Aimee
[closed] Any proactive methods to building up customer databases for a business?
Greetings,
My name is Aimee and I am a current full time business student who enjoys learning about management. I am a proud Tornado who attends Concordia University. In addition, I enjoy reading and staying on top of the current trends in fitness. I would love to fit management in this concept that I have read about in business which is that managers can start using Microsoft software to keep records for customers. I see this as a potential to make transactions smoother and easier/more convenient, and to offer services and/or products that customers may already want to purchase. It also helps to grow in potential for more customers, because when customers know that you are offering a great service that is suited to them, they will come back and spread it among their friends. So, managers need the know-how to keep up with building these relationships. Database software is one possible solution.
I appreciate your ideas. #leadership #project-management #databases #strategic-management #operations
2 answers
Guy Stewart
Guy’s Answer
Hello Aimee. I work as a Senior Database Administrator for an retail division of an International company in Atlanta with over 20 years database experience. I have been in many, many different positions in IT starting from the late 70's (yep, there were computers back then ;) ) So, if I understand your question correctly, you are wondering if and where databases fit into the business picture for managers. I will answer by assuming that is what you meant.
Databases are repositories of information. They can hold data about your business (HR, Payroll, Risk Management, etc) and also the business you do (transaction data, sales, inventory, PO, Merchandising , etc)
Businesses use databases to retrieve information to solve business problems or answer questions. The way the managers and executives and managers use this data depends on the business problems and questions that are being asked. What is the 3 years sales trend? Where do we stand right now compared to our projections? What is our shrink in store xyz? etc.
Depending on your management track, you may not need get involved directly with the data. You or your company would have application development folks, BI employees/consultants, DBA's or, you may actually have to roll up your sleeves and learn some basic programming and SQL to learn how to interrogate the database to get the information you want.
A good senior database administrative can be a happy in-between position. Beside database management, I have had to learn programming to interface with Microsoft Sql Server, Oracle, DB2, Sybase and MySQL.
Good Luck on your career! It is an exciting time to be entering the business world!
Doug Bernhardt
Doug’s Answer
Data collection and data analytics are two hot and growing areas. Basically any piece of info you can capture from their demographic info to where they clicked on their website and anything else you can think of are collected and then analyzed for trends. Retailers offer baby and wedding registry services for free so they know exactly what stage of life you are in and can target market accordingly. Loyalty programs are another big example. Numerous vendors have all different types of database, storage, and analytics software to deal with this data. Companies are increasingly discovering the value and power in data collection. The ads you see in a website and email that you receive that oddly enough are very relevant are just a couple examples of this.