Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

"Our organization is far more inconsistent in delivery of service than we thought we were. We enhanced training and on-the-job coaching to increase operational efficiency while increasing the one-to-one service experience."

"There were a lot of obsolete account and contact records in the database. We have been working diligently to update the information on an on-going basis."

"We learned that we'd saturated our core vertical markets. As a result, we expanded our target opportunities database to include new markets."

"We learned that clusters using our call center were very different from the ones we thought. We reevaluated service policies and approaches based on that."

"[Customers'] use of the Web. We listened to our customer surveys and made improvements."

"That long term clients are not as loyal as we've seen in the past. We've used this information to increase retention efforts."

"How unreliable our data and tracking methodology is. We're trying to correct issues for better analysis and strategy building."

"More than half of our leads that resulted in sales were closed by dealers other than the dealer that we sent the lead to. So we're adding additional training for our dealers focusing on lead follow up and creating a process to touch inquiries out to 12 months following the initial request."

"That a product developed for a specific use was being used in a completely different way than it was designed for. We started work on a new product to better fulfill the alternate use."

"Customers are reluctant to provide information. We've reduced the amount of "required information" trying to find the balance between what data they are willing to provide before they decide to bail out."

"Differentials in [customer] profitability. This allowed us to better focus our prospecting efforts."

"Which markets were underpenetrated. We developed a pilot program with an external telemarketing company to pursue business opportunities in those markets."

"A lot of prospects are in the preliminary stage of the sales cycle when they first contact us. We established lead scoring based on their behavior/activity to help filter early stage from actual qualified leads."

And finally,

"The reasons for closing accounts. We were able to increase customer retention."

So, collect the information that provides expected value, like purchase activity, but also harvest customer data for the unexpected. The payoff can be powerful.

What gem did you discover in your customer data in the past year?

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Read "Co-owning Customer Data" to learn more about the results of 1to1 Media 2009 Spring Data Survey.