What customer information do you collect?

[Chris Evans]

Don't worry I'm not asking anyone to violate their privacy policy.

I'm getting ready to setup my customer database, so I'm pre-planning how I want it organized and what information I want to retain. Therefore, I'm interested to hear what customer information you guys collect or record.

There's the obvious stuff like:
- Name
- Email
- And etc.

But I'm interested in maybe recording more comprehensive attributes like:

- Version #: It'll be useful to know what version numbers people purchased. This attribute can be modified when someone downloads an update as well.

- Genre: Especially since I plan to do other games besides platformers, it might be useful to group or search my customers by the game genres they've purchased.

- Referrer: If it's able to determine, record where the customer came from when they first downloaded the demo.

What other data might be useful to record?

[princec]

I record graphics card adapter and vendor and driver version, OpenGL driver version, affiliate name, a unique installation number, whether the game was webstarted, a short configuration string like 01020306, the number of games played, and the amount of time played.

Cas

[Chris Evans]

Thanks Cas.

So the rest of you guys either don't capture customer info or consider this topic top secret?

We're always talking about how important it is for Indies to have their own customers, yet if you barely know who your customers are or have inadequate information, then it somewhat defeats the purpose.

And again for you shy people I'm not asking for your customer stats/info, I'm asking what type of stats you do collect or would like to collect...

[DragonsIOA]

I only track thier name, address, email, and serial number. Basically just enough information to deal with lost registration information

[princec]

Well, let's just say I got a mysteriously large amount of vitriol about the fact I collect graphics card drivers, culminating with a spyware accusation on download.com so perhaps people don't like to talk about it.

Cas

[Andy]

Well... Have to answer

We are collecting all standard info - Names, emails, order ID, License Code etc.

orderid, date, item, total, quantity, profit, regname, regcode, submit_to_newsletter, fname, lname, city, country, email - if you need the whole list.

What I'd like to collect - that's their feedback - especially from that ones who didn't buy. But this is tricky - hadn't find any good way to call them to conversation...

[Gilzu]

What I'd like to collect - that's their feedback - especially from that ones who didn't buy. But this is tricky - hadn't find any good way to call them to conversation...

There are ways to get the feedback youre asking for:
1. Ask customers for feedback after they purchased. I think they'd be happy to hear that its important to the developer and might even come back for another product.
2. Feedback form / A wishlist forum - this way you can both support existing users AND show potential costumers you care and that they will get the best service. Take a look at sharewaretracker, it might not be a game, but the programmer has a great source for feedback and ideas for improvements. on the otherside, if you don't want it public, you can always use the feedback form.
3. post poles on your website, users love poles, especially if they need to "just" choose their preference to see the results.

[Andy]

I said "any GOOD way" Gil
OK-OK. Kidding...
Sure, thanks. I knew about all three but don't think any of them works really.
May be just my personal point of view but I hate sites with empty forums and stupid polls... - btw we are going to start forum anyway and probably will consider on stupid poll as well
(Poll - this is simple. Give me any poll results and I will interprete them as it would be necessary for me )

But I'm still disappointed by lack of players feedback. I suppose this could be the most important source of useful information. Much more useful than our discussions here and reviews on different sites.

[DFG]

I would think genre and what kind of games they like could be a powerful way to market to them in the future AND give you an idea of what kinds of games to make as well. People love giving their opinion about what kinds of games they like, even what titles they have purchased recently.

[Chris Evans]

Cool, now we're having some discussion.

@princec

Yeah, some people might be worried of being accused of having spyware. Though to be fair, your collecting some of your info by "phoning home". That will make some people nervous. Pretty much all the info I'm collecting will be done on the purchase page or somewhere else on the website. No different from Amazon.

@Andy

I was thinking about having a post-purchase survey. Though I was thinking of making the data (such as demographic info) collected anonymous. I'm not so concerned with knowing that John, Jake, and Susie are between the ages of 17-21. I just want to know that I have three customers in that age range. I don't need to know their names.

You might get decent participation if you have 2-3 short and sweet questions right after they purchase. People usually have a little extra time anyway while they wait for the game to download. Just make sure the questions are short and simple as possible, preferably with drop-down options.

@DFG

That's exactly what I was getting at when I said I wanted to keep track of genres. It's a great way to find out who exactly is your audience. We're always complaining around here that we don't know who buys our games, especially if our games don't fit into the 40 year-old women casual market. We should start taking meaningful steps to find out who buys our games and what they would like to see in the future.

[stan]

Note: you shouldn't take this as advice, since I'm not earning any money from the (non existent) sales of my game.

I'm storing the same things as Andy, except for the pricing/profit information since I haven't found a way to get that from ShareIt.

I'm also logging the initial referer, ie the site the visitor came from the first time he/she visited my site, and the current referer when he/she clicks on a "buy" or "demo download" link.

[Andy]

To disturb my lovely customers by stupid questions right after they have spent money in favor of our stupid company and ready to try the full version of the game?

Nonsence! This is pretty incorrect behavior, this is lack of respect to interests of our great audience.
Seriously! I really suppose so...

That's why again thanks but we are still in researches...