Have you ever stopped to consider the wealth of hidden revenue potential that may lie buried in your customer database? The resident data could be worth a small fortune in the way of untapped possibilities. This article lists various ways that you and your company can utilize this precious resource more effectively to probe your customers' real wishes and concerns.Past purchasers and current prospects in your database represent potentially warm to very warm leads for future business -- unlike people you contact via cold calls, who have no relationship with you at all. So if your organization is not making every effort to up-sell, cross-sell, pamper, placate, or otherwise retain previous buyers and prospects, think of the revenue it may be forfeiting!If you haven't mined your data extensively, consider doing the following things, each of which has a crucial purpose:1) Ensure the accuracy and completeness of your customer/prospect data.
2) Take the temperature of your customers and prospects -- are they happy?
3) Expose hassles customers are experiencing, so you can begin fixing them.------------------------------------------------------------------Start with a Telephone Campaign------------------------------------------------------------------You can begin this process with a call to each key customer and prospect contact. One issue to resolve is which department in the organization should do this. Does either "everyone" or "no one" own the customer data? Then perhaps you should volunteer yourself, or suggest appointing someone to do this important job.In case you need to give anyone a rationale for pursuing this effort, here's a good one: Marketing research reveals that customers who've