I recently had the opportunity to sit in on a CRM session presented by Paul K. Ward. One of the points Paul made about data management is that bad data destroys value. That is, bad data doesn't just annoy your customers, it actually causes damage to any relationship you may have built.

Consider a company with which you have done business for a long time. If you receive a letter or email from them that starts "Dear Customer," what is the first thought through your mind? Your first thought is "I've been giving you money for how long and you can't even be bothered with using my name?" The result is that you're not just annoyed, but you start to see the company in a different light. A more negative light. And damage is done to the value of the relationship.

So the bad data in your database isn't just a nuisance; it's actually working against you.

We're approaching the end of the first decade of the 21st century and it seems some organizations still haven't grasped some simple concepts of data management.

I hate to pick on ASAE (OK, I don't hate it, I just don't prefer it), but I received two emails from them within two hours of each other, both of which contained glaring errors.

• The first said "Dear First Name." That's right, just call me First from now on.
• The second said "Dear Chicago area association professional." (Hint: I don't live anywhere near Chicago.)

The first error is inexecusable. Before any broadcast email is sent, it should be tested. And simple testing would have caught this merging error. (I have colleagues who also got the "Dear First Name" email, so I know that it was a merge error.)

The second error is just bad data management. I'm assuming the list was not queried properly or the person sending the email didn't use the correct list. Either way, it was wrong.

So what's the big deal?

1. Email like this damages your credibility. The recipient thinks: "If you can't get your email right, how good could what you're selling me really be?"
2. Now that I know you don't really know who I am ("Dear Chicago area association professional") I'll ignore any future messages from you.

Are you sending emails like this to your members and customers. Take the extra five minutes to make sure you get it right. One error every now and then is understandable. Two errors in one day is inexcusable.

A vendor asked me the following: "What are the top 5 most useful or most valuable reports that you've seen from an AMS?"

My response:

I think the top five will vary based on three things: type of membership (trade vs. professional vs. hybrid); largest source of non-dues revenue (e.g., events, certification, products, fundraising, other); and what is politically important (e.g., committee participation, speaking/presenting, PAC).

But in general, I would suggest these:

1. Membership count by membership type, including dollars per category
2. Invoicing (i.e., ability to print one or a group of invoices from the system without having to format or merge)
3. Aged receivables (30-60-90 days old)
4. Event attendance count broken out by registrant type, with revenue
5. Event attendance by last name

What do you think? What's your single most important report from your AMS?

At a session at TAUG (TMA Resources Annual Users Group meeting), Ron Moen asked a great question: "How many of you 'mystery shop' your own association?"

What a GREAT question. I'd be willing to bet the answer is somewhere around 1% of all associations actually do.

I typically do this as a side-effect of the work I do with my clients. Often I'm testing their new systems, and so I'm experiencing the online aspect of what a customer sees. But how many times have you actually had someone call your association and try to order something? There are firms you can pay to do this, or you could just have your Aunt Sally do it on your behalf. Either way, it's worth a try. I'd love to hear some stories of associations doing this.