Have you made these mistakes trying to get results from CRM?

Customer Relationship Management software is an amazing system, but have you made these mistakes trying to get results from CRM?

No strategy

A lack of CRM strategy can be a root cause of CRM failure and a typical reason why you may not be getting results from CRM. CRM is an all-encompassing business solution. Phil Callaghan, managing director of Caltech IT Limited confirms, “Creating a CRM strategy can be complex due to the range of roles it covers and the way that it will overlap those roles. Having this direction is a critical success factor to the implementation. Although CRM is a software system it is important to remember that it is an enterprise system that can help your entire organization.”

No leadership backing

If your directors do not buy-into CRM and there is no top down communication, you may struggle to ever make your CRM a success, and never achieve results from CRM. Leadership can offer considerable value if they are on board and not just for budgetary sign off. If you want CRM to make efficiencies and improve your business practices, then it is important that the leadership team looks at what management information they will need. Additionally, they will be able to motivate their teams to get involved and see the reasons to buy into CRM. The leadership team should buy into a communication plan and drive the CRM solution.

Measures not in place

In order for a CRM implementation to be a success you will need measures. It will be really important to look at the measures now so that you can compare them in the future, once CRM has bedded in.

No processes

CRM works best when it manages processes and makes them more efficient, as well as helping cross department communications. Work to ensure that your processes are in good shape. Review your processes as a blue sky opportunity; realise where you can make wow moments or offer something amazing.

CRM should never force you to work around your process. It should seek to work with your processes and offer that efficiency drive to truly deliver results.

Poor user adoption

Failing to get your users involved from day one can be a critical mistake in any CRM implementation. The users will be the lifeblood of the system. They will be the ones inserting data, using it to help their roles and offer them insights and information to ultimately help your customers.

Getting users on board early has huge advantages so that they will feed into the system and will want to use the system. They will be part of testing and development to ensure it works for their teams.

CRM is a software that is based on people so make sure you include them to see the best results and benefits.

Useless data

Data cleanse can be a huge undertaking. Once you look at the number of areas where data is held, and the type of data held, it can be time consuming to bring that into one system. If the data that comes into CRM isn’t clean or useful, then CRM will be unable to offer the reporting or insights needed.

Check out ways to get the data together into one clean excel spreadsheet or system, before bringing into a CRM system.

So how can you avoid making these costly mistakes and ensure that you keep your CRM project on track and ensure its success?