Proximity nets CRM task in Dixons Carphone turnaround

carphone2Dixons Carphone, the UK’s biggest electrical and mobile phone retailer, has appointed Proximity London to devise CRM strategies for its Currys PC World and Carphone Warehouse brands as the company ramps up its transformation programme on the back of a profits slump.
The agency has picked up the activity without a pitch and been briefed to work on a number of projects, including a back to school and university campaign. It will also devise a series of initiatives covering the key trading periods of Black Friday, Christmas and the January sales.
The retailer also works with Proximity’s Omnicom sister agency AMV BBDO, which recently drafted in Peter Crouch to appear in its advertising (pictured), and loyalty specialist Ecrebo.
Dixons Carphone customer communications and brand director Dan Rubel said: “At Dixons Carphone we are here to help everyone enjoy amazing technology. That’s what makes us special.
“It’s at the heart of everything we do, including how we help our existing customers enjoy, discover and get the most out of the exciting and ever-changing world of new technology. We’re very excited to bring Proximity on board, to help us take our thinking and our execution on customer engagement to the next level.”
However, Dixons Carphone is also battling to rejuvenate its fortunes after the retailer’s pre-tax profit crashed 22% to £298m in the year to April 27, 2019.
At the time of its results announcement last month, chief executive Alex Baldock said the mobile phone market in the UK was changing faster than the business had expected. He said Dixons Carphone was accelerating its transformation plans as a result, to keep up with the pace of change.
But he warned there would be “more pain” to come for the group’s mobile phone division, despite his blueprint to revive that part of the business.
His five-year transformation plan includes merging the Currys PC World and Carphone Warehouse teams and improving its customer service proposition by investing £200m in staff training over the next three years.
There is also the not insignificant matter of an Information Commissioner’s Office investigation into last year’s data breach, which exposed 6 million customers’ payment card details.
The ICO has yet to confirm whether the company will be investigated under GDPR, a move which could trigger a fine of hundreds of millions of pounds, or the Data Protection Act 1998, under which it faces a maximum penalty of £500,000.
The company does have “previous”. In January last year, it was slapped with a £400,000 fine after a cyber-attack in 2015 allowed unauthorised access to the personal data of over 3 million customers and 1,000 employees.

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