As one of the UK’s biggest managers of third party data for a whole variety of sectors, our company is clear about one thing: catalogue and mail order companies possess more valuable information on their customers than probably any other industry and should be at the leading edge of customer insight. Jed Mooney, managing director at Datahold explains more.
The question then is how do you choose an ongoing data management solution that can best harness and manage this information? In our experience, this is what we’ve found:
In-house solutions have one noticeable advantage. Often housed in the same building as the marketing function, the ‘just down the corridor’ accessibility gives the impression that customer data is more easily controlled and managed.
In reality, the truth is somewhat different. Whilst users have greater control over their data, they do not have a ‘service level’ agreement with their IT department. That might seem absurd – after all, who needs a ‘service level agreement’ with fellow colleagues? However, as we all know, IT and Marketing seldom make good bedfellows and the whole purpose for an in-house system often gets lost particularly when other company functions have the same IT demands.
The problem is made even worse on an on-going basis, because the IT department is never held to account on the level of service it provides. When staff members are ill, on holiday, taking paternity/maternity leave or when computers fail or software glitches appear (as they inevitably do), the marketing department is left with no choice but to wait. This leads to postponed or cancelled marketing campaigns and an inability to act quickly and decisively to on-going events.
How is the in-house data solution model typically calculated? By adding together the hardware, software, personnel and space costs. Where this model breaks down is that costs are always under-estimated, the delivery is always behind schedule and the finished product rarely delivers what the end-using marketing department needs.
Outsourced data bureau offer a more manageable and accountable choice. They offer on-going service level agreements that guarantee proper levels of service – with financial penalties for failing to deliver.
Mail order marketers can therefore relax in the knowledge that when they ask for a task to be done that it will be. Importantly, if a data bureau doesn’t deliver it can be changed or sacked.
The biggest drawback with a UK-based data bureau is that it typically will only operate during normal office hours. Whilst this is understandable, the lack of over-night turnaround can prove critical. Why? Data orders for email and DM mail order campaigns often fall short on volume due to higher than expected duplication rates between data sources.
In such a scenario, top up data is urgently needed to replace the lost volumes. Therefore overnight turnaround of data is critical in the modern mail order environment.
For these reasons Offshore Outsourced Data Bureaux offer the optimal data management solution. They provide one hour response, 24 hour service, 365 days a year – including overnight data turnaround. For marketing departments, running to tight schedules, the security of service level agreements such as these are essential. Time zones are irrelevant because most offshore data bureaux are always open!
Offshore data management offers superior service and improved delivery scheduling. Furthermore data security is normally of a higher standard than in the UK and data protection guidelines strictly adhered to.
As for costs, Offshore Outsourced Data Bureaux provide an unbeatable solution. Despite using employees of a higher calibre than they could in the UK, these companies are able to offer cost reductions in the magnitude of 50%. Combined with superior service and quick data scheduling abilities, offshore suppliers are quickly becoming the primary providers of UK data management solutions.
If you are a mail order company struggling with data management of your customer and prospect database, offshore outsourced data management is an extremely effective way to cut costs and improve quality, speed and accuracy of service.
By: Jed Mooney, managing director of Datahold
Source: DM Weekly
Pubdate: 05 May 2009