With today’s ever-changing economy even the smallest company has to have some degree of automation. Automation means computers. As I have experience on only a few computer database programs, I cannot offer a critique on the advantages and disadvantages of particular software. I can share a few tips on using computer databases.

Databases can be used to keep track of many different aspects of any sales program such as: Client and prospect lists; Booking information including dates, number of guests, income; Contact record which could include direct mail, marketplace appointments, inbound calls, a sales blitz, Visitors Bureau lead, etc. That’s can be a lot of data! Here are a few suggestions that may help you manage the information in your database.

As records in a database get old very quickly I have two mandatory fields for every record – Create Date and Modify Date. My database automatically places the current date when a new record is created. When I change information in a particular record I manually update the modify date. With these two field I can tell the age of the record and quickly decide if a certain record should be included in an annual mailing, for example. For records that are not client or good prospects I usually mail to only those records that are no older than 3 years.

How did a particular client or potential client get in your database? I have a Lead Source field. In this field I place information indicating where the lead came from. For example: Inbound Call; WRTC or American Bus Association; Client; Direct Mail, Group Tour Magazine info request, etc. I have almost 100 separate categories in this field. If someone calls to book a visit and this client is in my database it will tell me my marketing is working!
A complimentry field to Lead Source is the Group Code field. In this field I have some 135 different codes such as: Tour Operator, Senior Citizen, Youth, Group Leader, College or School, Office Group, Church, etc. In this way I can quickly target a wide range of niche markets for my quarterly custom-made promotions. In addition to marketing the Group Code field can be used for my annual review of client make-up. This information is used to plan next years budget.

I also maintain a separate field for Top Clients and top prospects. With this field I can quickly generate a list of labels and follow-up call sheets for my top client annual mailing. The records included in this field changes annually and throughout the year.

Another field I use is Client By Year. Although I record create date and modify date, with well over 6000 records, pulling out clients from say the year 2000 can take a bit of time. With a Client By Year field I only need to deal with those records in that one field. The information is quite helpful comparing client mix and repeat business one year to another.

These few suggestions barely scratch the surface I could literally put together a small book on using databases effectively. These few offerings are perhaps the most helpful for easily improving your database.