Not every client calls Blue Ninja in for a complete systems overhaul. In fact, more often than not we are asked to help improve one specific aspect of a business, something that isn’t quite working anymore or is hindering smooth operations and business growth. Like in this case, where we were asked to help implement a better Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
When we first met this client they were using Mailchimp to manage their customer journey. It’s a programme that many companies use because it is very accessible and easy to use. However, it has its limitation when it comes to defining user information, which means it is difficult to systematically understand your data as people move along your customer journey.
This worked fine during the start-up phase of the business, but our client was ready to grow beyond that stage and extract better user information in order to improve their ability to serve their customers and, through it, increase their revenue.
We spoke to the client to really understand the current situations and the challenges they were experiencing in understanding, analysing and managing their customer journey and their goals for s new system. We helped them define KPA’s and determine what data they actually needed to capture to support their business development and serve their clients.
System’s Comparison
Once we understood the challenges and goals we looked at a number of systems. We reviewed them against what we wanted to achieve and looked that the interactions between different systems. We wouldn’t want to implement a CRM that wouldn’t work with the accountancy software, for example.
We looked at the data that the client wanted to collect and realised it didn’t have to be complicated, it just needed to be structured. Like so many people they had cast a wide data net, but it was important to boil it down to the essentials. This would allow them to be in a space where they could grow without overwhelming themselves with information they didn’t need.
We also knew the client wanted a system that had email marketing built in. This is often a service that is an add-on leading to additional costs. So we knew that having the ability to email out without restriction was going to be a big part of the process.
With all this information in hand, we started testing some different systems and analysed what worked and didn’t work. We kept tweaking our understanding of the challenges and hit some stumbling blocks on the way.
Stumbling Blocks
We also had to consider GDPR compliance, which is almost always built into these systems. When we started from scratch, we’ll of course considering GDPR. But this client had lists from different places, and a lot of companies now do. But if someone hasn’t given you permission, then you can’t just import them. The problem is that they had given permission just in a different way, in a different system. So we initially got flagged when we imported data that did not seem legitimate to the new system.
When we first started sending out emails, we got blocked. It took some negotiating with the new company to help them understand we were not spamming people, but that they had in fact received permission previously. It helped somewhat that this initial email was part of an effort to clean the data and we were asking people if they wanted to stay involved. Not everyone remembered having given permission, and it those cases we could systemically remove their data.
This process of cleaning the data highlighted another problem: not everyone was getting their emails. It took some investigating what was going on, but it turned out that they had changed domains. This meant that the new domain wasn’t white-listed for all subscribers and the emails were going to their spam folders.
Streamlining the Process
The implementation of a new system isn’t just an evaluation of the current challenges, it is a re-evaluation of the whole system. We helped the client streamline, cut dead weight and improve the quality of their data by not asking irrelevant questions or duplicating questions.
For example, they were collecting date of birth. When we asked why they needed that data, they said it was ‘just in case’. However, this is pretty personal information that people are not always keen on sharing. It either puts people off, meaning they don’t sign up to your list. Or they provide false data, which pollutes your overall data set. Either way, this just-in-case data was not doing them any favours.
By streamlining the process we didn’t just improve the data quality, we also increased customer engagement. Moreover, eliminating unnecessary data simplified automations and made it much easier to understand the numbers. It made the data more transparent and easier to access when the client got questions from team members, customers or contractors. It didn’t just create clarity around the sales journey but it helped improve overall operations and customer service.
What started as a request to help implement a new software system resulted in an overhaul of the customer experience and a streamlined process that benefitted customers and business development alike.
At Blue Ninja, we don’t just help our clients to implement a new system. We educate them on how to use it to their greatest benefit and grow their new systems in the future. We want to empower people to make better decisions based on strategic data collection.