List Management
We all have our little irritations with the holidays, and while I do get pretty turned off with those Christmas decorations that creep into the stores right after Halloween, a bigger irritation is when Christmas cards start arriving in my mailbox at Thanksgiving. So, you are probably wondering why that is such a problem for me and you are thinking that what is really going on is that I am jealous. If you are thinking that you would be right.
How can you get your cards out six weeks early? These folks that are working on their cards in mid-November are organized. They have selected a perfect picture of their children in October. They have them printed by November 1st. They have even written that annual summary of family accomplishments two months before the year is finished. But, most importantly, they have a list. In one place, all of the targeted recipients of that synopsis and snap shot are assembled. The addresses are ready to be placed onto envelopes with an assembly line of efficiency.
I had a co-worker back in the 80’s who was two decades ahead of his time. He decided that he was going to re-think the whole holiday card thing. Rather than do the traditional picture and letter stuffed in a mass-produced card,. he converted it all to e-mail. It was a thing of beauty. He had a distribution list that would be updated over the course of the year. One night in December he would pen a poignant story and then press a button and his burden was over. The savings of postage and printing were donated to a local charity.
Today, this does not seem like much, but in 1985 it was pushing the envelope. Of course much has changed since then. Lots of folks are putting up their holiday pics and letter on Facebook or creating a goofy holiday podcast posted on YouTube. I still do things the old fashioned way and use the US Postal Service. But, the good news is that my list is getting better – at least I have the addresses stored electronically. I could print onto labels and move closer to that assembly line approach. But I keep it hand written for now.
What surprises me is that I still have clients struggling with lists. One customer recently built a good portion of their CRM business case on the notion that it would allow them to more efficiently produce their holiday card mailing. The good news is that they can do mailings now with great ease, including their recent holiday greeting card. This is somewhat of an extreme case, but I do think it illustrates how fundamental effective management of customer contact information is to a successful CRM program.
If you have purchased software to automate marketing campaigns, sales activity, and service interactions, but you have not put in the effort at getting your customer data in order, you are totally sub-optimizing your investment. So, it is critical that CRM programs do the basics well first, including getting customer data in a state that enables all that expensive technology to perform. If you do, you will be able to get your holiday mailing out in November as well.
Happy Holidays Everyone!
PS: I don’t have my Christmas cards in the mail yet.