Why Santa needs a CRM

Delivering presents globally in one night is a mammoth undertaking, especially if you have a world of children relying on you! The whole process would be simplified and stress-free if Santa could use a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution at Christmas this year.  Let’s explore why.

Handling Christmas wish lists 
With nearly all the children in the world writing letters to Santa, that’s a lot of paper to manage.  The sheer volume of letters that Santa receives could bury him, his elves and all the reindeers in paper.  Worse still they certainly can’t risk losing a letter and forgetting a child. Using a CRM solution, Santa or one his elves could load letters as documents against each child’s contact details. Appointments and meetings can be created from the letter, which are then visible on each elf’s calendar, ensuring that nobody misses important present-making status calls!

Naughty/Nice Lists 
Everybody knows that Santa has the responsibility of deciding which child has been naughty or nice. To organise who gets their gift on merit, he could arrange for all the elves to go through paper files, assess each situation, stamp the file and then pass it on. However, this would be a time-consuming task, with slow turnaround, and hard to standardise. With CRM, the elves could use an opportunity assessment feature which has editable question sets depending on Santa’s criteria, resulting in a naughty or nice score for each individual child.

Toy management
Now picture Santa’s production team tracking all of the lists of gifts to create, pack and prepare for distribution.  A CRM solution would give the elves greater visibility of the pipeline.  By using dashboards they could check the amount of toys made versus the amount they still need to make, ensuring they are on target for Christmas Eve and nobody gets forgotten.

Who is #1 high-achieving elf? 
Whilst every elf will be working hard on the run up to Christmas, Santa’s whole ethos is based on generosity of spirit, so he would want to track who are his top performing elves and reward them with an extra treat for their hard work.  The elves could be rewarded based on their performance; the more opportunities they manage, the more compensation they will receive. Rewarding performance is a great motivator and influences attitudes and behaviours. Santa could use the pre-built reports to track which elf has come out on top.  There would also be the added privilege of being part of the esteemed ‘Elf Wall of Honour.’ 

Segment sleigh loads of names and characteristics 
Santa’s CRM solution would have dozens of groups of segmented lists.  For example boys aged 9-11 in Manchester who would love to receive a games console; girls aged 7-9 in London who want the latest crafting kits; teens in Birmingham looking to get a new tablet.  Of course the creation of these group lists has to be easy for each of the elves to manage.  Using CRM, they have the ability to segment based on geographical location. Now when you are trying to schedule that many deliveries, you need to know specific addresses for those roof top landings and best routes - all of which is made simpler with a CRM solution and by using Google Map integration.  Santa can then plan the most effective route for his sleigh to take, minimising reindeer effort!

Access on the go 
When Christmas Eve finally arrives, if Santa has elected to use a CRM in the cloud he can use the cloud option to update his opportunities whilst sleigh-borne. He can log a visit when he’s down the chimney, mark the list as complete and close the opportunity once he’s delivered the goods – all from the mobile app! He also has visibility of pending deliveries – meaning no disappointed children on Christmas morning. 

When Santa finally returns to Lapland, once he makes sure that the reindeers are fed and settled he can spend some quality time with Mrs Claus.  As he settles in front of the fire with a well-deserved beverage, he can be confident that another Christmas has been successfully completed with the support of his helpers and his invaluable CRM. 

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