Most companies realize the importance of building a customer mailing list. Customers might fill out a name and address card, or drop a business card in a fishbowl. Once the cards are collected, your company must address the following issues:

The information must be entered accurately.
It must be entered consistently with proper formatting for names, street addresses, and suite numbers.
Duplicates must be removed.
Addresses must be updated when customers move.
Undeliverable addresses must be removed.
All of these processes must be repeated periodically.

Client Discovery's Transcription Service takes the headache, worry, and work out of the data entry issue. We provide a turn-key system of accurately entering data and managing the other necessary steps to ensure a useful database.

How Does It Work?

You collect business cards, comment cards, or cards which your customers have filled out such as "Add Me to Your Mailing List" or if applicable, "Birthday & Anniversary" sign-up forms.
In addition, you may gather customers' addresses from order forms or invoices.
Once a week, you send them in a postage paid mailing box provided by Client Discovery. Our personnel then enter the information into your customer database, checking for accuracy, consistency and adherence to rules such as street abbreviations and salutations.
Addresses are verified and, if necessary, corrected with the US Postal Service database.
The zip plus 4 is added.
So your customers can be pin-pointed on maps, the exact longitude and latitude is calculated.
To locate target customers within a defined radius of your location, their distance to your location is calculated and added to each record.
If available, email addresses, anniversary dates, family names, and birth dates are entered.
This complete set of customer data is added to your customer database and is available on the password-protected Client Discovery web site. You can view, sort, print or download your database in a variety of compatible file formats. You can even print mailing labels on your own printer.

What can be done with a customer database?

Your very best customers take the time to write down their address or leave a business card. It is critical for your business to stay in touch with them consistently. Client Discovery's web site makes the task quick, simple and easy. From the site, you can print labels on your own printer. Use the labels to: mailing labels

Mail postcards, flyers, letters, menus, loyalty punch cards, refrigerator magnets or brochures.
Send special event notifications.
Alert customers of an upcoming sale.
Invite them to wine tasting or special dinners.
Tell them about specials or new products.
Remind customers of your additional services.
Send two-for-one offers.

How will this customer database help with marketing?

Your marketing effectiveness will dramatically improve when you know EXACTLY where your customers live. You should, for example, increase advertising in areas where many existing customers are located or decrease advertising in other areas.

To visualize, segment, target and mail your customers, the web site lets you sort your list by name, address, city, state, zip code, phone number, or distance from your business. You set the parameters on the fly, to meet your particular marketing objectives.
Create your own customer distribution maps with your customer's longitude and latitude data. This is done with Microsoft's Mappoint software or Client Discovery's optional Mapping Service.
For in-depth marketing studies, your customer database can be quickly imported into spreadsheet or database programs such as Microsoft's Excel, Access or ACT.
Conduct customer surveys via phone or mail.
Potential customers usually live near existing customers. It is smart marketing to promote your business to their neighbors. A mailing list of neighbors can be created with Client Discovery's optional Nearest Neighbor Service.

What kind of results can I expect?

Mailing and marketing to your best customers and people that have shown an interest in your business will result in better returns than any other system of marketing. You can expect a 5 to 10 percent response rate - that is 10 to 20 times more effective than marketing to a commercial list.

Does Client Discovery offer mailing services?

A complete Postcard Fulfillment service is available for our subscription clients. We design, print, address, and mail postcards on a one-time or recurring basis.

Will customers really fill out cards?

pencil Since your existing customers use your products or services, it is natural that they would want information on your sales, discounts, and new products. You can obtain even more cards by offering an enticement to sign up. Many businesses simply offer a drawing for a free item as an incentive to fill out a card. A "drop your business card here" fishbowl can reap hundreds of names and addresses.

Can information from other media be entered?

Client Discovery can pull name and address information from printed material, or from your customer-supplied data files. If you have phone numbers only, we can use reverse lookup to identify the associated names and addresses. We have created mailing lists from a host of unlikely sources, including layaway cards, merchandise return forms, repair tickets, pickup slips, take-out orders, and restaurant reservation sheets.

How do I sign up for the Manual Data Entry service?

To start the service, simply give us a call at 800-240-4637. The Manual Data Entry Service is available as a monthly subscription which includes entry of 100 addresses and full web site access. Additional addresses beyond 100 per month are entered at an additional per piece price. Click here for complete Pricing.