As a client, how do you know that your customer database has been built well, that it is fit-for-purpose? For nearly 30 years, I have been building customers databases and delivering insight and communications for my clients. The name has changed over the years - marketing database, marketing warehouse, single customer view, more recently CRM, marketing automation or even data management platform - but, whatever they are called, they all rely on well-structured and accurate customer data.
I won a new client recently and another of my clients acquired a large group of retail brands. When we had to take on their data, I was outraged to find out that the service these brands had been paying for was so shoddy. Really basic elements were not being done (for those techies reading this, there was not even a unique identifier against each record and the client was being given a six-week turnaround to deliver a mailing count!)
Clients can not see their data - they trust the experts to advise them. What, therefore, should be the standards for any data processor before they can set up their stall? Here are some of the issues:
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Should daily updates be a minimum to support today’s speed of communications?
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What is a reasonable time to get a count or extract or a campaign response report?
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Should it be standard that the database can step back in time and rebuild variables with new data fields?
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Can external data be easily integrated?
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Are the de-duplication routines robust or as poor as an “email match”?
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Are the recency, frequency and spend insights generated automatically with each update?
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Are date-stamped permissions derived from all channels, however the question was posed?
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Are there communication histories for every customer intervention?
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Is your supplier using the latest version of PAF or suppression files?
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Is the database going to cope with the demands of the new Data Protection Regulation?
The list of standards goes on. But how, as a client, do you know (or be expected to know) which questions to ask when choosing a supplier, what data management minimums apply and what level of service is acceptable? Poor database design can create lots of extra cost down the line, with a supplier charging you for every request as a “one-off” as it was not built-in initially.
Sadly many companies are moving into this territory with an unconscious incompetence of the basic customer data requirements, knowledge which was commonplace among the old direct marketing practitioners. Many of the big software companies, ISPs and digital agencies are claiming to be able to handle customer data. But they are often amateurs in customer data management who are now broadening their businesses and skills at the client’s expense.
You can, of course, take up references. But what does this tell you if the agency isn’t delivering? After all, you’ll be talking to a similarly duped client, carefully selected for you!
The industry cannot be said to be self-regulating, as there is no regulation. The ISO data security and process standards don’t regulate functionality. The key question is, which standards are data agencies prepared to sign-up to and who should take responsibility for setting those standards?
Do we need a best practice charter that data agencies sign up to? Could/should they take on responsibility for training client IT and data protection departments? Should this be linked to accreditation? I’m not pretending to have an answer to these questions, but I do think there is a point to debate.