HARTE-HANKS INTRODUCES TO RETAILERS REAL-TIME DIALOGUE & ANALYTICS TOOL

Guide to E-Commerce Technology

Media Contact:
Chet Dalzell
Harte-Hanks
(212) 520-3232 chet_dalzell@harte-hanks.com

HARTE-HANKS INTRODUCES TO RETAILERS REAL-TIME DIALOGUE & ANALYTICS TOOL: `RETAIL DAILY SALES BUILDER`

BILLERICA, MA – August 27, 2001 – By providing either a real-time or nightly analysis of point-of-sale (POS) and Web transactions, a new marketing tool offered by Harte-Hanks, Inc. (NYSE:HHS) called Retail Daily Sales Builder, enables retail marketers to leverage transaction data for prompt, subsequent marketing communications in numerous media with a minimal commitment of internal resources. Early applications have shown a significant lift in customer response rates.

"Retail Daily Sales Builder lets retailers capitalize on their customer transactions – to really use that data to fashion a relevant follow-up message or offer for customers promptly after a purchase, using any number of media channels -- permission e-mail, direct mail, an outbound call or other 1:1 communication," said Gary Skidmore, president, CRM, Harte-Hanks. "Timely, relevant, appropriate messages translate into significant gains in response, and more satisfied customers."

"Marketing in the retail industry has always been a challenge, especially because of the diversity and complexity of the customer base," said Sam Clark, Program Director with The Meta Group. "Nowadays, marketers are asked to do even more by responding quickly to market or industry changes. The key here is to `know thy customer.` Only by moving toward real-time analysis will marketers efficiently and cost-effectively identify appropriate customers, thereby making retailers nimble enough to, for example, better respond to competitive threats or purge an unexpected accumulation in inventory or provide a relevant message that creates a connection to a customer."

Retail Daily Sales Builder, an outsourced service performed by Harte-Hanks, is powered by proprietary software called Allink AgentÔ, which has been employed already and successfully for Harte-Hanks customers in several retail and financial service environments. In addition, Harte-Hanks maximizes its customer offering by bundling within Retail Daily Sales Builder the services of Harte-Hanks analytics professionals. This team helps clients write the specific business rules that

RETAILERS TO GAIN FROM HARTE-HANKS `RETAIL DAILY SALES BUILDER` – 2/ drive 1:1 communications, and examine the back-end performance to adjust campaigns accordingly. Retail Daily Sales Builder can facilitate: · Post-purchase triggers, such as a customer thank you, a cross-sell opportunity, a gift recommendation within hours of a customer purchase; · Stacked communication, where existing marketing programs are given an extra lift by a 1:1 message on top. For example, a company announces a week-long sale by mailing notifications to all customers, and then uses Retail Daily Sales Builder to identify customers who have not shopped within the first few days -- and e-mails a reminder for the customer to shop during the last weekend of the sale. · Loyalty programs, as participating customer earn awards or points with each purchase, subsequent communications to those customers help them track their progress and total activity; · Retention offers, as the tool can detect when customers have decreased their recency, frequency or purchase volume – and enable win-back offers or other invitations.

Using the analytical resources at Harte-Hanks, Retail Daily Sales Builder next identifies and reports on program response in both daily and weekly bases, and adjusts business rules accordingly with these findings. "With Harte-Hanks working with each client individually, we can have a retailer up and running with Retail Daily Sales Builder in six to twelve weeks, while helping them execute all subsequent communications," Skidmore said. "There`s a quick return on investment, as more targeted communication, accountable reports, improved customer recognition and automated processing are all built into the process."

About Harte-Hanks, Inc.

Harte-Hanks, Inc., San Antonio, TX, is a worldwide, direct and interactive services company that provides end-to-end customer relationship management (CRM) and related marketing services solutions for a host of consumer and business-to-business marketers. Harte-Hanks and its CRM integrated solutions use technology as the enabler to capture, to analyze and to disseminate customer and prospect data at all points of contact. The company`s customer-centric models allow it to be the overall solutions provider for driving traffic to a Web site, call/contact center, or brick-and-mortar location. Visit the Harte-Hanks Web site at http://www.harte-hanks.com or call (800) 456-9748.