How well do you know your Super Rich customers?

Do you use CRM?

Do you track data about your billionaire customers in the same way you capture it from the rest of us who buy handbags and shirt pocket squares?

Or as a small company or an individual service provide perhaps you use MeRM? That’s my contribution to unnecessary acronyms by the way. It just means that you know your own customers well enough, including the ones likes red wine and the ones that smoke cigars.

If you are still trying to figure it out, you may not be alone. Wealth-X, a company that focuses on Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) intelligence recently asked luxury brands around the world how they collect and use customer data to better market to the Super Rich. The survey included everything from sellers of yachts to handbags.

Below are the highlights:

For 56% of respondents, the biggest difficulty in collecting and using data was lack of resources.

75% of respondents said they relied on their internal research team to collect data, and only 40% used in- store information cards.

Only 50% of respondents said they used the data they collect to rate their customers.

Less than 50% of respondents use the data they collect for other purposes than improving individual contact with clients.

73% of respondents plan on improving their techniques for using data in the coming quarter — by collecting more or better data, or even by improving their current capacity to analyze data.

Only 40% of respondents use CRM integration to optimize the use of their data — however, even within the 60% that do not use CRM integration, its value was recognized, particularly with regards to its use in assessing the value of individual clients.

82% of respondents said that “data is instrumental in engaging and retaining UHNW clients”.

70% of respondents used the data they collect to improve the quality of their services — thereby hoping to build customer loyalty and stimulate demand.

The respondents felt that the most significant benefit of CRM was its use in tracking individual clients.

What’s not even clear is how effectively companies use the data they capture. While Neiman Marcus is famous for using sales data and rewarding customers for spending lots of money, it is widely thought that many of the big luxury conglomerates don’t share customer data between their various brands.

For the full report, http://www.wealthx.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/V4_LuxurySentimentSurveyReport1.pdf

What data would you like to know about your Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) customers?