From the desk of CRM Santa's elves

I probably shouldn't be writing this. Not because it's a secret, exactly, but more because CRM Santa doesn't love it when we interfere in his business. He prefers people to work things out for themselves. But after watching perfectly well-intentioned brands slide quietly onto the naughty list and some just downright deserving to be there all year round, I felt I needed to step in. I'm sure he'll forgive me when I make another 400,000 of the latest thing you all want.

Think of this as a favour. From an elf who's seen the ledger, and boy, it's not looking good for some of you.

What December does to CRM teams

December does strange things to your CRM teams. He sees your meetings, and we see the notes. You have lots of big plans, make bigger promises, and everyone is convinced that next year will be the year everything finally clicks. More relevance. Better journeys. Cleaner data. It's all very earnest.

CRM Santa doesn't mind earnest, not in the slightest. What he watches for is behaviour and meaning.

The power of restraint

He notices who panics and fills every available slot and sees who leaves space. As the well-known saying goes, 'He knows when you are leaving space, he knows when your..., ok, forget that.) He notices when emails exist because 'the system' allowed them to, rather than because there was something worth saying. Restraint scores very well in his books. Noise and lack of clarity does not.

Calendar-led CRM: A reliable path to trouble

One thing that reliably causes trouble is calendar-led CRM. The weekly newsletter goes out because it's Tuesday. The offer appears because it's Friday. Same again next week, style stuff. CRM Santa is far more interested in why a message showed up than when it did. What changed? What happened? What made it worth interrupting someone's day? And that's very important to always consider. If you are getting in the way of someone's dinner for an email with zero relevance, it's a long way back to the nice list.

Journey maps vs. momentum

Despite what some teams believe, he's also not dazzled by immaculate journey maps. He sees them, he appreciates them, sure, but the neatest diagrams rarely make it onto the nice list. What tends to count is momentum. Trying things. Learning quickly. Shipping something useful even if it isn't perfect. Done is always perfect in his book, as waiting for the "proper" version is a common reason brands stay exactly where they are.

What Santa really thinks about data

There's a lot of data up here, by the way, we are absolutely surrounded by it, can't move for the stuff. Scenes of our home typically show mountains of snow, but it's actually mountains of data (Keep that to yourself, data angels don't quite have the same ring to them!) CRM Santa loves data. In fact, under his suit, he has a tattoo across his chest that says 'DATA BABY'. He just doesn't reward or bump people up the list for simply collecting it and growing your database. He pays attention to what teams act on with data, what they ignore, and where they were willing to change course rather than stubbornly stick to a plan that clearly wasn't landing. Collecting everything and doing very little with it is a familiar path to the naughty list. Collecting data and being inappropriate with it, well, there's no way back.

What brands keep asking for (and what they should focus on instead)

As January approaches, the letters start coming in. Everyone is always asking for more next year. More journeys. More logic. More complexity. CRM Santa usually sighs at this point. He's a lovely guy, don't get me wrong but we all have our limits. What he'd really like to see is fewer assumptions, clearer priorities, and a bit more confidence in leaving things out, space is not there to be filled, enjoy the space.

Your path back to the nice list

If you're currently worried you might be on the naughty list (your analytics will give you a good indicator), here's what I'd suggest focusing on between now and next Christmas and I am going to get myself in trouble for this!

• Send fewer emails, but make sure each one has a reason to exist beyond the calendar.

• Decide which customer behaviours actually matter, and let the rest go.

• Treat data as a prompt for action and insight, how can you maximise it, it's not something you just admire from a distance

• Test things while they're still rough and learn quickly. Ship it!

• Reward attention, consistency and loyalty, not just spend.

• Get comfortable with subtraction, clarity usually comes from what you leave out.

None of this requires a new platform, a dramatic reset, or an expensive rebrand. It just requires someone (probably you) paying attention, making firm decisions, and standing behind them.

I'll leave the rest to you. CRM Santa will be watching, but in a quiet, observant way. He always is.

Lots of love and festive cheer,

An elf who wants to see you do better next year 🎄