How Impact Data unlocked a new level of efficacy with integrated messaging

The Impact Data platform is dedicated to customer engagement and marketing automation. It helps businesses communicate with customers to drive repeat visits, increase spending, and strengthen brand loyalty.

Its broad client base includes both hospitality and service-based businesses such as quick-service restaurants, clubs and hotels. Using automated SMS, email and digital messaging, clients can create relevant, timely and personalised messages at scale. That’s powered by integrated data from across the client’s CRM, POS and booking systems.

While messaging has always been an important part of the Impact Data offering, Lachlan Opray, CEO at Impact Data says he knew the company knew could offer clients a better, more reliable service with Sinch.

Impact Data’s approach is to connect its proprietary software with best-in-class, specialist providers. This ensures clients get industry-leading software, all organised within a single system.

For many years, Impact Data relied on multiple messaging providers, which resulted in inconsistent delivery rates, integration challenges and limited scalability.

It also added unnecessary admin work as the Impact Data team struggled to manage the multiple suppliers and lacked the required level of support.

A more scalable, reliable, and seamlessly integrated solution would solve these operational issues while unlocking better results for clients – a crucial part of customer acquisition and retention.

“In hospitality, the vast majority of databases, customers only have a single visit. Our job is to turn a first-time visitor into a loyal regular,” says Sarah Franklyn, Impact Data’s Director of Sales and Marketing. “To do that, we need the best-in-breed software platforms doing the right business.”

Stakeholders from across the company were part of selecting the new messaging partner.

They needed an automated messaging solution that could deliver personalised messages reliably and at scale. It would also need to seamlessly integrate with CRM and POS systems. After exploring multiple providers, Lachlan says the choice was clear.

“The key focus was on return on investment, impact on customer engagement and ease of integration. Sinch stood out due to its robust API capabilities, high deliverability rates and strong industry reputation. After initial trials and positive feedback, we made Sinch our primary messaging provider.

“Sinch’s ability to drive retention and revenue made it a clear choice.”

Sinch plays a key role in the Impact Data platform, which pulls customer data from POS systems, loyalty programmes and online booking systems, allowing segmentation and personalisation.

The client can then establish automated SMS and email campaigns through Sinch.

Running across these campaigns is an intelligence engine that delivers performance analysis to support campaign optimisation.

Transitioning from a previous provider often comes with disruption – however, Lachlan was pleasantly surprised.

“Sinch’s support team and onboarding process made the switch seamless. With Sinch, everything just works – unlike other providers.”

When Impact Data first partnered with Sinch in 2015, Lachlan noticed an immediate improvement in message delivery and engagement.

“Our clients saw better campaign performance, confirming that Sinch was the right choice.”

A decade later, Sinch is still a core part of Impact Data’s SMS and email automation platform. Sinch ensures clients can engage customers with timely, personalised communication.

Over the years, Impact Data and Sinch have delivered consistently excellent customer engagement, response rates and retention for clients. Those results are everything to Impact Data, which measures their success based on client outcomes.

The software has also been consistently backed by highly responsive and expert support from Sinch. Lachlan says that while the platform is “extremely low touch,” he knows he can rely on the Sinch team if he needs to.

“The software is heavily utilised and critical to our services. The high level of technical and sales support ensures we receive expert guidance and swift resolutions when needed. Sinch enables us to automate and scale customer engagement across multiple industries and destinations.

“Sinch underpins our platform, providing that bridge to make sure our customers can be as compliant and safe as possible with their data.”