Mining Your Customer Files

Thank your good customers. When is the last time you sent your best customers a note thanking them for their business and loyalty? This RFM segmentation can identify them immediately.

Consider a loyalty program for the customers who give you the best long-term lifetime value. The more unique your catalog’s products are, the less a loyalty program is needed. In fact you may be incentivizing customers (or spending dollars on customers) who would continue to purchase from your catalog without any special loyalty program. The more that your catalog’s products are a “commodity,” the more a loyalty program is needed to keep solid customers from buying elsewhere. The database can help you identify your best customers to whom a loyalty program should be mailed. Remember it is difficult to test a loyalty program. You either have a loyalty program or you don’t. Think about your “exit strategy” up front, not after you’re in the mail.