Holiday trading is a busy time. It's the time that when making a sale, we often forget to ask for the customer details and just process the sale as a 'cash sale', so that we can move on to the next person in line.

By processing sales without customer details, you may just be missing out on your most valuable resource for your 2013 marketing campaign.

By simply asking for the customer name and either a mobile number or email address when processing the sale, you can then start marketing to those customer in 2013.

Straight after Christmas you can send a thank you email to the customer, thanking them for their purchase and saying that you hope that the recipient loved the gift.

In January you can invite them in store for a free ring clean, let them know about any sale you may be having or invite them in to shop for themselves, and give them a $20 gift voucher to get them started.

In February you can send them suggestions for Valentines.

In March and April you can send them tips for looking after and cleaning their jewelry

In May you can send them suggestions for Mothers Day.

Each month presents an opportunity to contact your customers.  If you make 800 sales over Christmas and do not collect customer names, that's 800 people you can not contact in 2013. If only 10% of those people return just once in 2013, that's 80 sales you have potentially lost.

So start collecting customer names now, for your marketing campaign in 2013.

If you are struggling with how to ask the customer for their name, you can say that it is for the receipt, so that the goods can easily be refunded, exchanged or re-sized. You can also ask for the email address by asking if the customer would like the receipt emailed to them, so that they have a copy that won't be lost in their shopping bags.

The emailing of the receipt is very much appreciated by customers, and is a great way to collect email addresses.