CRM solution

The benefits that CRM can offer the publishing industry have not reached much beyond the advertising sales department. Embracing CRM to increase reader revenue has been much harder. This is not because of a shortfall in the technology available to us; the fundamental problem is the data itself.

Most publishers operate disparate systems for controlled circulation, subscriptions, conferences and exhibitions. That means it can be very difficult and expensive to pull the data into a single customer view. The case for a single customer view continues to increase, and is becoming compelling for a whole host of reasons:

* It leads to a much better understanding of the customer. Publishers stand a much better chance of maximising the growth of their business by providing products and services they know their customers want or need.
* Publishers are continuing to extend brands into new areas; this creates the opportunity to cross-sell and up-sell products, but it also increases the complexities of managing customer data effectively.
* Much higher levels of customer service can be offered if the data is held in a single location. This will also lead to customers being able to exercise greater control in terms of the communications they wish to receive. That in turn will deliver quality points of contact, not quantity points of contact, which will help customers to remain loyal.
* Linking different legacy systems enables automatic updates to be fed through to operating systems, and leads to many data processing efficiencies. It reduces the amount of stale data on the systems.
* Increased opportunities to generate revenue from tailored content delivery.

During the past three years, William Reed Publishing has embarked on a development programme with the ultimate aim of achieving a central view of their costumers. The objective was to create a system that could not only integrate a number of disparate systems but would also manage the collection and processing of data through all the available channels of communication.

In terms of a single view of the customer, we started with a customer centric model and our strategy is to relate all our business elements to it. We are now in the final stages of completing a rewrite of our circulation system – something which was essential to deliver a single view of our customers. The end result has been … CRISP (Customer Reader Information System for Publishers).

The project has been divided into two phases, with phase 2 delivering many of the refinements and benefits. Already we are seeing immediate benefits from the features we have designed into the system such as:

1. Avoiding stale data
It is often not cost effective to load lists of prospects onto a central system, as it is difficult and time consuming. As a result, prospect data is usually kept on different systems. List selections are consequently difficult and time consuming, and campaigns run the risk of going out late because of it. The data also becomes increasingly stale, as updates can’t be made to the lists.

We have created a bulk loading facility to automate much of the process, which vastly increases the efficiencies in loading data. A ‘legacy system integrator’ enables data to be matched from other systems, in an intelligent way. Business rules are shared, and the system remembers previous matches, reducing the amount of resources required to link systems.

2. Remote user access
Often subscription marketing calls are outsourced to individuals or small companies. Remote user access improves response rates, as it enables users to see the complete and up-to-date record. Remote users can update the records, and use the system’s CRM functionality to improve their effectiveness and reduce their administration time.

3. Cross selling and upselling
It is easier to increase the yield from existing customers rather than to find new ones. It is very important to be able to bundle products within promotions and renewal series. CRISP also has the ability to offer alternatives products at the point of sale / renewal. In addition CRISP manages our conferences and seminar bookings.

4. Campaign management
Subscription marketers can use the intelligence of previous calls when selecting records to be called. Intuitive screens can be set up for offers / products / campaigns and promotions. The marketing team can do this. In addition, intuitive renewal set up enables multiple renewals campaigns to take place at any one time. For example, home subscribers can be incentivised to take DD, overseas campaigns can go out a little earlier to allow for accounts delays, and new renewal packs can easily be tested.

5. Logical demographic data structures
Our new system aggregates data held at all levels for maximum accuracy. Automatic algorithms take account of source / date and the seniority of the person providing the information, to update profile information. This means, for example, the ‘profile of turnover’ provided by a managing director a year ago would not be overwritten by information supplied by a secretary, but it would if it was supplied by a sales director.

6. Address verification
The system ensures that new data is better quality than what it replaces. There is an ‘escalation of verification mechanism’ that enables this is to be done by the most knowledgeable person in the customer company. This is driven by automated rules that don’t rely on any human intervention.

7. High level customer services
All transactions are held at contact level and data can be processed at once with a high level of automation.

8. Links to best of breed, ‘off the peg’ software solutions
Rather then re-invent wheels, where possible we have used ‘off the peg’ software. It is important to use these, making only small modifications. In our experience, it is better to walk away from a feature rich tool, and opt for another supplier, if significant modifications are required. Using third party tools also helps future proof the system. The packages we are using are:

* FastStats (data mining and campaign management)
* HelpIt (de-duplication software)
* Quick Address (post coding and sorting)
* Open (our accounting software)
* Albany (direct debit)

In phase 2 of the CRISP development, which is due to complete later this year, we are expecting to roll out additional components: self service, CRM integration and dynamic demographic data collection. All of these will offer us significant cost savings and revenue generating opportunities.

* Self service
Operating seamlessly with the circulation system, we will enable our audience to update their own records. The process will collect data or money, present any updates for verification, and / or deliver the product. This could be access to a website, download of a report, or an RSS feed.

* Integration Microsoft CRM
We selected this CRM software to view our customer, but most of our functionality is outside the CRM package. Firing up the software accesses the data. Any updates made by our staff using MS CRM synchronises with our central address file through verification.

The main benefits MS CRM gives us are:

* Full integration with Outlook
* Ability to hold notes and use the workflow functionality
* We expect to be able to grow additional revenue streams, selling data content packaged in CRM. If successful, this will reduce also the cost of updating, and improve the quality of the data as more and more companies update the records.

* Dynamic demographics
Most publishers ask the same qualifying questions year in, year out. We can create additional depths of knowledge of our customers, in using the demographics already held on the system. So, for example, we may start asking a retailer whether they are licensed to sell alcohol, and then go on to ask whether they sell beers / wines / spirits, then move on to ask them whether they sell wine from particular regions.

When we started out on this project, we had a very clear idea of the features and benefits we wanted the new system to have. We were also keen to ensure that the system would be constructed and implemented in a modular way to minimise the impact on day to day business. Our second imperative was to ensure the new system was future proofed, which is why we have linked our central address file with ‘off the peg’, best of breed software as well as bespoke functionality written in .NET.

Our new system was developed in partnership with Kay Media Technologies, a consultancy and software services company that specialises in the publishing sector. Each of the modules that comprise CRISP is now being actively marketed to other publishers.