Basic Requisites:

• Must be a relational, normalized database that can be used to assist your company identify marketing opportunities and communicate with customers and prospects more effectively (i.e., send the right message at the right time to the right people) as a means for sustaining customers and increasing Lifetime Value.
• Allow your company and its Strategic partners to be involved in determining the structure and operational uses of the database — including specific tables and fields within each.  This must be a shared effort between your company’s, your Strategic partners, and the selected database provider’s principals and account team members.
• Capture, track, and manage customer behavior data from a comprehensive history of customers’ transactions (detailed and summary), contacts, and responses to contacts.
• Capture, track, and manage comprehensive information about prospect contacts and responses to contacts, plus demographic data derived from survey mailings and external research data..
• Be open to enhancing the database through various processes.
• Integrate CRM programs developed for the acquisition, assimilation, retention/cultivation, and reactivation of customers.  First and foremost, the database must provide the means for targeting communications more effectively and efficiently.
• Be a resource for timely analytical information (profiling and modeling) that allows more efficient strategic and tactical considerations and decisions
• Provide real-time access to database information for your company managers and strategic partners.
• Accommodate all users of the system in a user-friendly manner.
• Provide a basis for evaluating and analyzing all marketing activities, including scoring mechanisms for more efficient targeting and allocation of both sales and communication resources Continue reading →