Data, Personalization, Lawyers and Documents: Some Utterly Random Thoughts

I read things.  A lot of things.  When I do not have time to read something, I put it aside to read at a more convenient time.  I carry a pile of these articles with me in my briefcase in case I ever find myself with a spare moment or two.  It is a good system.  It is not a great system.  I tend to let things pile up in the briefcase.  Even after I read them, if there is any value to them, I do not throw them out.  I take notes on them and keep them.  Well, I was going through some of these articles and I am glad I keep them because there are some real gems in there. 

 So I figured what better to do than share them you.  Be warned, there is no order to these thoughts.  No links as they are derived from the lost and ancient practice of writing notes on paper with a pencil.   With that disclaimer, let’s dive in.

 DATA ISSUES

 One of the largest impediments to executing an effective personalized marketing campaign is a lack of good data.  There is no lack of data, just a lack of organization and consistency in the data.  There are so many legacy systems it is impossible to identify one solution to fit all data.  There is also the issue of integration, which is taking the legacy problem and multiplying it by a factor of X.  X in this case is the number of autonomous systems running within one organization.  So there is a CRM system tracking customer data, an accounting system tracking billing, perhaps there is a production system tracking live orders and a pile of prospect’s business cards that, were they not scattered around an office, would reach the moon.  So that is 4 totally separate systems, and I did not include web analytics, social media monitoring and the like.  Thus the formula reads as follows:

 X = A² + M

As stated above X represents the number of legacy systems to be integrated, A equals the number of aspirin I need after working on one of these projects and M represents the Martini I use to wash down the aspirin. 

 LEGAL REVIEW

 I am a lawyer and I have spent time working in large firms.  I hated it, but I did it.  Briefly.  That said, I can understand that certain documents need to be reviewed before being published.  Liability and compliance issues are real and do need to be addressed.  But how #$%* long does it take to review the correction of a typo.  I have seen (and I am not exaggerating) a one word correction on what was supposed to have been the final proof take three days to get approved by legal.  Of course, that did not change the production deadline.

 That is another benefit of TransPromo and other automated document production systems.  Templates can be approved and the data related changes do not need to go through legal review.    Of course there will be exceptions, but templatizing (I may have just made up that word) communications can allow for faster deployment of personalized communications.  I won’t even go into some of the nightmares with medical review.  I will just say that Proctologists can be a pain in the…

 MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

 It is truly amazing what technology has done to communications.  Automation is the rule.  Speed is critical.  And the number of outbound documents delivered in a single day, both paper and electronic, is mind boggling.  And on every one of those documents is an opportunity to build your brand, provide information to customers, and increase sales. 

 Take a simple online order.  A customer orders 10 widgets from Widgets-R-Us.  They typically get an email confirmation of the order.  It is usually black and white, text based and contains only information related to that order.  Then there is the shipping notification.  This is also brief, containing a tracking number and little else.  Finally you get your widgets and there is a packing slip and invoice.  If Widgets-R-Us fails to use these communication points to cross-sell, up-sell and inform, they are wasting opportunities to grow sales and increase customer loyalty.  The sad thing is that sending a personalized, relevant message with the document would not add much to the cost. 

 Along those lines, general email can also contain messaging that could improve sales and customer relations.  A link to a product that the customer might need would help both the company and the customer, but such messaging is the exception (think about what Amazon.com does.  Every click on their site is analyzed and used in every communication.  Is it any wonder they are the 1,000-pound gorilla of online selling? 

 TO SUM UP

 There is really no good way to end this brain dump of a post, so I will just say thank you for indulging my ranting.  If you have any thoughts on these topics, please share them by leaving a comment.  It’s only fair that I read your rants as well.