Getting a Grip on CRM

A long-term vision is not the whole story for Hudsons Bay, though. Thecompany also has short-term goals. We decided that the first thing weneeded to do was to consolidate our customer information, Shieldssays. But the goal was to drive an economic return at least break-evenwithin six months. What we did was to consolidate our two largestdatabases: our loyalty database and our credit-card database.

Having combined those databases, the company could earn immediatebenefits by, for instance, pitching credit cards to those customers inits loyalty-program database who didnt already have them.

Trying to do it all at once is often a recipe for disaster, but thesame can be said for taking it one step at a time with no long-termplan. The Hudsons Bay approach was to lay out a five-year plan butthen implement it in manageable stages. Perhaps most importantly, HBCstarted out by asking itself What is the end goal of our CRMinitiative? With that goal in mind, it knows all the steps it needs totake in order to get where it wants to be.

Taking A Phased Approach

Starting with something that both provides a foundation for the futureand delivers measurable results in a few months helps build supportfor a CRM initiative.