Who isn’t? Now that we have the means to catalog every single tidbit of information about our customers and consumers – if we find out the color of their underwear, do we create an underwear template and log it?
In all likelihood, yes if you are Victoria Secret or J.C. Penny’s. But if not, how to know what to log and what to discard?
Jim Roberts at Smart Insights posted a clean, comprehensive list that simplifies the prioritization of customer data – see his great article here. I have re-posted an excerpt below:
1. Identity Data
At the heart of database marketing is the individual, so knowing who the individual is and being able to build and maintain a Single Customer View provides the first type of data, Identity. This includes any information which enables an individual to be uniquely identified and includes:
- Name Information – Title, First Name (Forename), Last Name (Surname), Designatory letters, etc.
- Person Information – Date of Birth, Gender, etc.
- Postal Address Information – Building Number, Building Name, Address Lines, Town, County, Postal/Zip Code, Country, etc.
- Telephone Information – Home Telephone No., Work Telephone No., Mobile No., etc.
- Email Address Information – Personal Email Address, Work Email Address, etc.
- Social Network Information – Facebook Identifier, Twitter Address, Linkedin identifier, etc.
- Account Information – Details of your customer’s account ids or user ids.
- Job Information – Company Name, Department Name, Job Title, etc.
- Permission and Suppression Data – Not distinctly an identity element of data, but equally important is the information concerning permission to communicate and reason for not communicating (suppressions).
2. Quantitative Data
Once you understand who the individual is the next key element is the measurable operational data, which enables you to understand how your customer has behaved, transacted or reacted with your business. This includes any information which describes activity completed between the customer and your business:
- Transactional Information (Online and Offline) – Number of products purchased, actual products purchased, Order/Subscription Value, Order/Renewal dates, product abandonments (abandoned baskets), Product Returns, etc.
- Communication Information (inbound and outbound) – Communication date, communication channel, Opens, Click throughs, etc)
- Online Activity – Website visits, product views, online registrations, etc.
- Social Network Activity – Facebook likes, Twitter interactions, etc.
- Customer Services Information – Complaint details, customer query details, etc
3. Descriptive Data
Understanding who the individual is and the type of activities they complete with you provides a good starting point for any marketing database. To gain a fuller perspective of your customer additional profile information is crucial. This provides additional information about your customer, beyond the identity and quantitative details, covering:
- Family Details – Marital status, number of children, age of children, etc.
- Lifestyle Details – Property type, car type, number of car doors, pet ownership, etc.
- Career Details – Profession, Education level, etc.
4. Qualitative Data
The final type of data you will come across provides further description of your customer and potential behaviour and is usually provided by questionnaire type information where an attitude, motivation and opinion is provided:
- Attitudinal information – How do you rate our customer service, how do you rate the value of the product, how likely are you to purchase our product again, etc?
- Opinion – What is your favourite colour, where is your favourite holiday destination, etc.
- Motivational – Why was the product purchased (personal use, gift for someone, etc), what was the key reason for purchasing our product (locality, price, quality), etc.
