I have a habit of trying to engage retailers in brief discussions about their business when I'm in their stores - to learn whatever I can. I admit it - I am looking for something that is "wrong," or which might be done better. Sometimes it's just "how's business been lately," hoping to glean some insight(s) into challenges they are having. Other times, when I witness something specific, I ask about it.

Three different retailers in the last month have made my quest easy; they asked me for personal information (address, phone number, etc.) during the checkout process - but never asked me for my e-mail address. On each occasion I asked why. One said that it was a franchise "policy" to only send out e-mails from headquarters, another said "well, we usually ask for that too" and dutifully wrote it down, and the third admitted that they didn't keep track of e-mail addresses - even though the store spends several thousand dollars a year mailing out fliers and discount offers to customers.

As Paul Newman said in the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," when talking about E.H. Harriman's reaction to hiring a chase team to catch those famous train robbers - "thats bad business. If hed pay me what hes paying them to get me to quit robbing him, Id quit robbing him!" How can any retailer not collect and use e-mail addresses? That's bad business, too.

It's just common sense - you can never know all of reasons for having this information and how you might use it in the future. There are the obvious uses, such as sending advertising and promotion material, discount coupons, sale notices, and changes in store activities. There are also the not so obvious uses, like keeping in touch with selected customers "personally," getting feedback from customers by asking them to complete a 5 10 question online survey (maybe you give them $5, or 5% off their next purchase as an incentive), or encouraging them to visit your website, where you can give them even more information.

You can also impress them by fine tuning how you ask for the information and telling them how you will use it - or better yet, getting their permission to communicate with them. This is a case where you can score some points by asking for their permission to communicate with them, rather than begging for their forgiveness after the fact. Just like everyone else, I hate the unsolicited e-mails I get; but, when I have talked to the source of the e-mail, it's very different.

E-mail communication can and should be part of a bigger strategy - to collect information from and about customers that you can use later to segment them into groups and give them better service. Keep a file of who bought something, when they purchased it, who they bought for, and any other information you can come up with. When your clerks are standing around waiting to ring up the next sale, have them write it down - or do it at the end of the day. It sounds tedious, but can pay huge dividends when youve been collecting the information for a few months. If you think about it, you can create real competitive advantage for yourself and real value for your customers by collecting information and then communicate with them at virtually no cost to your business.