top down . "Companies in the first generation of E-commerce

thought they were getting ahead of the game by allowing customers

to communicate by E-mail. But they weren’t responding to E-mails promptly."

software . Such software as Blue Martini and PeopleSoft will analyze

website activity, and J.D. Edwards’ Siebel offers a marketing automation

model. But if the key people don’t want to share the data — or

don’t know how to share it — they don’t use the data effectively.

Only 25 percent of the time, Kramer says, are the sales, marketing,

and business people working together. Data resides in silos, and most

of the time the transaction silo is in the sales silo, the observed

data, such as click through rates, stays in the marketing silo, and

the results of satisfaction surveys stays in the service silo.

So the sales department might think that particular customer is profitable,

but the service department says the customer is calling the help desk

six times a month at a rate of $30 per service call. "Until they

bring the data together, they don’t know what the true profitability

is," says Kramer.

the cross-enterprise, cross-functional team should sit down regularly

to aggregate data.

behavior to predict future behavior. Clients are rated on a matrix

of five to one on how recently they purchased, how frequently they

purchase, and their total or average revenues. This analysis used

to be done by clustering clients in groups, but with the today’s technology,

individual client activity can be charted. "Your best customers

are in the top quadrant," says Kramer, "and 20 percent of

your customer base will make up 80 percent of the revenue. Look at

the activity and you may find that one of your best customers is purchasing

less frequently. You are watching one of your best customers defect

before your very eyes. There is no higher return on investment than

protecting a customer from defecting."

Kramer cites PiNG’s website for New Jersey Transit, which has a customer

loyalty module called My NJTransit. "In this password protected

section best customers can receive concierge level service — more

information, more access, more indepth contact info, message boards,

and surveys."

thinks consultants should take what he calls "appreciative"

action rather than directive action. "We find pockets of excellence,

identify what works, and help the company seed and grow this throughout

the organization. With an appreciative approach, rather than a directive

approach, we elicit benchmarks in the organization."

— Barbara Fox

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Donate Please

Thanks to a challenge grant, the American Repertory Ballet (ARB) and

its associated school, Princeton Ballet School, will have donations

matched up to a total of $50,000. Two anonymous donors have agreed

to match any donations that are made through June 30 up to that amount.

"Events of last fall caused the cancellation of a tour, a major

fundraising event, as well as a number of New Jersey performances,"

says David Gray, executive director of ARB. "The opportunity

offered by this challenge grant is incredible. Our fiscal year should

end up looking much better than we had anticipated."

Tax-deductible donations may be made to American Repertory Ballet,

80 Albany Street, New Brunswick 08901.

Corrections or additions?

— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.