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Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines sail to success with Zoho CRM Plus

"Zoho CRM Plus has been an incredible advantage to us"

Nicki GordonCRM Manager, Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines

The company

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines transports guests from the UK to far-flung destinations in style, elegance, and luxury. Operating three small, intimate ships, its crew takes pride in getting to know each traveller and delivering personalised touches that make for a memorable journey. Established in 1848, the business promises to channel "175 years of experience discovering the world into making every single day special for guests."

Fred. Olsen's CRM manager, Nicki Gordon, tells us why the Zoho CRM Plus bundle of applications, expertly implemented by A2Z Cloud, has helped the business double down on that promise. 

The challenge

In 2019, prior to Nicki's tenure, Fred. Olsen's leadership team decided that its customer database was too basic to serve its growing needs and would have to be replaced by a CRM. "The decision was made that Zoho CRM would be the best fit for us, mostly because of how malleable it is," explains Nicki.

What the team couldn't foresee was the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which struck just as the business was mapping out its CRM requirements. "It took over everything, and it almost made us forget what those real-life circumstances were and what our requirements were," says Nicki.  

When Nicki joined the business in 2022, she recognised that although the CRM was performing well in many areas, the way it had been constructed during the dark days of the pandemic had resulted in silos between its guest and booking data. This was hampering the delivery of its exceptional customer service. So, Nicki headed up a team to enact Fred. Olsen's CRM transformation strategy resolves to restructure and knit together its fragmented data sets. "The key that we had to achieve here was, every user seeing that consistent 360° view of the guest, from personal information through to the detailed booking segments," she explains.

Nicki also hoped that a CRM revamp would positively impact Fred. Olsen's internal reporting, itinerary planning, and marketing campaigns, compiling a full list of requirements:

  • Create a unified view of each customer and their bookings inside the CRM.
  • Connect the CRM seamlessly to Fred. Olsen's existing cruise operating system.
  • Collect customer feedback using surveys to shape future itineraries.
  • Enhance reporting to visualise customer trends and highlight areas for improvement.
  • Automate its "Welcome Home" incentive email campaign.
  • Accurately attribute new cruise bookings to marketing activities.
  • Drive increased ROI across mail campaigns by improving data segmentation.
  • Transition the Guest Services Daily Log spreadsheet into a dynamic CRM module to improve incident resolution times and identify patterns.
     

The solution

In 2022, Nicki headed to the Zoholics user conference in London to find out more about Zoho CRM's possibilities. It was there that she met the team from A2Z Cloud, a premium UK Zoho partner with the know-how to deliver this extensive project.

Initially, A2Z's developers zeroed in on the CRM, using a network of API calls to connect it to the external cruise operating system and reorganising modules and look-up fields to link booking data with guest data. They also built a custom module inside the CRM to house Fred. Olsen's guest services daily log, a record of open incidents reported to the ship-side crew by passengers. In the past, Fred. Olsen had used a shared Excel spreadsheet for this purpose, which had been difficult to keep up to date and analyse. "We were delayed getting on top of incidents and what we needed to do to prevent them in the future," explains Nicki. By digitising the log, the CRM's users could now see a real-time, dynamic record of any incident, which could be easily filtered due to its "category" and "reason" drop-down fields.

Next, with A2Z Cloud's recommendation, Nicki rolled out the wider CRM Plus bundle of applications across the organisation. This enabled seamless integration of marketing activities, comprehensive reporting, and customer feedback collation within just one connected ecosystem.

With CRM Plus on board, Zoho Analytics allowed Fred. Olsen's senior leadership dives into the performance of each department, tracks KPIs and visualises trends. "We're always looking at how we can innovate our itineraries," says Nicki. Armed with Zoho Analytics, itinerary planning is now informed by robust data and trend insights so that its management can make changes with confidence.

By plugging in Zoho Survey to the CRM, Fred. Olsen has been able to glean important insights directly from its customers, too. One day after returning from a cruise, the CRM triggers a "Welcome Home" email to each guest that links to a 10-part questionnaire exploring every aspect of their adventure. The first question, which captures an overall rating of 1-10, helps Fred. Olsen measure its NPS (Net Promoter Score), something that Nicki proudly tells us has risen by 2 points to 57 since the CRM Plus bundle was implemented. However, when the Zoho Survey's results reveal that customer satisfaction with an aspect of the cruise is low, the business is empowered to make improvements.

When it comes to marketing activities, Fred. Olsen "has noticed some significant improvements," says Nicki. Adding Zoho Marketing Automation to its software stack, its team has been able to tailor communications to its customers more than ever before. Drawing upon variables such as departure date, duration of cruise, or destination, Fred. Olsen can automate the emails that are sent at timely intervals. For instance, the "Welcome Home" email is triggered one day after a guest returns home and contains an incentive for them to rebook whilst the cruise is still front of mind. What's more, the team can tie new bookings back directly to the campaign source inside Marketing Automation, giving them a clear steer on what works and what doesn't.

It's not just digital campaigns that Zoho has turned the tide on, either. By using its newly connected guest and booking data inside the CRM, Fred. Olsen's marketing team has been able to segment its customer base on a deeply granular level. As a result, it was able to slash the number of households receiving its latest direct mail campaign to a smaller, highly targeted demographic. This significantly cut its print volumes by 68% but still delivered the same ROI as its previous campaign.

Now that's what we call smooth sailing!

Benefits and ROI

Fred. Olsen's CRM Plus benefits - an overview:

  • A 2-point increase in its Net Promoter Score.
  • A 68% reduction in direct mail print volumes.
  • Personalised marketing campaigns reduced costs and materials to improve ROI.
  • Attained a 360-degree view of each customer and their associated bookings.
  • Saw improvements in operational efficiency, incident resolution times, and customer service.

Read the detailed story here.

  • Industry typeHospitality and Travel
  • EmployeesAbove 500
  • Type of businessB2C