A recent article published by SelectHub analysed the ten critical CRM trends to monitor for 2021 and one of the key takeaways was that analytics will play a much larger role in decision making by 2022 according to 85 per cent of marketing executives asked. In the world of CRM pretty much everything is growing. Predictions show that CRM will reach a market size of $113.5 billion by 2027 and that is driven by the evidence that companies giving a good customer experience will outperform any company competing solely (or primarily) on product and price. Customers want an experience that is convenient but there is also a trend towards an experience that is personalised. This is nothing new but having [...]

Microsoft Dynamics 365 has had a marketing update introducing exciting new capabilities previewing AI and SMS features that will help marketers save time, be more productive, and design more accurate customer journeys. The Dynamics 365 June 2021 update includes improved engagement-tracking for Microsoft Teams events, email editor improvements, an option to include iCalendar files in emails, improved bounce error notifications, performance upgrades, and bug fixes. A new area in the Marketing application called 'Real Time Marketing' organises these new capabilities, with the old 'Marketing' area being renamed to 'Outbound Marketing.' The update provides an AI-assisted asset library that automatically tags images related to the content. When marketers are producing email content, they will be given image suggestions based on their [...]

It’s been an interesting week in the news for data hygiene. Jeff Veis, CMO at Actian published an engaging article about the impact of data on the customer experience. He gave examples of how ‘shoppers looking for cargo shorts on the web see that peers have bought a complimentary brand of sandals’, (hopefully the two won’t be worn with a pair of paisley socks!) He went on to stress that bad data creates bad experiences and that ‘data hygiene is essential to truly offer an advantage in today’s landscapes’. His article was timely, as not long after the Daily Mirror ran an article entitled ‘Covid models used to delay Freedom Day were ‘based on out-of-date data’’.  The take away is [...]

Customers of Microsoft Dynamics 365 will on average have 187,500 inaccurate records by the end of the year, a new study by Free Data Health Check and Clean Contacts reveals. In the UK 1.5 million households move each year. Since January 2021 the number of households in the moving journey has increased by half a million to two million as a direct result of the buoyant property market caused by the Chancellor’s stamp duty holiday. This means that there are unprecedented numbers of people moving home with estate agents now reporting less than two month’s stock left on their books to sell. This is coupled with the fact that at the hands of the pandemic the UK has experienced one [...]

There is absolutely no doubt that a CRM system is essential to businesses of all sizes; however, Gene Marks’ recent article in Forbes Magazine raised some interesting points. He began his argument by stating that anywhere between 30 and 70 per cent of customer relationship management systems don’t achieve their objectives and believed that this was, in part, due to companies not putting the same emphasis on their CRM systems as they might with their accounting systems (all businesses need to keep track of the vanity and sanity of their turnover and profits, right? Although adding and subtracting numbers can sometimes be less daunting than finding out if several thousand Joe and Josephine Blogs have had a change of status [...]

The Software Bureau has launched Free Data Health Check – the unique ability to review how clean your data is, in a seamless and secure manner. Free Data Health Check enables Microsoft Dynamics 365 users to quickly understand the accuracy of their contact data. Providing a simple health check report, via Teams & Outlook, indicating how many of UK contacts (Contacts, Accounts or leads) have moved or passed away. There is no financial commitment required, but if you decide you want the detail sitting behind the results, then we offer a unique subscription model that provides total peace of mind, regardless of the number of updates required. It is easy to set up and simple to use - Free Data [...]

New figures from JICMail, the joint industry currency for advertising mail reveal the improved effectiveness of direct mail since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The data from the first three months of 2021 showed that mail volumes recorded year-on-year growth for the first time since the start of the pandemic. Despite the lockdown, advertisers remained more optimistic than they were at the start of the pandemic. Mail volumes grew by three per cent year-on-year, primarily driven by a strong performance from direct mail, which was up nine per cent year-on-year, and business mail, which grew by seven per cent. The report also found that mail effectiveness continued to record double-digit year-on-year growth across nearly all stages of the customer [...]

Charities are being urged to turn to CRM to harness the army of volunteers that has formed as a result of the pandemic. People want to help, but harnessing this will be key for charities moving forwards, believes Reach Volunteering, an organisation that connects volunteers with good causes. In the UK, within seven days of the first lockdown being announced, 300,000 people had volunteered with a charity and more than 750,000 had signed up as NHS volunteers. An article in The Guardian revealed that of the 12 million adults in the UK who offered their services during the last year, a third did so for the first time, indicating that a new and sizable cohort had the opportunity to experience [...]

Last week Royal Mail trialed the use of drones to deliver health and safety equipment, COVID-19 testing kits and general mail items, including direct mail, to the Isles of Scilly. It was the first time an out-of-sight autonomous scheduled drone flight has been used between the UK mainland and an island to deliver mail. The drone left Cornwall at 6 am and arrived back at 8 am having dropped its 100 kg load, which is roughly the same size as a typical delivery round. The test flight dramatically reduced the amount of time delivery to The Scilly Isles usually takes and also significantly reduced the carbon foot print. It is hoped that the initiative, which is part of a month-long [...]

A new report by the Fundraising Regulator shows that more charities are taking data hygiene seriously than previously. This year, only 14 charities were found to be flouting the Fundraising Code of Practice by failing to access requests to stop communication made through the Fundraising Preference Service, which was set up in July 2017 in response to the fall out of the tragic death of poppy seller, Olive Cooke. It enables people to ask specific charities to stop contacting them by phone, email, SMS or post. In the last review 20 charities were found to be uncompliant. By removing people that have registered on the FPS charities adhere to Section 3.2.5 of the Code of Fundraising Practice, however in Section [...]