability of | | | | of your past campaigns made you money |
| your business? | | | | - Measure the impact each campaign is having on |
| If we look at the conventional ways to increase | | | | customer retention |
| revenue in the business, the main ways would be | | | | - Track your ever expanding customer base |
| to sell more products to your existing customer | | | | - Ask better questions |
| base thus increasing the size of the average | | | | - And the list goes on |
| transaction and increase the number of | | | | Implementing a Business Intelligence solution will |
| customers. | | | | perform and fulfill the three of the business |
| Ask yourself the following questions: | | | | functions: |
| Do you know who your best customers are? | | | | |
| How do you decide which customers to target? | | | | 1. Increase revenues Focusing and prioritizing time |
| Do you have visibility into your customer's | | | | on customers that are predisposed to purchasing |
| activity? | | | | will increase revenue |
| To do this you need access to the customer | | | | 2. Reduce costs You will be able to spend your |
| information. | | | | marketing dollars on a more predictable way |
| Most companies do have this information. But | | | | allowing you to save money and reduce your |
| there are three big challenges they face: | | | | overall marketing spend allowing you to run more |
| | | | campaigns. |
| 1. Gaining access to this gold mine of data Today's | | | | 3. Increase Efficiency You will be more efficient |
| companies have invested millions of dollars in their | | | | because you will be able to run marketing |
| data applications. The problem they now face is | | | | campaigns that will have more predictable results |
| that they have so much disparate data they are | | | | based on the visibility you have on your current |
| unable to pull the data out without it becoming a | | | | customers. |
| costly activity. | | | | If you are looking for the competitive edge in |
| 2. Receiving data in a timely manner In order to | | | | your business you should seriously start looking |
| target the right customers quickly and maintain | | | | into a Business Intelligence solution. |