Important Customer Data

Posted on 27/10/2020 by Uğur Özmen

One of the first assignments I gave to those who attended the CRM course in the MBA program at Istanbul Bilgi University is as follows:

For the sector you choose please specify the 5 most important data and why it is needed:

Apart from

- - Name and surname
  - Age (or Date of Birth)
  - Gender
  - Job
  - Education
  - Address / place of residence
  - GSM number / e-mail address
  - Income

Apart from those, you will briefly explain what the 5 most important data that can be obtained are and why they are important.

Important points:
When I say the 5 most important data that are OBTAINABLE, if the income or salary information of the gas purchaser will not be disclosed when asked and if you write “income is important”, the homework will be considered incomplete.

Unfortunately, some MBA participants focus only on promotion (hence communication) in studies for various sectors:

E-mail address: It is used to transmit all kinds of information and campaign news to the customer.
Phone number: It is used to transmit all kinds of information and campaign news to the customer.
TR ID: Used to unify customers in a customer-focused database.
The credit cards they use: They are used to organize campaigns with banks.
Marital status / Number of households: It is used to know who we can make customers except himself.
Media preferences: Used to position the customer’s preferred media space for marketing efforts

I doubt some of these are even ‘available’ for many industries. How many people say their “marital status” or “media preferences” when buying air tickets.

However, it is necessary to focus on the information required to get to know the customer better and thus increase the lifetime value of the customer, not on promotion.

Let’s give examples from a few different sectors:

The good and bad examples in the article are compiled from the homework of MBA participants. I thank those who prepared good examples.

Airline:

Flight frequency
Frequent destinations
Departure place (does it always leave the same place?)
Total expenditure per year
Preferred class (Economic, Business, etc.)
Ticket time (last minute, discounted offers, early booking, etc.)
Is it through agency or personally?
Is he alone or flying with someone with the same last name?

Note:
There are many participants who write

Travel purpose

Job

However, we cannot know them either. It is also unlikely that we will ask every customer and expect a response. We may need to interprete over other information if it is very important to us.

“From what information do I deduce that there is a business trip?” We can ask ourselves and add that information to this list.

Gym:

Expectations from Exercise: Weight loss / gain, fit in a bikini and wedding dress, fit body and healthy life, socialization, etc.
Time to Spend for Sports: How many days & hours per week and hours of arrival
The Sports Branch he / she wants to focus on: Fitness, swimming, group work, etc.
Health Status: Is there any obstacle to doing sports? Should he exercise for a specific reason?
Sports Background: How many years, what sports
Break Activities: How to use the training breaks; magazine, TV, music, chat…
Private trainer / Group work preference: Do you work with a trainer, prefer group work, or work alone?

In airline, “Why are you traveling? Work or vacation? ” you cannot ask or you cannot get the answers. However, those who come to the gym often tell why they came.

GSM Operator:

Invoice amount: Cost-benefit analysis is needed to provide more reasonable offers and / or to estimate the level of income.
Air time and number of SMS: It is necessary to get an insight of why the customer’s preferences are phone calls or SMS and to offer better offers accordingly. It helps us learn how much of his/her time she/he spends on the phone in one way or another.
With / without Internet: Opportunity to cross-sell to customers based on Internet usage; online campaign offers; It is necessary to learn the most frequently used internet platforms.
Hours of use: The hours when the customer is busy, what hours of the day, with whom he talks
Numbers he speaks frequently: We can create special packages among our customers with certain numbers.
Phone brand: We need this information as the packages offered by the operator may vary depending on the nature of the devices. Device replacement speed also gives an idea of the customer’s level of income or spending.
Voyage to abroad: It will be advantageous to know how often the customer visits abroad in order to avoid surprise invoices. It will allow us to provide information in advance.
Churn exists or not: Whether it comes from other operators, for how many years it has received service from the same institution.
Customer request / complaint status: It is important for behavior management towards the customer how many “problems” were opened to the customer, how many requests or complaints he made from which channels until today. What are the status of his complaints (open, solved, closed, etc.)
Places where he frequently speaks: School / courthouse / hospital / shopping mall / airport etc. This information is needed to make special offers using the locations where the customer is at that time.
Packages used: family pack, school pack, fan pack, tariffs, etc …
Value-added services: vehicle tracking, lost-stolen insurance, etc…
Sensitivity to campaigns: Personal data can be used more, it can increase income through agreements with business partners.
In corporate (B2B) agreements, how many people will enter the system at the same time, possible income can be estimated according to their demographic data.

I know there are more than 5 examples for each industry. Any 5 of them are considered TRUE – including other important information I couldn’t think of.

If you don’t have this information, it won’t work well, even if you have full contact information. If you do not know the customer, you can only send spam messages.

You suggest me shampoo ^[1] , hair curler, breast lift bra, pink face mask ^[2], best places to go with my deceased mother in Mothers’ Day, gifts I can buy for my deceased father for Fathers’ Day.

Your industry or homework topic may not be an airline or a gym or a GSM operator. However, by looking at the examples above, you can find out what the important information is in whatever industry you are in. You should be able to parse the “important information” that is valid even in hosting or electricity distribution companies that are thought to have a single product.

There is another important issue…

The third (or fourth) assignment of the semester is mostly on breakdowns used for segmentation. If you noticed, those who did the first task correctly actually did the third task as well.

Customer Data Requirements

Posted on 26/10/2020 by Uğur Özmen

We were doing a CRM workshop at a company.

While explaining the data part of the job, I wrote on the board

Then I asked “What information would you like to learn from your target audience?”.

Regardless of the industry, there are almost always the same answers. They also repeated the list below.

Name and surname
Date of birth (or Age)
Gender
Marital status
Education (must actually be the School He Finished From)
Job
Address

I wrote what was said on the board under Data.

Then I asked what the company expected from this work.

The answers were:

Which product groups sell better to whom?
Who are my most frequent customers and what do they buy?
Who are the customers most likely to respond to the offer offered?
Which customers are we likely to lose?
How often and how should we approach which customers?

and this kind of sentences…

I am not writing in more detail so that it is not clear which company it is.

This time, I wrote what was said under Needs.

Then, the image on the board was:

– Let’s talk about how to use the data you mentioned to meet these needs. ” I said. “Does it interest you if someone has a PhD from the USA on advanced financing techniques?“

– No!” they said.

– Does it matter if he is awarded as “the best driver of the city” since the last 3 years?” I asked.

– No!” they said.

Apart from the main business subject of the company, I gave a few more examples of education and professions. All had the same answer: “No!“

– So it is not important for you to “know their profession”. “

I was finally able to get a “Yes” answer.

– Its address is also important as you focus on Anatolia as a company. But only at the city and district level… ”

– Yeah!” they said.

– Now let’s take a look at the data list we just wrote with this perspective. Let’s ask ourselves again the data required to meet our needs. “

After this beginning, we’ve created a more useful (and out of the box) data basket.

We took a break during the workshop. “We’ve never looked this way. We’ve been wondering what to do with the massive data mountain” they said, “We can determine our target more easily now.“

😉

I have written many times. There are companies that have a lot of data and cannot use them (such as banks, GSM, supermarkets). However, it does not start with data, it starts with need.

Need → Information → Information (info) → Data

No wind (data) will help those who do not know where to go (need).

End of the conventional “Permission Marketing”

Posted on 23/10/2020 by Uğur Özmen

When talking about permission marketing, Seth Godin said “Marketing experts should take permission from customers to proceed over the sales processes. They should definitely ask customers’ permission before sending them press releases or catalogue via e-mail.” Aside from foreseeing that the internet would dominate the world, he predicted “To sell something to a consumer, it will be necessary to have his permission”, and suggested that a marketer should ask “Shall we send you a message to promote maternity dress?” as an example.

Before the phase of internet called 2.0 was begun, these statements were true in 1999, when the book Permission Marketing was published. To gain information, you had to ask customers, ask them to fill forms and surveys. The concept “Don’t send messages to your customer, who has shared so much information about themselves, before getting his permission” was really effective and necessary for the time’s marketing mentality.

Considering the fact that despite more than 10 years passed especially GSM operators, banks and deal-of-the-day web sites have not reached that level yet, and they offer us products and services we will never use via SMS and e-mail all the time; you have to acknowledge that Seth Godin was right.

If we leave the outdated companies aside, who offer shampoo to a bald man, hair-removing stuff to Uncle Jack, ‘original’ pink face mask to a macho man, paragliding to my grandma, and take the enterprises that follow the day and even have the vision for the future in hand; we need to redefine the permission concept.

It is hard to call a potential customer in business life. You can’t call him asking “Do you think we have a chance to do business together?” If you insist on calling him after hearing ‘No’ as an answer 3 or 4 times in a row, it means you are executing harassment marketing not permission marketing. They don’t take your calls any more; they don’t answer your messages. Sales people love meaningful “reason to call” to get in contact with customers that stop them from being annoyed and draw their attention. After a solid reason to get in touch with the customer is given, turning the meeting into a sales deal is up to sales people’s personal talents.

Now, there is no need to ask customers their contact info. They already share it with everyone on social media.

If they are taking a vacation, where they are going, whether it’s a business or touristic vacation, whether they are at the airport or waiting lounge at the bus terminal, whether they have arrived at his destination, how the vacation is going, how the weather is, how they feel… If they are looking for a house, what neighborhoods they prefer, how much they are willing to pay, how many bedrooms they want, their new roommate… How their grades are, the date and subject of their exam, how it went, what grade they are expecting and what they got, their graduation date, where and how they are going to celebrate it… What sports they are into, when they started keeping a diet and when they quit, how much weight they lost, what kind of food they like, which ones of them they know how to cook and the level of their capability… Where they went on military duty, what kind of situations they came across during their duty… If they are sick, have an accident, how they are affected by it, their injuries, doctor’s intervention, how long the operation lasted, and the time of recovery… If they feel angry, happy, tired, excited, restless, negative, cheerful… If they are getting engaged, are engaged, getting married, married, pregnant, the gender of the unborn baby, the baby’s name, if the baby’s born or not, the baby’s nutrition and sleeping problems, the baby’s first steps, first sentences, birthdays…

They give all the information. Even if we have never met them, we feel like we have known them for a long time. Take a look at all the data listed above. No matter what kind of industry you work for, you can find a ‘reason to get in contact with customers’ to propose them a meaningful offer.

Here is the good part: The customers do not raise an objection when they receive an offer that they can benefit from. They don’t ask the question “How did you get my e-mail address?” as long as it’s a meaningful and steady message. This is very important. At this point, there is no need to ask permission to get the info, they share it with everyone .

Is it enough to know everything about the customers? Of course not. As marketers, we have been executing similar projects for years anyway. We give quite a bit of information to GSM operators, banks and promotion web sites, which I find outdated in terms of marketing communication. We inform them of where we live, where and when we shop, what we are looking for, who/what we are following, what we buy, what our weekly/monthly transactions are, what kind of promotions we go after, which ones we are not interested in at all, and thousands of similar details. They don’t need to look for this data on social medium. It is already in their data bank.

You need to be prepared about what service/product in what situations you should offer. For this, you need to know for how long he is using which products of yours. That is, you need to link customers to your own product and services. Product usage path that is first deepened on segment level and then to customer level, should be ready beforehand in order to offer the next product that he will like most rather than to offer a product the customer is already using, and in order.

You don’t need to ask permission before making an offer. However, if you make a nonsense offer, it’s a matter of time you would be blocked and never be able to make an offer again. That’s how permission marketing is changing. You don’t need to get permission. Customers already shared about it to everyone. But if you do wrong for once, they block you. Even if they share with everyone, they make sure you never see or hear them.

You should already have a CRM infra-sturcture so that you can have a chance to benefit from the data in social media and develop a profitable relationship.

You also should be able to fit the offer with the person’s mood, his whereabouts and the action he is or will be on, unlike GSM operators, banks and deal-of-the-day web sites, who make their offer randomly. If he has stated that he is angry, unhappy or negative, and you are not his cure; you should not make any offer at that time.

To sum, “There is no Social CRM without CRM.”

This article first published on Customer Think at August 19, 2011

Operational Definition of the Customer

Posted on 23/10/2020 by Uğur Özmen

The definition of the customer should enable to answer the following specific questions like

How many active customers do we have?
How many customers we are about to lose?

Definition should enable to extract the accurate customers list – such as following examples – from customer database via queries

We have 3689 active customers.
If they (the customers) do not make this (any defined) transaction or not show up for more than 3 weeks we will lose 231 customers

Please notice that, in this assignment, our purpose is not to define the “target audience” of advertising agencies, but a FUNCTIONAL “measurable / operational” definition of customer for the selected sector.

In other words, I expect a measurable and comparable definition of customer such as

The person who buys gasoline from our station at least twice a month is our customer. However the person who buys time to time from us while passing close to our station and stop by chance is not going to be considered our customer.

The customer should be defined in such a way after querying from data warehouse the following groups of customers can be identified.

Active customer
Inactive customer
Lost customer

Thus, you can distinguish between valuable customers from the rest of the customers. These functional definitions are also essential if the purpose is to regain the lost customer. For example; by utilizing the measurable definition of the customer, when the customers who formerly defined as active customer became inactive customers it will be easy to identify those inactive customer and the target who are intended to be regained can be clearly identified.

Important note: Those definitions should be “mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive”. It means, their union must cover all the events, but no more than one event can occur at a given time. Just like puzzle, all pieces together form the complete picture and any of the pieces are not overlapping.

Once someone became a customer, she/he (on an institution) is either active or inactive or lost customer or some other cluster (such as pass through customer) . An area between them should not exist.

Please watch the following funny video to see how operational definition is important. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDA3_5982h8

Who is the customer?

Posted on 23/10/2020 by Uğur Özmen

One of the most important steps of a CRM study is defining the customer. Without measurably describing the customer, the CRM project should not start. Therefore, I ask every company which I am consulting: “Who do you think is your customer?“

Sometimes my question is perceived as a strange or a silly question. For example one of a hotel boss confidently answered my question: “We prefer to say guests, not customers. And everyone who stays in our hotel is our guest.”

This sentence makes me wonder, “You say so, but does he really feel himself a guest?”

When I hear a sentence with “everyone” in, I reply: “Do you think there is a difference between guest and customer?”

The answer is almost same as a cliche: “Everyonewho stays in our hotel is our guest.”

Ugur Özmen: “So do you mean that there no difference between customer and guest?”

Hotel Boss: “There is no difference between them. Everyone staying in our hotel is our guest. “

U.Ö.: Anyone staying at your hotel? (If you are wondering why I repeat each question 2 times, just wait for a second.)

H.B.: Yes, absolutely everyone. “

U.Ö.: Okay. Let’s proceed by assuming this definition is correct. Who is a lost customer for you? (Notice that, I don’t use the word “guest”.)

H.B.: “Those who have been to our hotel before but never came back again within the last 3 years can be defined as our lost customers. “

U.Ö.: “Okay. Let’s assume this definition is correct. You are examining a customer and see that, he came to your hotel for 5 years in a row and stayed for 2-3 days at each arrival. However he doesn’t show up for the last 3 years.”

H.B.: “Yeah, then we could say it’s lost.”

U.Ö.: “Suppose you reach that customer. You asked why he didn’t visit your hotel in last three years and his answer is; “Our company was holding dealer and agency meetings in your hotel. I was attending to those dealers meeting. I am no longer the dealer or agent of that company. That’s why I’m not coming to your hotel” he says. Will you try to get him back?

😉

Let me create another scenario. The customer has come a few years ago. Still not visible for the last 3 years. You reach him. 16 year old teenager. You ask why he hasn’t come for 3 years. “I used to take a vacation with my parents before. Now I’m going on vacation alone or with my friends” he says. You insist, “My father paid for it before. Now instead of paying you that money, I would go on an interrail tour of Europe”. How do you get him back? Are you going to say, “Don’t break your family ties, they must be missing going on vacation with you, join them“?

Now review your customer description once again. Anyone staying in your hotel can be your guest, but some of your guests are not customers. Some have even come to your hotel for years but have never been your customers.

If you are managing an accommodation facility, ask yourself. Who is your customer? Is it the person or companies which organize meetings at your hotel or the one who makes the reservation, or the one who pays the money?

🙂

Graduation project

Posted on 23/10/2020 by Uğur Özmen

I express my expectations to students who want to prepare their graduation project with me:

Making projects with students who I have never met and who have not taken my lesson is not a practice I like very much. In order to ease the workload of other faculty members, I accept those who want to do a marketing thesis. In this condition, I prefer to meet with the project students one-on-one even if it is a distance education. (“I have decided on a subject. I chose you as a thesis instructor. Let’s get started” style approaches are not appreciated.)
I require the student to do a study that will be useful for him/her and the institution she/he works for. When choosing a topic, the student should act together with the institution she/he work with and to work in the direction that the institution needs. In this direction, I have expectations such as receiving support from the institution and using institutional data.
I do not accept any project with “copy-past” intention. If there will not be your direct contribution, let’s not work together.
First of all, I don’t want to get a graduation thesis if there is less than 6 months. (Due to the implementation of YÖK, I now accept it for 3 months. But…) I am positive not for a thesis like a simple student assignment, but for a study that both the student and I will be proud of. I do not listen to and do not accept the stories of the students who left the whole thesis to the last term “I had a lot of work, you know what happened to me, the company does not allow us anyway, etc.“.
When we agree on the subject of the thesis, we need to start discussing that the student has prepared something about the content [at least the outline] within two weeks and how we can turn this content into a final thesis.
Thus, both the backbone and the content of the thesis become clear. Then I want to be reported regularly. In addition, I talk and direct about the progress of the thesis.

These are my “must-haves”. I want these conditions both because I took lessons from my past experiences and because I do not want to hear the story, “I was going to finish the school, but Uğur Özmen did not pass my thesis“.

😮

See some testimonials:

An MBA participant’s request:

Ugur Hocam;

I took a digital transformation course from you last semester as part of the MBA program.

I may have done the worst homeworks of the period, perhaps the lessons you have taught so far. I do not want it to stay that way.

Before the end of the school, I want to make use of your comments, which destroy the feeling that «this is a great homework, I think it was very good» in the student’s mind.

😉

Another comment:

I remember 2011 just like yesterday.

While I was preparing for your exam, I saw an article on your web page. Then I showed you what I expect with the project. I asked you “Should we do final project together?” When I said this, Şule hoca said, “Are you crazy? It is very difficult to make a project with Uğur ”. After all, in all my different school experiences, the best was with you.

In the meantime, the project had provided the company with a benefit close to a million TL with its current value.

🙂

Do I want so many things? I think YES… When I look at the responses sent after my comments, I say CONTINUE SAME. When I look at the results of those who completed their theses, I think I did well.

;-)

Note: You may see some of the final projects at the final part of that article