When one sets up a company to provide a service or a product, the objective is to make profit. But for you to make a profit you need customers. Once you find the customers then you need to find more customers or for the ones you have to spend more. Having a customer database is one way in which you can boost your business as I will explain below. 

More often than not, customers find themselves in situations where they are asked to fill in forms with their details. Most of the banks for example, do this when you are opening an account with them. However many have not bothered to use this data appropriately as I recently discovered.

Last month when my ATM card expired, I got a text message from my bank informing me so.

When I went to the main branch, I was handed a form to fill details like my phone number and email among other things. I thought that when the new card would be ready, I would be sent a text message to that effect. Instead I was told to check again after three weeks!

Indeed when I came to pick my card I witnessed the folly of not utilising the data you collect. A gentleman from Nyagatare was arguing with the customer care officials at the bank who were telling him to check again after ten days. He was bitter that he had wasted his money to travel and find that his card was actually not ready. This could have been solved if he had been called or sent a message so that his journey is not in vain.

When you have collected clients’ then communication between you and you clients should be more effective and cheap. There are various providers of bulk SMS services for example through whom one message can be sent to several but specific numbers. In case you have new products or items on offer, you can simply send a message directly to their phones.

Those in the transport sector like airlines and cross border buses can also build a database that can help them inform their customers in case there is a delay or a problem. Imagine if everyone who booked a bus ticket to Kampala left their phone so that they can receive a message reminding them of the departure time or if there is a problem with the bus they booked.

The same applies in situations where you have the email addresses of your clients. I know an internet service provider that sends clients emails a week before their monthly unlimited internet expires reminding them of when, where and how much to pay.

A database can also use this database to influence customer behaviours. For example, instead of just advertising something to the general public, you can first inform the customers whose contacts you have so they know first and can influence others to get on board.

In situations where several customers enquire about a particular product, you can ask them to give you’re their contact information so that the moment it is in stock you can simply get in touch with them as opposed to the burdensome habit of making your clients move back and forth checking whether the product has come in or not.

Since schools are now big business then a parent database should even be a legal requirement. In case something happens at school, the school should be able to pass an announcement over to the parents via SMS or email and not have to rely on radio announcements only. I know a school that sends students’ results to the parents via email something that makes life difficult for those who have the habit of forging results.

There are of course situations where a customer database is abused especially in situations where one is bombarded with spam messages every now and then. This only irritates customers who will either ignore or opt out like marking emails as spam. The goal should be to inform not to irritate.

With so many people now owning mobile phones and email addresses, business owners should embrace this development to communicate with their clients much better. A text message or call from the business creates a bond between the business and the client. Businesses that have a good relationship (communicate well) with their clients are certain to prosper.