I had a press release through today from a German PR company. As you can imagine, I get loads of stuff like this as my name ends up on mailing lists for anything to do with interiors, not just kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms.

At least I'm guessing it was for me as you can see from the address label above it's actually for Sir Andrew Davies and my knighthood, while thoroughly deserved, has yet to arrive.

I don't work for dmg world media anymore either, we had a management buyout a year ago and kbbreview is now published by Taylist Media.

I'm not the editor either, technically my job title is managing editor and our office is on Lyon Road, not Hampstead Road.

But the postcode is right, so at least it got to me.

Is this an abject lesson in how important it is to spend the time keeping good data on your customers? 

Before plunging into the kbb market, I used to write about the hotel and restaurant industry and there was a sector that, at its best, knew everything about everybody that had every paid them anything.

They knew their name and address, of course, but they also keep data on what newspaper they read, whether they were vegetarian, used the parking facilities or the gym. And what was their motivation for all this? So that next time that guest booked they could make sure their stay was as pleasurable and efficient as possible.

Can the average kitchen or bathroom retailer say the same? How much data (whether kept on computer or filing cabinet) do they keep on past customers that is genuinely useful for the future?

When so much business is done through recommendations can you call up all the details of the customer that has done the recommending? 

Do you makes notes on whether they have kids? A dog? I met one retailer who notes the age of the client's kids so that when they hit 18 or 21 a mailing goes out that says something along the lines of "Kids left home? Now's the time to think about that new kitchen..."

Do you have a system that flags up the anniversaries of customers' installations? Another retailer used to send birthday cards to the kitchen or bathroom after one year and five, so simple but a great little nudge to keep them in mind for the future.

For many small retailers, the answer to many questions about data like this is probably "yes, it's all in my head". Of course you remember Mrs Smith from three years ago and exactly what products they had - you probably even remember exactly how much the bill came to.

But that's just memory, it's not valuable data. If you wanted to sell your business, or grow and take on new staff then usable data adds value - what's in your head is not a resource for anyone but you. 

So what do you do? What data do you keep and how? And if you're a supplier rather than a retailer, do you agree that retailers should keep more detailed information? Let me know at the address below.

P.S. I am well aware that there's bound to be someone out there who will tell me that their kbbreview is delivered to a strange variation of their name and address, thereby proving my entire point wrong. Email me direct and I'll sort them out myself, thereby proving me right again, so there.