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Controlling CRM in a Crises: managing automated marketing mishaps



This 5 min read highlights situations that require adjusting your Automated marketing and provides 9 steps to prepare and execute a response strategy.

I’m a big fan of CRM and its ability to automate personalized engagement tactics at scale.  Leveraging advanced marketing tacticsand technology, B2C and B2B organizations leverage CRM to deliver massive returns.  With careful construction and ongoing test and improvement, automated campaigns deliver thoughtful and personalized engagement across the customer lifecycle at scale.  
Until it doesn’t.  The current coronavirus  pandemic one of three scenarios when the beloved drip campaign turns into water torture, risking experience and loyalty in the process. 

3 Times to Review Your CRM Automated Campaigns

1. Operational Issues
The most common yet often poorly coordinated scenario, operational challenges include things like the website is down, support centers are understaffed, payments or other required processes are impacted.  For example, while at MetLife, we sent a major email campaign driving inbound calls on the same morning the call center staff was in all-day training.  D’oh!  Sonds simple but CRM campaigns designed to generate traffic should coordinate with impacted teams to ensure resources are available and have the best chance to engage and convert. 

2. Current events
Let’s face it, things move pretty fast.  What sounded like a great subject line last month might now belong in cards against humanity.  Current events run the gambit of social, celebrity, political, natural and economic disasters.  The severity of an incident varies significantly in this scenario, ranging from being considered tone deaf to offensive all the way to criminal negligence.   When public meaning shifts because of social movements like me too, new popular phrases and even emojis, your automated campaigns could be impacted. 

For example, I recently joined a professional networking group called lunchbreak.  Their email #2 was built to encourage me to set a time to meet another professional I don’t know for coffee or lunch.  Perfect for a new customer on any normal day.  Of course, on this day I was busy losing a % of my stockmarket value and stocking up on canned goods in a facemask.
I like this example because the team recovered quickly, sending out the same email with a revised subject line: “now supporting video”
Here’s an additional link for more on managing coronavirus impacts on your loyalty program.


3. Company Failures
The third scenario is different than a natural disaster because it’s entirely focused on the company, its people and products.  Product recalls, management changes, and bankruptcy are all examples and brings a new set of requirements for sensitivity and brand stewardship.  When Samsung’s Galaxy Note7 lithium battery started exploding and were banned from commercial flights, its time to rethink the CRM campaign encouraging recent browsers.  When Carlos Ghosn filmed his own spy escape movie, its probably good for Nissan to dial down verbiage like escape, steal, or brand values. 

So what do I do now?  Who can forget the wise words of tactical preparedness from the back of the A Team van, “the best offence is a good defense.”  You don’t have to be a fool to recognize the importance of preparation in addition to execution in managing a crisis.   

Event Preparation:
1.       Build a good connection with your communications & PR teams.  Know the key players and ask to understand and be included in their emergency protocol.
2.       Inventory your communication themes and assets for easy reference.  This can be a big undertaking, so start by inventorying every new campaign, and then capture existing campaigns on a priority based. 
3.       Stop the line: Like the lean manufacturing concept, it’s important to know who on the team has the ability to stop a campaign if necessary.  Make sure you have coverage so you can stop a campaign no matter who is on vacation.
4.       Assign “owners”: Whether by campaign or by stage, it’s helpful to have a resident expert who knows enough about the campaigns to quickly find and manage any issues that arise and feels responsible for their resolution.

Event Execution: OK, so something just happened.
5.       Set priority: Convene the team and align on the immediate priority to protect the customer experience & brand.
6.       Triage: Discuss what’s known, the root cause, and define immediate steps & owners to reduce risk (change subject line, reroute clickflow/CTA, pause specific campaigns, )
7.       Notify: other process owners of the impacts to their process flows based on the changes you made as soon as possible (ideally before you make the change).
8.       Apologize if needed: It’s painful but sometimesit’s also the right thing to do. 
9.   Question "business as usual" assumptions: while not an immediate concern, after a crises its a good idea to reconsider core preferences like message density, contact time and frequency. While Tuesday am used to be the best time to reach a B2B prospect, current prospects may be busy home-schooling and respond better in the evening

While we may have recognized the challenges that Lucy and Ethel would face at a high speed chocolate factory, marketing automation challenges aren’t as easy to spot. Of course stuff happens and will continue to happen. How well you can recognize and quickly address your automated communications can make the difference if you can protect the customer experience and brand.




This post first appeared on Better Business Banter, please read the originial post: here

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