In many organisations, CRM has won the argument about its importance. Retention now features in business plans, and targets have risen to match. The harder problem is capacity. The data, skills, platforms and time that teams need haven’t moved as fast as expectations, and asking people to work harder won’t fix that. Raising the ceiling means changing the conditions CRM works in.
That was the backdrop to The CRM Reality Check, a breakfast briefing hosted by Plinc on 30 September at Everyman, Manchester.
Stuart Russell, Plinc’s Chief Strategy Officer, opened with a first look at new Plinc research into how CRM and customer marketing leaders feel about their roles, and how Finance leaders view the function. Both groups answered many of the same questions. Those covered where CRM stands in the business today, what is holding it back, and what Finance needs to see before investing further. Early findings suggest CRM’s standing in the business is high, and so is the pressure on teams to deliver.
The full findings will be published in the forthcoming CRM Reality Check report.
A panel discussion followed with three CRM leaders working in very different businesses:
- Angela Rhodes, Head of CRM at EGO, who brings 18 years of CRM experience and now leads CRM for a fast-growing fashion brand.
- Katie Ascott, Head of CRM at Regatta, running CRM across multiple websites and territories, alongside stores and wholesale.
- Dan Roylance, Head of CRM and Digital at The Lowry, who previously led CRM at JD Sports and now balances commercial goals with a charitable mission.
This debrief draws out the points that resonated most.
1. From email team to customer team: how CRM’s profile has grown
CRM’s move into strategy is real, but it rarely arrives everywhere at once. Across the panel, the function has a firmer place in planning than it did a few years ago. Even so, in some organisations, parts of the business still picture it as the team that sends emails.
Where the shift has landed, the effect is tangible. At Regatta, retention is now one of the pillars of the annual business plan. That has made room on the roadmap for bigger projects, such as preference centre updates. A commitment from the top also gives CRM licence to ask when promised investment will arrive. The Lowry has made CRM a strategic pillar too, with ambitions that reach beyond marketing. A clearer view of audiences could shape how front-of-house volunteers talk about visitors, and even how HR thinks about people.
Getting the rest of the business on board takes deliberate effort. Panellists described using CRM metrics and dashboards to move perceptions beyond email. The Lowry also runs informal sessions where new starters and curious colleagues can learn what CRM knows about its audiences.
2. Rising CRM targets and the capacity squeeze
Recognition has a cost: the better CRM performs, the higher the bar is set.
As businesses shift their weight from acquisition towards retention, CRM’s revenue contribution becomes a headline measure, and hitting one target tends to bring a bigger one. It’s a familiar feeling for many CRM leaders: becoming a victim of their own success, with expectations rising faster than the resources to meet them. Even new roles can come with an expectation of near-immediate returns, although new people take time to make an impact.
Accountability is tightening in other ways too. For one panellist’s team, budgets are now set against retention rates and lifetime value, where previously those figures were simply tracked.
Finding the right people is its own constraint. CRM roles are hard to fill because the job has changed so much. Stuart pointed to how much it now asks of one person: data skill, technical knowledge, creativity, organisation and a scientific approach to testing. Building that takes time, and in a small team, a single departure can set progress back a long way.
3. Martech investment vs usable capability
Buying technology has proved easier than putting it to work.
A well-equipped stack doesn’t guarantee the capacity to use it. One panellist described a small CRM team working like an in-house agency, setting best practice and segmentation that content teams then deliver across many sites and markets. Getting separate parts of the stack to share data can prove harder in practice than it looks on paper, especially when every new integration needs testing.
A recurring answer was a role many businesses don’t yet have. It’s someone who sits between the data, development and CRM teams, handling third-party integrations and turning personalisation plans into something that can run. One panellist called it a CRM developer.
The pace of change adds another layer. New tools and features arrive every month, and knowing where to start isn’t always obvious. For organisations with capable systems already in place, the real decision is often whether to add something new across them, or to get more from what’s there.
4. Customer data access: connected isn’t the same as usable
Growth has a way of scattering customer data. New channels, venues and sign-up routes each add another record, and few businesses have a single place where those records meet. Every panellist is working on some version of that problem.
The causes vary. A new app built on a separate platform can mean one person appears as several customers: an app user, a web customer and someone with a different email address. An organisation with many lines of business, from ticketing to hospitality, sees different behaviour in each part, and joining it up takes time. Either way, the goal is the same: data connected cleanly enough for colleagues across the business to use.
Regatta shows what one connection can open up. Until recently, its membership scheme was digital only. Sign-ups made in store now feed the CDP, and online members are being recognised at the till too. For the first time, the team can see who shops in store, online or both, and can promote local offers to members.
5. Where CRM time goes: BAU, trade and automation
The work the business sees isn’t always the work that drives the most value. Daily trade activity is highly visible and time-consuming, while automated programmes often deliver more for less effort.
In fast-moving retail, push messages and a daily email support the main drops and campaigns, yet automated programmes can drive most of CRM’s revenue. When trade email takes the largest share of team time for a smaller share of results, making it faster becomes a priority. AI is one of the tools being explored to do that.
Another approach is to keep the two apart. Reserving the strongest offers for triggered journeys, and agreeing limits with trading teams, protects the programmes that perform best. Targeting does the rest. Where members account for a disproportionate share of revenue, a team can decide who needs a discount and who doesn’t, which protects margin. Unique codes help stop offers leaking to affiliate sites.
6. Making the CRM investment case in commercial terms
The strongest cases the panel described were made in Finance’s language, and some came from unexpected directions.
Profit can do more for the case than revenue. For one brand, showing that members stay profitable, even with benefits such as free delivery, built headroom with Finance. A customer dashboard open to the board keeps those measures in front of decision-makers.
Sharing data with performance teams has built credibility too. Every panellist passes CRM audiences into paid media, and the benefits run both ways:
- Excluding people who already engage makes spend more efficient.
- Lookalikes built from customer data help category campaigns find new buyers.
- Segments such as families have taught one team things about its audiences it didn’t know.
In one business, performance teams now come to CRM asking for audiences, and share data back.
Sometimes investment flows indirectly. Proven member value can support marketing spend on acquiring similar customers. That spend in turn raises what the business expects CRM to deliver.
At The Lowry, the case takes a different shape. As a charity, it needs CRM to support diversity, access and inclusion alongside ticket and retail revenue. Investment is framed as future-proofing the organisation by reaching younger audiences, rather than purely as a growth play.
Strategic takeaways
The Manchester conversation described teams that have earned their standing and are now meeting limits that effort alone can’t fix. Data sits in separate places, the skills needed fall between teams, platforms don’t yet work together, and BAU absorbs the hours. The most practical ideas were about removing one constraint at a time:
- Map where team time goes against where revenue comes from.
- Fix the data connection that unlocks the most value first.
- Name the technical skills the team lacks in the investment case.
- Show value in profit and lifetime value, and keep it visible through shared dashboards.
The full CRM Reality Check report will be published shortly, including how CRM and Finance leaders compare on what holds CRM back and what it would take to unlock further investment. For the view from London, read More Influence, More Pressure: What CRM Leaders in London Told Us.
For more perspectives on smarter CRM strategy, follow Plinc on LinkedIn.
