Tags |
|
|
Links |
|
|
Casual Articles - How to Set Up & Organize Your Customer Mailing List For Optimum Results
It is important for you to constantly advertise even after you have established your clientele. Today you may have a client and tomorrow the client could go out of business. Smaller companies may decide to do their own billing if their business gets slow. Do not worry about having an overload of work. You can always outsource or ask a family member to help you out for a while.If you are limited to how much you can spend on advertising there are several things you can do. Some cheap things are:• Use an inexpensive web host service for your website. I do not recommend using free website software. You are limited to how you can setup your site and you want your site to look professional.• Free classified sites• Word of mouth• Distribution of business cards• Place your business card in drawings for exposure• Place your business
You can also use certain mailing list fields to identify people who should be dropped from my list. For example, you can search for customers with FollowUp2 dates that are four weeks past today’s date, and TotAmounts of zero. These customers could be erased from the list. Or, you could leave them on file, and put a word or two in the Comments field reminding you not to mail anything else to them, in case they inquire again. This saves me the cost of mailing something to someone who probably won't respond. They might, but chances are they won't. Finally, if you get a customer who has returned too many orders, or has defrauded you in some way, you can put that information in the Comments field. Then, i
Construction industry is related to the building and assembling of any structure on site. Many people think of construction as one thing, but it's a series of tasks which combine to make one project. In a normal construction project, there is a project manager which oversees the specific operation, as well as subcontractors like painters and carpenters as well as internal employees. The whole operation is headed by someone titled the construction manager.There are three main types of construction: building construction, residential construction, and heavy/highway construction. Building construction refers to adding another structure to real property. The majority of building construction is small projects like renovating or adding a room in an already existing house. These tend to be smaller projects than the other two. Residential construction refers to a p
Most business' customer lists consist of this information: Name, Address, City, State, Zip. That's it. Unfortunately, this mailing list is almost worthless. You need to have more information in your files than just that. One mail order operator has a customer database with 32 information fields! You should be able to set these up in your computer's database, or, if you don't use a computer(you REALLY should), all this information should fit on a large size index card in a card file. Here are some more useful fields to include in your customer database:
LastName; FirstName; Title; Position; CompanyName; Address1; Address2; City; State; Zip; PerPhone; BusPhone; FaxPhone; InqDate; ReferSource; FollowUp1; FollowUp2; SubDate; SubAmount; RenewDate;Purch1; Purch1Date; Purch1Amount; Purch2; Purch2Date; Purch2Amount; Purch3; Purch3Date; Purch3Amount; TotAmount; Comments; Cust#
The first 10 fields (reading across) should be self-explanatory. Almost any address possible can be put into my database without having to leave out information or abbreviate. The next three are for phone numbers. You MUST have your customer's phone numbers, when possible, to be able to follow up quickly and efficiently. Making one phone call can be the difference between a big sale and NO sale.
The InqDate field is where you record the date the customer first inquired about your products and services, and the date you sent the information, since it's always the same day (there's no excuse not to follow up your inquiries on the same day you receive them). This information, coupled with the ReferSource field, tells you when your ads are hitting, and how quickly people are responding to them. If you see that inquiries are coming in slowly, or long after the ad is out, you know that you need more action incentives in my next ad. The ReferSource field is where you enter the "key" from my ad. You should use a letter code after my street address to indicate which publication and issue the inquiry comes from. You should also code your mailings, for the same reason.
You enter a date into the two FollowUp fields to indicate when you want to send follow up literature to customers who don't order on the first try. You should put a date two weeks from the InqDate in FollowUp1, and one two weeks later than that in FollowUp2. Then, every day, you should run a search on these two fields to pull up any records that have today's date as a follow up date. You canteen print labels and put them on the envelopes and literature you have ready for follow ups. You should use the next three fields (SubDate, SubAmount, RenewDate) forth newsletter you publish (if you decide to publish one). These would have the date you receive their subscription, the amount they paid (You should sometimes run special prices), and the date you want to send subscription renewal information (usually 10 1/2 months from the SubDate). You can then print labels in the same manner as you do for the FollowUp fields. Next come the Purchase fields. You should have three sets of purchase fields, one for each purchase the customer makes. In the Purch1field, enter a code for the product they have purchased. The other two fields get the date and amount of the purchase. The second and third sets of fields get the same information for the customer’s second and third purchases. The best customers to mail offers to are the ones that have purchased within the last90 days, so you don't have to worry about many customers making more than three purchases during that time period (though I hope they will!). If someone does make a fourth purchase, move the second and third sets of data up to the first and second lines, and enter the new purchase information in the third data set.
These fields are extremely important. You can instantly pull up a list of customers that have purchased within the past 90 days, or60 days, or 30 days, or even 15 days. When you rent out your house mailing list, this information is vital. The rental amount you can charge increases as the amount of time since the customer's purchase decreases. The next field in my database is TotAmount, which contains a formula to calculate the total dollar amount that the customer has purchased from me to date.
The Comments field is used to store any miscellaneous information about the customer that you think is important to know. Use the final field, Cust#, for a specially coded customer number that you assign each customer. Use this code to identify the recipient of any commissions you may pay to customers who have brought business my way. That's a lot of information, and you may be wondering why I would need all of that. Well, I've already told you how to use the purchase data fields for identifying the "age" of the customers. You can also use the TotAmount field to compile a list of customers who have bought more than a certain amount from you. Together, these field searches can be used to produce a customized mailing list of, for example, customers who have bought more than $50 in the past 30 days. These would be the most responsive people to mail to, and would render the highest rental rate of my customer list.
You can also use certain mailing list fields to identify people who should be dropped from my list. For example, you can search for customers with FollowUp2 dates that are four weeks past today’s date, and TotAmounts of zero. These customers could be erased from the list. Or, you could leave them on file, and put a word or two in the Comments field reminding you not to mail anything else to them, in case they inquire again. This saves me the cost of mailing something to someone who probably won't respond. They might, but chances are they won't. Finally, if you get a customer who has returned too many orders, or has defrauded you in some way, you can put that information in the Comments field. Then, if
Is customer service a department in your company? Is customer service simply the title of an order entry department? Is customer service an empty shell, long on rhetoric but short on delivery? Does the term customer service actually mean anything, or is it a leftover expression from an era of days gone by?Superior customer service is indeed alive and well alive and working at many progressive companies, both large and small. Customer service is not simply a term or a department, but rather an attitude and a manner of doing business. It boils down to caring and adhering to the golden rule…"to do unto others as you would have them do unto you."Superior customer care has declined to such an extent that some firms are actually promoting their own efforts at providing customer service as a unique benefit of dealing with their firm. Unfortunately, that is an apt
The first 10 fields (reading across) should be self-explanatory. Almost any address possible can be put into my database without having to leave out information or abbreviate. The next three are for phone numbers. You MUST have your customer's phone numbers, when possible, to be able to follow up quickly and efficiently. Making one phone call can be the difference between a big sale and NO sale.
The InqDate field is where you record the date the customer first inquired about your products and services, and the date you sent the information, since it's always the same day (there's no excuse not to follow up your inquiries on the same day you receive them). This information, coupled with the ReferSource field, tells you when your ads are hitting, and how quickly people are responding to them. If you see that inquiries are coming in slowly, or long after the ad is out, you know that you need more action incentives in my next ad. The ReferSource field is where you enter the "key" from my ad. You should use a letter code after my street address to indicate which publication and issue the inquiry comes from. You should also code your mailings, for the same reason.
You enter a date into the two FollowUp fields to indicate when you want to send follow up literature to customers who don't order on the first try. You should put a date two weeks from the InqDate in FollowUp1, and one two weeks later than that in FollowUp2. Then, every day, you should run a search on these two fields to pull up any records that have today's date as a follow up date. You canteen print labels and put them on the envelopes and literature you have ready for follow ups. You should use the next three fields (SubDate, SubAmount, RenewDate) forth newsletter you publish (if you decide to publish one). These would have the date you receive their subscription, the amount they paid (You should sometimes run special prices), and the date you want to send subscription renewal information (usually 10 1/2 months from the SubDate). You can then print labels in the same manner as you do for the FollowUp fields. Next come the Purchase fields. You should have three sets of purchase fields, one for each purchase the customer makes. In the Purch1field, enter a code for the product they have purchased. The other two fields get the date and amount of the purchase. The second and third sets of fields get the same information for the customer’s second and third purchases. The best customers to mail offers to are the ones that have purchased within the last90 days, so you don't have to worry about many customers making more than three purchases during that time period (though I hope they will!). If someone does make a fourth purchase, move the second and third sets of data up to the first and second lines, and enter the new purchase information in the third data set.
These fields are extremely important. You can instantly pull up a list of customers that have purchased within the past 90 days, or60 days, or 30 days, or even 15 days. When you rent out your house mailing list, this information is vital. The rental amount you can charge increases as the amount of time since the customer's purchase decreases. The next field in my database is TotAmount, which contains a formula to calculate the total dollar amount that the customer has purchased from me to date.
The Comments field is used to store any miscellaneous information about the customer that you think is important to know. Use the final field, Cust#, for a specially coded customer number that you assign each customer. Use this code to identify the recipient of any commissions you may pay to customers who have brought business my way. That's a lot of information, and you may be wondering why I would need all of that. Well, I've already told you how to use the purchase data fields for identifying the "age" of the customers. You can also use the TotAmount field to compile a list of customers who have bought more than a certain amount from you. Together, these field searches can be used to produce a customized mailing list of, for example, customers who have bought more than $50 in the past 30 days. These would be the most responsive people to mail to, and would render the highest rental rate of my customer list.
You can also use certain mailing list fields to identify people who should be dropped from my list. For example, you can search for customers with FollowUp2 dates that are four weeks past today’s date, and TotAmounts of zero. These customers could be erased from the list. Or, you could leave them on file, and put a word or two in the Comments field reminding you not to mail anything else to them, in case they inquire again. This saves me the cost of mailing something to someone who probably won't respond. They might, but chances are they won't. Finally, if you get a customer who has returned too many orders, or has defrauded you in some way, you can put that information in the Comments field. Then, i
As I read about new debt (Ford’s planned $18 billion), secondary stock offerings (usually to financial institutions), and acquisitions of operating businesses by leveraged buy-out artists, only one thought now goes through my mind - where does the money come from to pay back the debt and the interest - or the return the new owners want for their investment?I used to feel confident that management had a plan to reduce overhead, get rid of redundant operations, improve purchasing power and otherwise increase the net profits of the business so there would be more cash to handle the new demands - but I was wrong. Certainly these expense cuts happen to some degree but for the most part raising prices is the first action taken to generate the additional money.Now sometimes the market will absorb the price increase and sometimes it won’t. When the market won’t (as
You enter a date into the two FollowUp fields to indicate when you want to send follow up literature to customers who don't order on the first try. You should put a date two weeks from the InqDate in FollowUp1, and one two weeks later than that in FollowUp2. Then, every day, you should run a search on these two fields to pull up any records that have today's date as a follow up date. You canteen print labels and put them on the envelopes and literature you have ready for follow ups. You should use the next three fields (SubDate, SubAmount, RenewDate) forth newsletter you publish (if you decide to publish one). These would have the date you receive their subscription, the amount they paid (You should sometimes run special prices), and the date you want to send subscription renewal information (usually 10 1/2 months from the SubDate). You can then print labels in the same manner as you do for the FollowUp fields. Next come the Purchase fields. You should have three sets of purchase fields, one for each purchase the customer makes. In the Purch1field, enter a code for the product they have purchased. The other two fields get the date and amount of the purchase. The second and third sets of fields get the same information for the customer’s second and third purchases. The best customers to mail offers to are the ones that have purchased within the last90 days, so you don't have to worry about many customers making more than three purchases during that time period (though I hope they will!). If someone does make a fourth purchase, move the second and third sets of data up to the first and second lines, and enter the new purchase information in the third data set.
These fields are extremely important. You can instantly pull up a list of customers that have purchased within the past 90 days, or60 days, or 30 days, or even 15 days. When you rent out your house mailing list, this information is vital. The rental amount you can charge increases as the amount of time since the customer's purchase decreases. The next field in my database is TotAmount, which contains a formula to calculate the total dollar amount that the customer has purchased from me to date.
The Comments field is used to store any miscellaneous information about the customer that you think is important to know. Use the final field, Cust#, for a specially coded customer number that you assign each customer. Use this code to identify the recipient of any commissions you may pay to customers who have brought business my way. That's a lot of information, and you may be wondering why I would need all of that. Well, I've already told you how to use the purchase data fields for identifying the "age" of the customers. You can also use the TotAmount field to compile a list of customers who have bought more than a certain amount from you. Together, these field searches can be used to produce a customized mailing list of, for example, customers who have bought more than $50 in the past 30 days. These would be the most responsive people to mail to, and would render the highest rental rate of my customer list.
You can also use certain mailing list fields to identify people who should be dropped from my list. For example, you can search for customers with FollowUp2 dates that are four weeks past today’s date, and TotAmounts of zero. These customers could be erased from the list. Or, you could leave them on file, and put a word or two in the Comments field reminding you not to mail anything else to them, in case they inquire again. This saves me the cost of mailing something to someone who probably won't respond. They might, but chances are they won't. Finally, if you get a customer who has returned too many orders, or has defrauded you in some way, you can put that information in the Comments field. Then, i
So how do you make extra money without working in a regular wage job. Sure if you save X dollars per hour in 4 weeks if you do not spend much you will have X times 4 dollars (weeks worth).But how would you like to make much more than that. More than that without getting into things that are bad for you. Well here is how you do it:Find something you like to do and help a neighbor, one that your parents know. Then do a really good job and get a referral or a phone number. Ask them if they know someone who needs the same work done. I mean do you really want to depend on your parents for that new bike or remote controlled airplane or new video game that you want. Can you really rely on them?So what do you like to do?Well let's see you could go to Home Depot, or any supply store and buy a weed-eater for $60 and "go to town." Maybe you could even get
These fields are extremely important. You can instantly pull up a list of customers that have purchased within the past 90 days, or60 days, or 30 days, or even 15 days. When you rent out your house mailing list, this information is vital. The rental amount you can charge increases as the amount of time since the customer's purchase decreases. The next field in my database is TotAmount, which contains a formula to calculate the total dollar amount that the customer has purchased from me to date.
The Comments field is used to store any miscellaneous information about the customer that you think is important to know. Use the final field, Cust#, for a specially coded customer number that you assign each customer. Use this code to identify the recipient of any commissions you may pay to customers who have brought business my way. That's a lot of information, and you may be wondering why I would need all of that. Well, I've already told you how to use the purchase data fields for identifying the "age" of the customers. You can also use the TotAmount field to compile a list of customers who have bought more than a certain amount from you. Together, these field searches can be used to produce a customized mailing list of, for example, customers who have bought more than $50 in the past 30 days. These would be the most responsive people to mail to, and would render the highest rental rate of my customer list.
You can also use certain mailing list fields to identify people who should be dropped from my list. For example, you can search for customers with FollowUp2 dates that are four weeks past today’s date, and TotAmounts of zero. These customers could be erased from the list. Or, you could leave them on file, and put a word or two in the Comments field reminding you not to mail anything else to them, in case they inquire again. This saves me the cost of mailing something to someone who probably won't respond. They might, but chances are they won't. Finally, if you get a customer who has returned too many orders, or has defrauded you in some way, you can put that information in the Comments field. Then, i
"Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after." ~Mother Goose rhyme."Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown, but Jill kept on climbing." ~A modern parable.This is the story of two entrepreneurs we'll call Jack and Jill. Jill went up the hill and built a successful business. Jack went up the hill, failed and fell down the hill. Read on to discover how Jill succeeded and Jack failed.Both Jack and Jill decided to go into business for themselves at the same time. Each worked for a company that sold and serviced technical products to certain professionals. Both have the same degree of skill and expertise at their job and loved their work. Both have a burning desire to succeed.Each of them went about building their business
You can also use certain mailing list fields to identify people who should be dropped from my list. For example, you can search for customers with FollowUp2 dates that are four weeks past today’s date, and TotAmounts of zero. These customers could be erased from the list. Or, you could leave them on file, and put a word or two in the Comments field reminding you not to mail anything else to them, in case they inquire again. This saves me the cost of mailing something to someone who probably won't respond. They might, but chances are they won't. Finally, if you get a customer who has returned too many orders, or has defrauded you in some way, you can put that information in the Comments field. Then, if they order again, when their file comes up, you will see their history, and can use extra caution with them.
As you can see, if you use foresight when initially setting up your customer list, you will have a valuable tool that you cause to increase your order potential, increase your income through specialized list rental, and decrease your mailing costs by eliminating "deadwood" from your list. This is one of the most important methods you can use to increase your chances of success.
Copyright 2004 by DeAnna Spencer
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.casualarticles.com/article/30182/casualarticles-How-to-Set-Up--Organize-Your-Customer-Mailing-List-For-Optimum-Results.html">How to Set Up & Organize Your Customer Mailing List For Optimum Results</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.casualarticles.com/article/30182/casualarticles-How-to-Set-Up--Organize-Your-Customer-Mailing-List-For-Optimum-Results.html]How to Set Up & Organize Your Customer Mailing List For Optimum Results[/url]
Related Articles:
Time To Go? Are You Going To Be Sacked Or Made Redundant?
Veterans Don't Recognize A Business Opportunity!
Bookmark it:
|