Earlier this week, Plinc partnered with DMA North to host a breakfast briefing in Leeds. Bringing together CRM and customer marketing leaders from across sectors including travel, retail, hospitality, and beauty, the session was a refreshingly honest discussion of what it really takes to scale meaningful personalisation, build loyalty beyond discounts, and make smart commercial decisions in a tough trading climate.
Here are three key takeaways from the discussion.
1. Personalisation That Feels Right, Not Just Clever
For all the talk of hyper-personalisation, the consensus in the room was clear: the goal isn’t more, it’s better.
“Should you personalise? Yes. No. Maybe. Sometimes,” noted a senior CRM leader in the beauty industry. “We never personalised our brand messages, but when it came to product, we made sure to guide customers at the right time-like 30 days in, not before, because that’s how long skincare takes to show results.”
A marketing director in the travel sector echoed the value of combining “thin” data (quantitative performance metrics) with “thick” data (qualitative insight). She shared how she personally facilitates quarterly customer panels to speak directly with travellers across a range of topics: “The data is brilliant but what really matters is having the confidence to sit in front of your customers and listen, in person. That’s where you find what the numbers alone can’t tell you.”
One point raised was the danger of falling into the ‘rabbit hole’ of over-personalisation. Just because the technology says you can do everything, doesn’t mean you should. If you start promising what you can’t scale, the letdown for customers can be significant. The marketing director shared a striking example of this challenge: “I’m spending my evenings writing letters back to customers… at some stage, you can’t do that, and then the letdown for those individuals who think they’ve got that kind of friendship around is so significant.”
Takeaway? Smart personalisation isn’t about chasing complexity. It’s about recognising when, where and why it matters.
2. Real Loyalty Isn’t Bought, It’s Earned
Discounts might move the dial in the short term, but they rarely build meaningful loyalty. The most compelling stories shared at the event came from brands investing in recognition, not just reward.
In one example from the beauty sector, there was no formal points programme in place. Instead, loyalty was recognised through small, thoughtful gestures tied to meaningful behaviours like tenure or gifting. “If you’d been with us 10 years, you’d get a handwritten thank-you and a brand book. That was it. No discount. No CTA. Just thanks,” shared a senior CRM leader in the industry.
The discussion around transactional loyalty highlighted how discounts can sometimes backfire especially when loyal customers feel overlooked. As one brand leader put it: “We book with you every year. Why should we be penalised?”
Loyalty is also about the long game. Several speakers pointed to subscription models (e.g., Moonpig, HelloFresh) and sustainability-led loyalty (e.g., brands that plant trees per purchase or manufacture only what’s been pre-ordered) as ways to deepen engagement without racing to the bottom on price.
The room agreed: points alone don’t equal loyalty. Recognition, relevance, and relationships do.
3. CRM’s Role Is Bigger Than Just Marketing
Navigating the tension between trading pressure and long-term customer value is a daily reality for CRM teams. And it’s not easy.
A senior commercial leader in multi-channel retail put it bluntly: “There’s a real temptation to fall into the cycle of discounting… but we need to get better at trading with the customer in mind.”
Another perspective, from a CRM expert in the global beauty space, highlighted how customer data can be used to improve timing and relevance, not just drive conversions: “We realised some customers finished a product in 15 days, others in 60. Instead of offering everyone 30% off after 30 days, we timed offers based on actual usage. It became about relevance, not just a discount mechanic.”
Others shared how they used CRM mechanics to gather data, not just activate it. Loyalty programmes weren’t just about driving return visits. They were about building the foundation to understand customers better, measure tenure, or influence in-store staff behaviour.
A marketing leader in the travel and experiences sector shared how they created stronger internal buy-in for CRM: “We paid retail staff a pound per email address collected because we knew it was worth 15 times that. And suddenly, everyone got why data mattered.”
The bigger lesson? CRM isn’t just a communications function. It’s a lever for shaping commercial thinking, channel strategy, and internal culture across the business.
Final Thoughts
What emerged in Leeds was a picture of CRM as a strategic discipline, one that’s less about martech stacks and more about making customer decisions clearer, faster, and better aligned to commercial outcomes.
CRM leaders don’t just deliver personalisation or loyalty. They bring focus, clarity, and momentum across the business.
And the best ones are helping their teams work smarter, not just louder.
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