database management issues

7/27/2019 Database Management Issues

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Database Management Issues

July 3, 2013


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Sources of Data

External Data are

obtained as a

compiled list fromoutside the

company.

Internal data are

obtained from

various data sources

within the company.

Direct-contactbusinesses where the

customer and the

business have a direct

interface, data

gathering opportunity

exists.


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If a company has no direct contact with

customers it could gather data in the followingways:

1. List purchase. This may include lifestyledatabases which holds lists of people according

to specific products and brands bought in

categories such as packaged goods, finance and

leisure.


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2.Data-building schemes. These may

include club membership, credit schemes,or promotions.

3.Introduce new contact channels.New channels that offer direct contact

could be opened to obtain data about

customers. Airlines could offer ticketsdirect over the telephone rather than

through travel agents.


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Summary of Data Sources

For directCompanies

For indirectcontact

companies


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In the majority of companies, data about customers rarely

goes directly from the customer onto the marketing

database.Sale is made

recorded in salesledger

Accounts section andbilling section

Stock control

Marketing

department


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Manage the Database

Advantages Disadvantages

In-house A customized

approach is possible

Day-to-day control

Data can be moved

easily

High cost of

development

Lack of internal

expertise

Name and addresshandling is difficult

Bureau Easier to enforce

service-levelagreements

Leverage on

Experience

Conflicting demands

from other clients High operating costs


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People Issues

IT people are cautious. Its their job to

be cautious; they know the danger of

chaos. Marketing is aggressive. Its

their job to be aggressive; they know

the danger of delay.

-- A. Tapp


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The Marketing perspective:

As a marketer you are obsessed with the customer. You

understand that one of the few differentiators we have is

customer information. So why does not the rest of the

company understand? Why is it so difficult to get them to

accept that this is a priority?

Marketers:

Own the objectives of the database. They want it

to be up and running quick to steal a march of

their competitors; Dont fix on the cultural rules. They are there to

be broken.

Are often weak on technical details

Know the danger of delay


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The IT Perspective

IT database managers have a very different view

of the world. To them, marketers are only recent

arrivals on the scene, coming behind theaccounting system, billing system, the stock-

control system and the sales-recording system.

What does marketing do anyway? They have neverunderstood it, and no one has bothered to tell them, so

whats the fuss all about? An IT managers job is to make

sure the companys internal systems are working properly.


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IT people:

Own the technical knowledge of the

database and the internal systems to make ithappen;

Focus on the details;

Can feel weighed down by the problems;

Need strong guidance on what data to hold

and what software applications are required;

Know the danger of chaos


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Managing the Conflict

The solution to the conflict is understandingeach others different points of view, and

understanding what each others role are in

managing the whole picture.


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Data Management over

time

Issues involved:

Keeping data up to date

Auditing

Archiving


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Keeping Data up to Date

Problem: Data decays over time, and so

money has to be spent keeping it up to

date.

In the US, Stone (1996) estimates that consumerdata changes by as much as 20 percent every year.

In the UK, a lifestyle database manager explained

that his consumer data decays by 17 percent every

year.


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Gone-aways are

customers whoserecords become out of

date

Cause of great

concern to directmarketers.

The last thing you would want is to waste money

by mailing people who no longer live at that

address, to get peoples names wrong, or cause

distress to relatives by mailing someone who

has recently died.


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How to minimize these problems:

Verify data against the electoral rollbefore selections of name and address

are made. This will

- help reduce the number ofgoneaways mailed;

- reduce the data capture errors

getting back to the customer


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2. One rule of thumb is to use only recent

data.

-- For example:

A supermarket would count three-month-

old

3. Run off 1,000 records regularly. Review

common mistakes. Analyze the source of dataentry: coupon, phone, in-store. Look for

patterns and track down source of the

problem, then rectify it.


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Auditing

Audit counts should be carried out

regularly for record verification. This

should include checking databaserecords against the sources of those

records, right back to the original data

capture. It may be that mistakes alongthe way can be spotted and rectified.


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I had a mailer recently from my bank. It

eventually reached me after being forwarded bya friend who now lives in a house I vacated over

two years ago. The mailer offered me a product

which I had already taken up from the bank awhile back.

Exhibit 1.1


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The overall impression

was one ofinefficiency and a lack

of care being taken. It

is likely that properrecord verification

would have prevented

the bank from wastedmailers such as this.


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Archiving

Relates with decisions about how

long to hold records.

Ask the question: When does a

customer become a former

customer?


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Manage the Applications

The key area to manage is the accuracy of any

data that is going to get back to the customer.

Areas of consideration:

1. Selection

2. Outputs

3. Managing campaign responses


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A company that sells flowers

once mixed up two lists: one

was a list of birthdays and the

other was funeral anniversaries.

Unfortunately, the funeral

anniversary people got a letter

starting Happy Anniversary!,

while the birthday letters began

On this sad day

Exhibit 1.2: Mistakes with Data

Happy Anniversary!


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A telecommunications company launched a new

product by writing to 1.7M of its customers. It

needed to write to only those customers who were

connected to updated equipment. By mistake,

however, the list consisted of those customers notable to take up the service. When this had been

discovered, the company has to write again to all

these people explaining that they had been a bit

hasty, and the service was not quite ready.

Exhibit 1.2: Mistakes with Data


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Outputs

Outputs are those fields which are transferred

from the database to the communication

material going to the customer.

For direct mail this would include address,

name for salutation (Dear Mr/s), and also

personal data such as account information for

use in the letter.


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Exhibit 1.3 More Mistakes on Data Outputs

A large company once made a mistake whenoutputting data. The mistake was in the

setting of fixed data fields for a test mailing it

was doing. Instead of allowing the usual 20

spaces for the name field, a wrongly

pressed key meant only four spaces were

allowed. So when customers received their

mailers, their names were cut in half:

instead of Dear Mr. Buttley the letter

read


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Dear Mr. Butt


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Managing Campaign Responses

A code to be part of the communication

for the campaign. In the event of a

response, this code could tell the directmarketer which campaign generated the

response;

A response (yes/no) code placed on the

database

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