Putting the CRM in sCRuM

Representatives of the Castleford Tigers rugby league club have announced the installation of a customer relationship management and ticketing system to tailor special offers to fans.

Despite an eleventh-place finish in the twelve-team division in 2006, the West Yorkshire club has definite plans to improve their lot in life soon. In addition to the CRM system, Castleford is moving to a new stadium “in the next couple of years.” CRM improvement is seen as a first step in the moving process. David Smart, team marketing and media manager, said, “Rather than wait and bring in a CRM system then, we felt it would be better for Castleford to start working with Software4Sports’ Talent Sport system now and get it embedded,” he said. “In the past we didn’t have much of a fan database, but this allows us to know the fans and to communicate in a much more sophisticated fashion.”

Talent Sport is a ticketing and customer relationship management system, developed by Software4Sport, a division of Computer Software Group plc, specifically for sports clubs. Talent Sport is built in a modular structure atop a core ticketing and CRM system, allowing addition integrated modules such as marketing, automated telephone sales and smartcard interface.

Clubs using Talent Sport include Liverpool FC, Newcastle United FC, Panathinaikos FC, Crewe Alexandra FC, Leicester Tigers, Northampton Saints, Bradford Bulls and Durham CCC.

And recently called up to the first division of CRM was Coventry City FC, which went has live with Talent in October, allowing the purchase of tickets directly from the Coventry website. Coventry is also to launch an automated sales line open 24/7 for buying tickets to home fixtures.

Coventry is leasing Talent Sport and the concomitant hardware for a fixed quarterly fee. In explaining, CS Group had better be hoping that Coventry clubbers don’t read the CRM industry news. Said CS Group’s Software4Sport division managing director Glenn Jackson: “Cash flow for sports clubs is unpredictable. You can’t be sure what league you’ll be in next season, or what your income will be.” Is he suggesting the possibility of demotion?