We received, this week, two digital messages that grabbed my attention in the way of customer relationship management (CRM).

The first example came from our children’s dentist, based in Neuilly (outskirts of Paris).  Partly because their telephone answering service is so poor, we suspect, this dentist has invested in a service to send SMS reminders to us about our upcoming rendez-vous.  The text message states the patient (my son in this case), the time of the rendez-vous along with a reminder of the address.  Easy to copy and paste into your agenda.  Great idea.  A value-added service as far as the customer is concerned and a way to limit the number of late or no-shows.  It’s truly a wonder that all restaurants do not do the same.  If a dentist office is able to do this, I suspect that all businesses with a reservation system (hairdressers included) should also be doing so… slowly moving into the 21st century.  It simply takes capturing your client’s mobile numbers systematically and paying for a service which automatically sends out the messages.  The investment is absolutely worth it as far as I am concerned.

A second message I received (jpg below) was a “personal invitation” from Lancôme.  The email was quite surprising in that the personal invitation didn’t even include my name.  The invitation was as impersonal as could be.

I don’t mean to pick on Lancôme as I have received other similar “blanket” messages from other companies; but, I have to believe that mass companies are going to need to get better at interfacing with — and attracting — their customers.  If a dentist is able to send me a personalised message, the larger ‘impersonal’ companies should take stock and hone in on a proper CRM strategy, especially since the message can so easily be personalised with a little bit of client database management.

In the interim, I vote by unsubscribing.