Relationship Management Strategies

As a database marketing and RM partner to many Fortune 1000 consumers and business-to-business organizations, when our customers win, we win. So the first step is to make sure they win. To align our goals with our clients' goals, we make sure we listen, understand, and deliver some innovation in their RM plans and rollouts.

To determine customer needs, we listen twice as hard as we talk. The ability to listen is one of our selling propositions. We are involved in all aspects of direct marketing, and we let the customer know we do all the things they want done. Even if the customer chooses to award us only a portion of its business - a certain aspect of a project - it will know what we do and know how we can take one project and do more with it.

Our strategy is to try to create a unique offering in the marketplace. We have achieved this through a solution set that includes the construction and updating of a database, and then accessing that data and analyzing it in order to translate it into information and then into knowledge. Of course, we then apply that knowledge by creating programs from that application and then physically executing the programs, whether it is building a Web site, or doing a mail or e-mail campaign, or making and taking telephone calls. We do the execution ourselves based on each client's needs and objectives. It is a closed-loop approach, and we do all of the pieces - whether limited or unlimited by each client.

Another strategy is the use of real-time components to monitor transactions that trigger a marketing intervention. Usually, in traditional database applications, some modeling is done and then you must decide whom you will communicate to and then you communicate. Then you must wait for a return and put it back in the database, and then you can measure how well it worked. With our untraditional database applications, it is instantaneous. Somebody behaves, and they automatically receive communication. For example: If it is a bank and a deposit is made that is five times a normal deposit and above a certain dollar amount, there will be an immediate communication from the bank to that client saying, "We'd love for you to keep the money in the bank, and this is how we propose you do that."

Obviously, that's an oversimplification, but that kind of immediate communication (think of it as next day) is very different from traditional database applications. It is based on a predefined trigger mechanism, so in this case, the predefinition might be anything more than four times a traditional deposit, and a minimum traditional deposit of $10,000 makes the trigger work. And that database application, I believe, is a significantly innovative one, which we have found our customers to be excited about and which has resulted in strong ROI for our clients.

Another extension of RM capabilities with growing appeal is the use of the Web to create "marketing portals." A marketing portal is an interactive, Web-based tool used by bank branches, auto dealers, stores, agents and field sales force, etc., to enable the ordering of direct mail program pieces, e-mail and other marketing programs and collateral from enterprise-arranged sources. The portal design and infrastructure is built to meet the needs of specific companies, in specific vertical industries, and is tailored to support lines of business, branch networks and independent agents. Users customize campaigns to their immediate needs, and still do so within the guidelines and regimen of the overall enterprise or brand. Plus, in this day of ROI, just as the branch can see the local payback, the enterprise can size up and evaluate individual participation and see where it has translated into success. This is the ultimate weapon in the strategy of thinking globally and acting locally.

We try to think creatively and give our customers more than they ask for. We strive to understand our customers' customers. We set expectations in a way that helps ensure our success. The worst thing that can happen is to do a great job, but if the expectations were even greater, in effect, there is failure.

Success is what the client says it is. But unlike with many other media, what we do in a direct marketing project is easily measured - we know the cost and the returns. Success usually means we are meeting and exceeding the acquisition goal and achieving the targeted cost per acquisition, and those newly acquired customers end up growing in value and in persistence for the client.

When you look at what dictates success from an internal perspective, for our company it has to do with profit growth, increased earnings per share for our stakeholders and employee shareholders, and creating a work environment for our people that allows them to flourish.