Centralising client data and automating email marketing for a luxury home design practice

Overview

Luxury home designers and architects depend on long-term relationships, detailed client histories, and consistent communication. This case study explains how SME Software Help helped a UK-based luxury home design and architecture practice replace fragmented systems with a single, joined-up CRM and email marketing setup.

The organisation has chosen to remain anonymous. The challenges addressed are common across the luxury residential design and architecture sector.

The problem: disconnected systems and reactive follow-up

Before this engagement, the business used a mixture of inboxes, spreadsheets, and Asana to manage clients and prospects. Asana worked well for internal project delivery, but it was difficult to use as a CRM. Relationship history was hard to track, communications were siloed in individual inboxes, and prospect follow-up relied too heavily on memory rather than process.

Website enquiries were not flowing into a central system. Although the team wanted to send monthly newsletters, there was no reliable way to maintain clean, up-to-date mailing lists. Over time, this created inefficiencies and increased the risk of missed opportunities.

Project goals

The brief was clear and commercially focused:

The solution: Capsule CRM and Transpond

To meet these requirements, Capsule CRM was implemented as the central relationship management platform, supported by Transpond for newsletters and ongoing email communication. This combination separated relationship management from marketing activity while ensuring both systems stayed in sync.

Migrating from Asana to a fully featured CRM

A key part of the project involved migrating historical data out of Asana. Existing records were exported in CSV format, reviewed, and restructured to reflect CRM best practice. Once imported into Capsule, contacts, notes, and historical context were preserved, giving the team continuity without carrying forward the limitations of their previous setup.

This alone improved visibility, as client and prospect information could now be viewed in one place and accessed consistently across the team.

Structuring data with tags and smart filters

Capsule was tailored to reflect how the practice actually works. Tags were introduced to distinguish between clients and prospects, identify relationship types, and reflect stages of engagement.

Using Capsule’s filtering capabilities, dynamic lists were created based on criteria such as location. These lists update automatically as records change, removing the need for manual list maintenance and making segmentation more dependable.

Email marketing and newsletters

With clean CRM data in place, Transpond was introduced to manage monthly newsletters and ongoing marketing communication. Website form submissions now feed directly into the CRM and, where appropriate, new contacts are enrolled into newsletter lists automatically.

Because marketing lists are driven by CRM tags and filters, they remain accurate without extra administration. This ensures clients and prospects receive consistent, relevant communication, while the team avoids duplicated effort.

Communication tracking and relationship visibility

Email inboxes were connected to Capsule so that correspondence with clients and prospects is logged automatically. This created a complete communication history for every relationship, accessible to the whole team.

For a luxury design practice, this visibility is critical. It supports smoother collaboration, better handovers, and a more considered client experience, particularly on long-running or high-value projects.

Outcomes

Key takeaways for architects and luxury design businesses

Businesses in this sector benefit most when relationship data is centralised and easy to maintain. Project management tools are rarely suitable substitutes for CRMs, particularly where long sales cycles and repeat interactions are involved.

Thoughtful use of tags, filters, and automated email marketing can materially improve follow-up, visibility, and client experience without adding operational overhead.