These transaction records are not generated with data mining in mind; they are created to meet the operational needs of the company. Yet all contain valu able information about customers and all can be mined successfully. Phone companies have used call detail records to discover residential phone numbers whose calling patterns resemble those of a business in order to market special services to people operating businesses from their homes. Catalog companies have used order histories to decide which customers should be included in which future mailings—and, in the case of Victoria’s secret, which models produce the most sales. Federal Express used the change in its customers’ shipping patterns during a strike at UPS in order to calculate their share of their customers’ package delivery business.
Supermarkets have used point-of- sale data in order to decide what coupons to print for which customers. Web retailers have used past purchases in order to determine what to display when customers return to the site. These transaction systems are the customer touch points where information about customer behavior first enters the enterprise. As such, they are the eyes and ears (and perhaps the nose, tongue, and fingers) of the enterprise.