Direct Mail selections can be via a hierarchy of potential customer interests, or via previous sales history, or a combination of both. For instance, a mail out to all people interested in pathology who have purchased a number of times (which is user defined) within 12 (or however many user defined) months.

If an order is received from a customer who is not on the Direct Mail database (for example through a magazine advertisement), they can be entered through Order Processing as their order is being processed, and they are automatically added to the Direct Mail database.

More efficient use of available resources is promoted, with the help of the following functions.

Management of Direct Mail/CRM database

Two methods are available for the addition of name and address records:

Automatically through the Sales Order Entry system
Interfaced to other systems via acquired lists

Duplicate detection, which features:

Automatic detection
Generation and use of Match key
On-line and interactive updates
Possible duplicates are highlighted which can be maintained, corrected, deleted or merged.

Mailing Lists can be selected by:

Customer classifications
Buying history
Interest Code
Value of previous purchases
Frequency of previous purchases
Multiple Postcode ranges
Other

Campaign Setup

Campaign
List (key code)
Campaign validation during Sales Order Entry

Campaign expenses and results can be analyzed as information is available regarding:

Buying behavior
Costs and results relating to previous campaigns
Mailing Costs per unit
Budget or Target versus the actual costs
Response rate rations
Average order value.
Buying behavior
Monitoring costs per unit
Average order value
Response rate ratio
Campaign total
Campaign by title
List total
List by title

Campaigns can be closely monitored, as inquiries and reports provide up-to-date and extensive information such as:

Daily sales
Weekly details over campaign life
Weekly report by books sold
Sales forecast
Budget versus Target
Returns

The system is made up of the following components:

Maintenance of the Database
Mailing List and Selection
Duplicate Detection
Lists and Reports
Update and Processing

Daily sales update

The Daily Sales Update program is part of the interface between the Distribution system and the Direct Mail system. Its function is as follows:

Update the Direct Mail database with valid transactions.

If a customer exists on the Distribution database, the customer details are updated. If a customer does not exist on the Distribution database and is found to be a valid Direct Mail customer, the name and address records and transactions are added.

Convert ordered ISBNs into interest codes and add these to the Direct Mail customer’s interest file. This provides valuable and up-to-date information on customers’ changing buying behavior and interests.
Valid transactions are:

Credits or Invoices

Transaction status must be:

F Final Print

I Awaiting Dispatch

C Complete

Customer status must be A for Active.

If an exact match is found, it means the customer already exists and the Direct Mail system is updated.

The ratings and frequency fields on the name and address Masterfile, regardless of whether the transaction is a Direct Mail related transaction.
The various sale/returns quantity and value fields. These fields are the Actuals presented by the Inquiries and Reports modules for analysis of actual versus estimated figures.

The Inquiries and Reports project Campaign information only. The sales/returns fields are therefore only updated if the transaction is a Direct Mail transaction. The Daily Sales Update program identifies a campaign sale based on the campaign number entered into the ‘Our Reference’ field on the order header.

The analysis of total Direct Mail sales is done through the Distribution system rather than the Direct Mail system. The type of sale code (which can be defaulted on a template) on the sale is used to identify campaign sales. In Distribution a Campaign is identified by ‘type of sale’ and the ‘customer/our reference’ specified in TMSDM/CPGN-LST.

Contact file

The Contact File is associated with a customer. Work with Contact gives details about the contact details, company details & the customer the contact is associated with. It incorporates the following functions.

Names and Addresses of prospective contacts/customers can be added to the database through any of these three methods:

Automatically through the order entry system

Retail Orders entered via the existing Distribution system automatically adds the names and addresses of the contacts/customers to the CRM database together with purchase details. This eliminates the need to unnecessarily enter data more than once and allows the database to have the most current and accurate information available.

Interface to other systems.

Acquired lists can be added to the Direct Mail database without the need for extensive manual operation.