Statistics, Databases, and Customers

June 11, 2008

Businesses thrive and grow with a strong customer base and a viable consumable product or service the customer base will repeatedly use. But, how do you locate the best customer for your business?

Statistics and databases. Back in the 70s, the Census Bureau created the first commercial database by plugging in ‘statistics’ on the populace: geographic location, driver’s license information, marital status, dependent status, public records, etc. This early database model “identified types” of people, which later morphed into today’s sophisticated consumer and customer prospect databases.

Time is crucial in business. Databases cut down on wasted time – databases give your business valuable time to be more efficient and cost effective in client selection and marketing. Databases deal with three major criteria:

Types
Specificity
Demographics

Customer types are important to pinpoint for any business. Vital bits of customer type information are age, ethnicity, job status, income bracket, credit-worthiness. If your business is looking for clients to extend credit to and who are within a certain age range for a marketing campaign, you want to know your list is accurate based on information supplied by the database. Creating a database of like clients for a particular market campaign saves valuable resource time – and allows you to target your pitch to the clients most representative of your marketing criteria.
Specificity. Perhaps your product or service offering is highly differentiated or is tailored to income-specific types of services, or you have a product that only a select group would qualify for (HUD homes or small business loans for women, Hispanics, etc.). A database that captures these criteria will benefit your marketing efforts tremendously.
Demographics. Your business is in expansion mode. You’re doing quite well in several local zip codes, yet you want to expand within your region or perhaps intra-state. You plug in your marketing criteria and a database shows you not only customers currently in your immediate area; it also provides a list of customers in other zip codes with similar criteria to your present customers, all potential new clients.

With one or all of the above components in a database, your business can effectively and efficiently find, market to, and retain customers. You can maneuver the database information as needed by your area’s growth trends, your business offerings or updated product introductions, or your desire to expand your business into larger areas.

Databases are part of effective marketing and time management in running your business in today’s overly fast-paced and highly competitive markets. Benefits are obvious: a database is cost-efficient and time-friendly with up-to-the-minute information, and it’s available to access 24/7. Just turn on the computer, hit a few keys and click the mouse a time or two – and you have pertinent information right before your eyes.

As strategy consultants, we continually look for better, more efficient ways for clients to run their businesses. Technology, when used wisely, decreases the cost of securing customers.

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