This session challenges the long-standing misconception that CRM is simply the engine behind email automation. Instead, it reframes CRM as the critical connector between a brand’s promise and its customers, grounded in real human behaviour, organisational readiness, and value-led technology choices. Drawing on real-world case studies across retail, subscription services, and luxury brands, the session illustrates why effective CRM requires a deeper understanding of customer intent, context, and psychology—far beyond the limits of digital behavioural data alone.

Attendees will learn how “thick data,” environmental context, human processes, and behavioural science underpin meaningful customer experiences. The talk introduces the DEPTH framework, a structured method for elevating CRM from a channel function to a strategic growth driver. The session concludes by highlighting the industry’s biggest gap: not technology or data, but the capability of teams to interpret, operationalise, and activate CRM insight at scale.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• CRM must be redefined as a strategic function—not a channel—by integrating data, context, behavioural insight and organisational readiness to deliver customer value.

• Effective personalisation requires moving beyond ‘thin’ digital signals to understand customer intent, environmental context, and real human drivers.

• Technology adoption succeeds when teams, processes, and ownership are aligned; organisations unlock value not through new platforms, but through people who know how to use them