Information that every marketer needs.

• Author: Motley, L. Biff
• Position: Customer Satisfaction

We live in a world of information overload. One of the challenges facing marketing executives is turning all the available data into actionable intelligence. This is even more true as our clients turn to the ever-expanding army of self-service delivery channels, where we don't have the luxury of seeing their smiling (or frowning) faces every day. Marketing executives need to compile a source of critical information to give them insights beyond the typical trend lines of backward-looking financial reports. Here are 10 sources of valuable information that you should be mining.

MCIF databases. You must have marketing central information files or databases. These enable the creation of reports at both the household and product level so you can see who is "coming in the front door" and who is "leaving the back door." Trend lines should be constructed so you can see exactly who is coming and going, what they are buying and using, and how profitable they are. These reports are akin to the same-store sales reports that are ubiquitous in retailing. Derivatives of these reports might include key volumetric measures such as loan applications per day per branch, or new checking accounts per day per branch or other simple benchmarks. These reports help you to keep your finger on the pulse of your business and might even be called "Pulse Reports."

Client satisfaction surveys. All good retailers, hotels and restaurants conduct ongoing satisfaction surveys. You've seen these little comment cards everywhere. These are designed to give managers a sense of the "attitudinal pulse" of their customers and offer early warning signs of potential problems or greater opportunities. These are a must. You can get going quickly with yours by going to the ABA site www.clientsatisfaction.com and downloading a standard banking survey.

New-account surveys. Every time you get new clients, you should ask them to fill out a small survey designed to both profile the customer for future sales opportunities and to capture information on why they came to your bank. This valuable information will help you compute the return you are getting on you marketing expenditures, plus offer insights into what is working and what needs fixing in your marketing mix.

Closed-account surveys. The same logic as above, but here the focus is on why are clients leaving the bank. There are two levels here. Are they just closing an unnecessary account, or is this account part of a "plan" they have to...