Scott Hudgins, VP of Customer Managed Relationships at The Walt Disney Company shared details about how Disney has approached CRM and the guiding principles and key learnings that have driven their success.

They began their CRM process in 2001 knowing that most of their customers were somewhere in one of their databases.  One of their guiding principles has been to get customers to opt in to any engagement based on interest and how they wanted to be engaged.  Over time, they use progressive data capture to get smarter and smarter about each customer’s profile, and they expend a great deal of effort to customize the content of their touches based on the details they have about the recipient.

They focus on being relevant for each individual on their own terms and strive to know the guest well enough at any point in time or place that we know what to do next.  And that sometimes doing nothing can also be valuable.  They also recognize that a close partnership with operations is key to achieving relevance.  He said that in the past it may have seemed like they had a ton of disparate campaigns talking at the guest and they now focus on having their communications across all channels seem like a harmonious conversation with each guest.  I have to say that as an enthusiastic Disney customer and also a shareholder – I understand exactly what he's saying.

On the topic of technology change, Scott said that they’re “mostly additive,” noting that direct, email, social, print, TV, mobile apps, contact centers and text all continue to co-exist as viable communication channels.  He has a point.

For Disney, this consumer-centric mindset permeates everything that they do.  They’re focusing on understanding, surprising and delighting their customers in an individually relevant way.  And being able to do that depends on growing trust, so it’s a key part of the way they cultivate loyalty.

Finally, two more nuggets that are key takeaways from this session are these:

• “Noone owns the guest, but someone always owns the moment.”
• Consumer trust will become an economic asset that can be measured and grown.

For more details about how customer intelligence can make a difference in your business, please visit the SAS Customer Intelligence webpage or scan through our thought leadership articles on the Customer Intelligence Knowledge Exchange.  As always, please leave a comment if you have any thoughts about this topic.  And thanks again for following!