Making a Customer Database

In this age of computers we often think of the computer as the only answer to some ways of accomplishing tasks. I once started to use my computer to record every check I wrote and the programs have improved over the years, but I never seem to get to a point in my deductions where I would need the results to fill out the "short form" for the IRS and it is the short form that I most often only would need to use. I do now have a tax accountant that asks for all of my pay records, but he never needs anything else so I have stopped using the computer for my own personal check accounting. It was double the work for no additional benefit other than some nice reports at the end of the year.

For businesses, they face a kind of similar problem in that they do need to create and properly use a customer data base, but exactly how to create one is often not so clear. I know that a good data base of customers can be used to increase sales and at one time I tried to construct one for a hair salon. I had the customers fill out information cards which I would then use to create the data base. It was a disaster! Many customers wrote so badly that I could not read the data to put into the computer.

I began to think that some old systems might work better for small businesses and would not even require the use of a computer. One time when I went to a conference I wanted to mail everyone that attended some more information at a later date. I simply brought along enough business sized envelopes that were pre-stamped with my name in the upper left corner and left the "To" section blank for the participants to fill out with their name and address. This was so easy because I did not have to enter anything into a computer, store anything except the envelopes and even they would not be stored for a long time. While it is true I could only use this data as supplied one time. If I had wanted I could have made copies of all of them.

Then I decided to take the above concept one step further. I brought sheets of mailing labels and simply passed around the sheet of mailing labels and had all the participants put their name and address on a blank label. I had an assistant walk around with the sheet to keep others from copying names and addresses on the sheet, but I then had a few label sheets that I could first photocopy and use at later times.

I once had everyone that entered a business simply fill out a postcard with their name and address. This quickly made a database. In all these situations I did not do any of the writing or input of data. It is interesting that the small business is the one that could most benefit from such simple marketing systems and they do not seem to get the point.

Their previous customers are certainly potential future customers and they must be valued even more than new customers. Once your base loyal customer base is sufficiently large you now have some place to go upward into the realm of positive business goals. Before you reach that magical group of customers you are still likely to be treading water.

I worked with a business that had just 150 loyal customers that wanted to be contacted about special sales or events. Don't neglect them!