We’ve all heard about how beneficial good CRM can be for your business and the simple steps to maximizing it but what if that doesn’t work? What if you are not seeing the results you expected? Then you are probably making some of these common mistakes.
CRM implementation is all about utilizing a program that can enhance and simplify the information you gather within your business. It enables you to have information collated in one place, accessible by those who need it and easy to understand so that you can develop your business based on it. Unfortunately businesses don’t always use it this way. They expect CRM to work by itself but as with everything in business, it needs to be treated as part of a team.
Here are a list of the 10 most common reasons;
- Expecting the software to do the work for you. CRM can filter, simplify, chart the information you put in to it among other things but it cannot do this by itself. Think of it as a pasta machine, you have to feed pasta in to it in order to produce spaghetti. You have to feed the CRM program information in order to get the results you want.
- Incomplete customer data. CRM can only provide results based on the information it has. There’s no point in asking for an email report if all you have are phone numbers.
- Not having a strategy in place. In order to customize and maximize your CRM utility you must know exactly what it is that you’d like to have it do. Decide on which areas of your business you want to research and develop and set key fields of information to be gathered. This will help the CRM run smoothly and you’ll see it producing the results you want in no time.
- Not basing it on your own business. Every CRM is individual so you can’t copy from another business and hope for the same results. The other business might be selling the same product but to a different audience so if you were to copy, you’d end up with endless amounts of useless information. Make sure that it is individually tailored to what you want and need.
- CRM is considered a one-time event when it shouldn’t be. CRM needs to constantly change and adapt to keep up with your business and the ever changing markets. By updating and making small changes along the way you are able to keep your database current and correct. This is the #1 key to successful CRM.
- Trying to implement everything at once. Rome wasn’t built in a day right? Implementing CRM will take a little bit of time so focus on the high priority areas first and allow the others to follow. It doesn’t take long to have everything customized, inputted and up and running but in trying to do it all at once, you will swamp yourself and more than likely, miss crucial details. It’s better to approach manageable amounts and allow the success to shine through.
- Employee support. In order for CRM to be successful all employees must be educated and enthusiastic about its development. If your team isn’t on board you will find that you have big gaps in information where someone isn’t keeping it up to date. For it to be effective it needs to have contributions from all team members rather than it being down to one person.
- Keep it simple! CRM should be quick and easy to use so that it doesn’t take over your day. You should be able to utilize it in a time effective manner so that your balance between tasks stays even. CRM should not become time consuming and overly complicated.
- Converting information. Data conversion should be simple to implement and understand. SugarCRM allows you to import excel documents so that it updates the fields on the database. That’s how it should be. A simple click of a button.
- Poor project management. If you invest in a good CRM program but then fail to use it to its full potential you are not only wasting money on the purchase, you are also wasting the resources you have within your business. Business is about growth and development so not managing your projects effectively will definitely ensure that your business has neither of these.
As you can see these are all simple things to fix if you want your business and CRM to be successful. Start implementing them today!