I have been doing some more traditional 1to1 database marketing recently and it has reminded me that the more things change the more they... don't.

Aligning the culture of an organisation is the task that really makes it difficult to transition from product-centric to customer-centric thinking.

Both of the clients are using best of breed analytics and campaign automation platforms, so the technical challenges are not insignificant, but these dragons are being vanquished. Much harder to get the whole organisation aligned in their understanding of;

• what types of customers have been defined/discovered
• what differerent treatment strategies are planned for each different customer type.

Everyone understands the need for a "Single Customer View", a system that combines all the information you have about customers into one easily accessed view. This puts the history of your interactions with each individual customer in the hands of your service staff and allows them to offer one of the most important customers benefits - being remembered.

Less appreciated but just as important is the need to have a "Single View of Customers" across the organisation. All should agree what types of customers your marketing and service strategy is tuned to address.

For example, if you have a 'young aspirational' segment (hypothetically), everyone involved with customers should know their defining characteristics, your objectives for this type of customer and the service treatment that is in place for them.

When I hear clients proudly (often with a hint of exhaustion) refer to their single customer view - I ask, 'and vice versa?'