Your CRM programme is having a very productive conversation with itself.
The open rates are up. The click rates are within benchmark. The segmentation is more sophisticated than it was eighteen months ago. The automation sequences are running smoothly. And the customers who most need to hear from you are either not receiving the right message, not receiving it at the right moment, or receiving the right message at the right moment and not responding because the commercial relationship that would make the message land does not yet exist.
CRM performance metrics measure the programme. They do not measure the commercial relationship the programme is supposed to be building.
A customer who opens every email and has not purchased in five months is not an engaged customer. They are a habit. The inbox is familiar. The relationship is not strong enough to produce a transaction without a discount, which means the programme has been maintaining a connection rather than building a commercial relationship.
The distinction between maintaining a connection and building a commercial relationship is the difference between a loyalty card that records visits and one that changes behaviour. One is a data collection exercise. The other is a commercial strategy.
What is your CRM programme actually changing in customer behaviour? Not in open rates. In purchase frequency, basket size, and category expansion. Those are the metrics that tell you whether the programme is working.
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