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Personalisation is really the end game for data mining.
"I start with what I know about this customer and figure out what the customer needs from me next," says Rogers. "Ideally, there is a single person whose job it is to get more business from this customer."
Gathering more information isn't always a straightforward process. You could ask the customers to tell you more about themselves, but that can backfire. People are very sensitive to your collecting information about them, so start with what you already know. When visitors come to your Web site, you can tell what types of computers they are using, what browsers they have, and who their Internet service providers are. Also look at batch data, which is collected across broad demographics--in the early stages it can make the difference between simply getting to know your customer and actually making the sale.
It works: Amazon uses shopping-cart analysis to predict a customer's next purchase based on the purchases of others with similar tastes. Not only can Amazon predict a purchase, it can nearly guarantee it when it offers the CD or book at a 20 percent discount. It sounds easy, but Rogers warns that it won't work if your company doesn't change its customer approach.
"Until you shift the focus from the product to the customer, essentially what you've got is better targeted harassment, not customer relations" she says.
