What Makes Your CRM Implementation a Success?
A recent survey by Tech News World found that CRM benefits a diverse range of businesses in areas such as customer retention, product marketing and sales. But to reap the rewards of adopting a CRM system, the implementation process needs to run smoothly.
The first thing to acknowledge is that there are several challenges you could face, and these can be difficult to predict as every organization is different. If you’ve followed the tried and tested best practices for CRM system implementation, you should’ve avoided any major issues.
Training and Support
Ask yourself, have my CRM user base completed their training and do they feel supported?
CRM user adoption can make or break a CRM implementation project. Types of CRM training should be determined by the demands on the CRM system and the type of resources available to you. It might be that after a designated period, your staff are still struggling to get to grips with the system.
In this case, it’s worth investing in additional training sessions or gamification techniques to make it more fun. If your CRM provider can offer supplementary support materials, such as step-by-step
Guides, webinars or videos, make sure these are shared company-wide. Good feedback from users and high adoption rates are indications of an effective CRM implementation!
The CRM is Only as Good as Your Data
As your staff use the system’s features, consider an audit of your CRM data input. 70% of xero module users say their system offers improved access to customer data. This, of course, relies on clean data. There should be no duplicate or erroneous information, and customer records should be accurate and up-to-date.
Be cautious; if your sales team has seen a significant increase in growth since implementation, consider all other potential factors before you draw any pertinent conclusions. You should look at performance metrics which might prompt a deeper analysis, such as the call to appointment to conversion or email open and reply rates. If these have also increased, you can be more confident that your CRM is adding value to the company.
Summary
To drill down into ROI, it’s essential to refer back to your original CRM implementation budget forecast. Are there costs you haven’t accounted for, such as reduced productivity during the go-live period? Was your baseline estimate too high? Hopefully, having put together a realistic financial estimate initially, you’ll be able to refer back to your original documentation to demonstrate to key stakeholders that your implementation project has delivered the results you were all hoping for from the get-go.
Lauren Stafford is the Digital Publishing Specialist at Discover CRM, where they gather the latest news, resources and research about CRM systems.
