Slice 'n dice database yields customer info

After eight years of developing and finetuning, David Line is ready to begin a marketby- market national push for his Reno-based InfoSearch International.

That's both easier and more challenging than it looks.

Easier, because the company has a good track record with clients many of them in northern Nevada who rave about the ability of InfoSearch International to give them fast and precise information about what their customers are thinking.

Challenging because it takes InfoSearch some time to explain how its customer feedback systems work.

Launched in 1996 by Line, a 17- year veteran of IBM, and Roger Rahming, an expert in market research, InfoSearch and its staff of about 45 collect data from consumers through Internet and telephone surveys as well as face-to-face interviews.

For the Reno Sparks Convention & Visitors Bureau, for instance, the company conducts 200 telephone interviews a month with folks who've just returned home after a visit to the region.

That's about as traditional as it gets.

But InfoSearch International quickly loads consumers' feedback into customized databases that can be sliced and diced by clients in about any way they want.

Says Jim Lynn of Fallon's CC Communications: "We can search and sort by a variety of demographics and customer responses.

This allows us to zero in on specific product lines, department or service areas and gives us the information we need to focus more closely on our marketing efforts with no guesswork."

Clients enthuse, too, about their ability to get data quickly through the Web-based system.

"We finally have an excellent system for getting real-time data and immediate feedback from our customers," says Tim Maland, president of the Reno Hilton, one of the company's clients.

The InfoSearch system is a big hit with the gaming industry along with the Hilton, the Eldorado Hotel Casino is among more than 40 gaming and hospitality businesses to use the service but the company's client list extends through utilities,manufacturers, financial firms and nonprofits as well.

While the company has worked with clients across the nation, its business is heavily weighted toward northern Nevada.

Line, its president and chief executive officer, looks to widen its base.

Because it's already invested heavily in technical infrastructure both people and hardware privately held InfoSearch can grow revenues more rapidly than costs with its focus on new geography.

"You have to have the infrastructure in place before you can sell the service," Line says.

Widening the revenue stream, Line says, will come as InfoSearch deploys two-person teams into selected markets.

One member of the team will develop marketing relationships, while the other will provide the technical expertise to allow clients to extract the information they want from the database.

That's going to take a lot of sales calls, and Line expects a long sales process.

"This is not a commodity," he says."This is a service business.

You have to get in front of your people."

To get in front of them, Line preaches the gospel of customer feedback.

Successful companies, he says, are those that understand the needs, wants and expectations of their customers.

Successful companies also measure their performance against those expectations.

"Our clients know that dissatisfied customers don't complain, they just leave, while customers who are asked about their experience are eager to provide their opinion," he says."Businesses must know immediately if their customers are satisfied, and if not, why not."

What's good for the goose is good for the gander, and InfoSearch continues to pay a lot of attention to what its clients say about its service.As their requirements change, so do the services provided by InfoSearch.