Dears,
Institutionalizing CRM is a cultural change and it makes world of difference to your organization /employees. Such change often moves people from their comfort zone and therefore requires a well balanced combination of sponsorship, incentives, self serving benefits and multiple training tools. Evaluate your software solutions for several key elements which can positively influence user adoption.
Look for well organized and indexed online instruction and documentation. Applications which provide page level context-sensitive help put assistance directly at the source of the question and applications which go a step further to provide help for all fields on the page further reduce user questions.
Look for applications which provide online training vehicles such as computer-based (wizard driven or Flash) online tutorials which allow users to consume training at any time and at their own pace.
Evaluate whether your can supplement online resources with live vendor recurring or on-demand classroom instruction, offered over the Internet or on-site.
Validate that users can easily customize views, pages or navigation. Requiring different roles and even different individuals in the same role to view the same pages in the same workflow or work sequence fashion is a recipe for failed user adoption. People work differently and their system information must support what individuals do best to be successful.
Review system usability with volumes of data in mind. Reviewing system usability while only looking at accounts with a few records or minimal history is of little help. Recognize that over the course of a customer relationship the account information will grow substantially. To review the account presentation in a real world environment, enter several contacts for an account, several dozen activities or correspondence items and several sale opportunities and then determine usability.
System navigation which requires users to drill-down through multiple screens to get to the desired data or detail and then drill back up through those pages before being able to move to the next desired account or other location are cumbersome, counter productive and prone to relentless user complaints. Ease-of-use is scored when a user can get to wherever they want from wherever they are. Test this requirement thoroughly.
Don’t underestimate the training required. While vendor claims of reduced training are somewhat founded, user instruction will always be required and organizations typically under-budget this line item.
Opening up customer information to the enterprise can first appear concerning to the primary account manager who manages an individual account relationship. Not knowing who is potentially making changes to the account or deleting account information can leave sales professionals and account managers uneasy. To empower all staff with customer information while at the same time countering the concerns of customer record integrity, a CRM system should provide account level security and a detailed audit trail for any and all customer record modifications. The audit trial should display all changes made to a customer record and indicate the user, date and time changes were made.
Business process automation
Business process automation is both a driving factor in achieving user adoption and if achieved, one of the most cited benefits by users of CRM software applications. However, it is also one of the least realized CRM initiatives. In terms of business processes, the sales function is typically the least understood and documented departmental function in the company. This often results in significant staff performance disparity and large fluctuations from team to team or period to period. It also speaks volumes to the old adage, "you can’t manage what you can’t measure".
CRM systems which integrate account information with company specific business processes or best practices provide a key advantage in realizing consistent performance and repeatable successes. CRM vendors use a variety of creative tools and methods to combine account management with company procedures. Two consistently powerful components to review when comparing hosted CRM solutions are content management systems (CMS) and workflow definition tools.
Most CRM provide some type of electronic file repository which is helpful but far from empowering. However, electronic file repositories dramatically increase in value when bundled with custom content management and document management functionality such as Check-In/Check-Out, version control and audit trail histories. CRM publishers which can empower users to input their policies and best practices to custom web pages and integrate those resources to specific reference or utilization points in the CRM application are providing a means to integrate account data and winning processes. Content management systems normally include both document management functionality and HTML editors used to create and publish custom Web page policy or procedural content. CRM-based content management systems should be reviewed for ease-of-use in creating custom content and simplicity in staging content where it may best be referenced.
Similarly, CRM whom provide users with workflow tools to predefine alert notification conditions, map processes in optimal fashions and define repeatable or exception based business rules are creating automation and saving users and management countless hours of manual effort. Workflow tools should be reviewed for logical design, process measurement and system-wide applicability. Recognizing that users are not always logged into their CRM application, workflow and alert functionality should integrate with e-mail and/or mobile telephones.
Desktop Integration: A Top Cited User Pitfall
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software users are well versed in desktop productivity programs and CRM applications must therefore be able to seamlessly integrate to the user’s desktop environment. Knowledge workers favor easy to use desktop applications such as Outlook, Word and Excel. CRM systems which provide simple and automated linking and integration with desktop systems save users time and increase user productivity. CRM solution evaluators should verify questions such as the following:
Can the user export customer or sale opportunity data for manipulation or analysis in Excel? Most CRM systems perform simple data exports to Excel. A few of the more advanced systems will also export the underlying calculational data used in a view or report so that the data can be further and immediately manipulated offline in Excel or even sliced and diced with pivot tables.
Can the user launch a mail merge from for a customer segment from within the CRM system? Can the merges be distributed as a nicely formatted hardcopy document or an HTML formatted e-mail broadcast?
Can the user automatically create a quote or proposal from within the CRM application in a keystroke or two and e-mail the quote to a sales prospect? Will all the designated account information, such as company name, contact person, address and other specific account history or product information, automatically export to the PDF document without rekeying?
Several CRM vendors provide integration to Outlook. User experiences have shown many Outlook integrations to be far to simplistic to be useful while others accommodate the flexibility users often request. Top cited e-mail program requests include the ability to perform partial synchronizations based on user-defined parameters, designate synchronization to custom file folders and directories in the e-mail program, designate new file folders for new accounts not yet in the e-mail program, check for duplicate records and perform basic conflict resolution.
Thought on SAAS CRM
SAAS providers which require all users to subscribe to the same version solution in mass and at all times impose limitations to users and serious hardships to customers whom modify their software or integrate their solution with legacy or other systems. A single version requirement would be unheard of, and in fact would be immediately rejected, in the non-SAAS delivered arenas. Many SAAS vendors have imposed the single version requirement in order to achieve commodity level economies of scale. However, effective CRM is a competitive advantage and differentiator and because superior customer service will never be a commodity, customer service providers must be able to operate uniquely and apart from the crowd. Fortunately, a few of the newer generation SAAS vendors have recognized that CRM customers cannot be herded like cattle to new versions immediately upon those versions release. Instead, these vendors permit customers to choose to upgrade to subsequent software versions when they desire. This flexibility allows customers to review and test new versions before adoption, prepare users for changes or increased functionality and plan for an orderly transition with any previously performed customization or integration.
Word of Caution
Through repeated teachings and lessons learned from highly publicized implementation failure rates, the buying market has recognized the fundamental principal that CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a business strategy and process and CRM software solutions are enablers to achieve the CRM vision. Just as most buyers would be skeptical of purchasing an accounting software system from a vendor that couldn’t produce an accurate invoice, so to should buyers be cautious with CRM vendors who fail to achieve CRM strategy with their own customer base.
Although not entirely unexpected for a new technology, SAAS (Software as a Service) vendors are experiencing extremely high customer churn. Churn not only hurts the vendor, but causes great frustration, financial losses and increased risks to the customer that must switch solutions. Interestingly enough, a very high percentage of customers who leave SAAS vendors go to other SAAS vendors, thereby indicating the perceived failure is with the vendor and not with the on-demand or hosted software model.
Institutionalizing CRM is a cultural change and it makes world of difference to your organization /employees. Such change often moves people from their comfort zone and therefore requires a well balanced combination of sponsorship, incentives, self serving benefits and multiple training tools. Evaluate your software solutions for several key elements which can positively influence user adoption.
Look for well organized and indexed online instruction and documentation. Applications which provide page level context-sensitive help put assistance directly at the source of the question and applications which go a step further to provide help for all fields on the page further reduce user questions.
Look for applications which provide online training vehicles such as computer-based (wizard driven or Flash) online tutorials which allow users to consume training at any time and at their own pace.
Evaluate whether your can supplement online resources with live vendor recurring or on-demand classroom instruction, offered over the Internet or on-site.
Validate that users can easily customize views, pages or navigation. Requiring different roles and even different individuals in the same role to view the same pages in the same workflow or work sequence fashion is a recipe for failed user adoption. People work differently and their system information must support what individuals do best to be successful.
Review system usability with volumes of data in mind. Reviewing system usability while only looking at accounts with a few records or minimal history is of little help. Recognize that over the course of a customer relationship the account information will grow substantially. To review the account presentation in a real world environment, enter several contacts for an account, several dozen activities or correspondence items and several sale opportunities and then determine usability.
System navigation which requires users to drill-down through multiple screens to get to the desired data or detail and then drill back up through those pages before being able to move to the next desired account or other location are cumbersome, counter productive and prone to relentless user complaints. Ease-of-use is scored when a user can get to wherever they want from wherever they are. Test this requirement thoroughly.
Don’t underestimate the training required. While vendor claims of reduced training are somewhat founded, user instruction will always be required and organizations typically under-budget this line item.
Opening up customer information to the enterprise can first appear concerning to the primary account manager who manages an individual account relationship. Not knowing who is potentially making changes to the account or deleting account information can leave sales professionals and account managers uneasy. To empower all staff with customer information while at the same time countering the concerns of customer record integrity, a CRM system should provide account level security and a detailed audit trail for any and all customer record modifications. The audit trial should display all changes made to a customer record and indicate the user, date and time changes were made.
Business process automation
Business process automation is both a driving factor in achieving user adoption and if achieved, one of the most cited benefits by users of CRM software applications. However, it is also one of the least realized CRM initiatives. In terms of business processes, the sales function is typically the least understood and documented departmental function in the company. This often results in significant staff performance disparity and large fluctuations from team to team or period to period. It also speaks volumes to the old adage, "you can’t manage what you can’t measure".
CRM systems which integrate account information with company specific business processes or best practices provide a key advantage in realizing consistent performance and repeatable successes. CRM vendors use a variety of creative tools and methods to combine account management with company procedures. Two consistently powerful components to review when comparing hosted CRM solutions are content management systems (CMS) and workflow definition tools.
Most CRM provide some type of electronic file repository which is helpful but far from empowering. However, electronic file repositories dramatically increase in value when bundled with custom content management and document management functionality such as Check-In/Check-Out, version control and audit trail histories. CRM publishers which can empower users to input their policies and best practices to custom web pages and integrate those resources to specific reference or utilization points in the CRM application are providing a means to integrate account data and winning processes. Content management systems normally include both document management functionality and HTML editors used to create and publish custom Web page policy or procedural content. CRM-based content management systems should be reviewed for ease-of-use in creating custom content and simplicity in staging content where it may best be referenced.
Similarly, CRM whom provide users with workflow tools to predefine alert notification conditions, map processes in optimal fashions and define repeatable or exception based business rules are creating automation and saving users and management countless hours of manual effort. Workflow tools should be reviewed for logical design, process measurement and system-wide applicability. Recognizing that users are not always logged into their CRM application, workflow and alert functionality should integrate with e-mail and/or mobile telephones.
Desktop Integration: A Top Cited User Pitfall
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software users are well versed in desktop productivity programs and CRM applications must therefore be able to seamlessly integrate to the user’s desktop environment. Knowledge workers favor easy to use desktop applications such as Outlook, Word and Excel. CRM systems which provide simple and automated linking and integration with desktop systems save users time and increase user productivity. CRM solution evaluators should verify questions such as the following:
Can the user export customer or sale opportunity data for manipulation or analysis in Excel? Most CRM systems perform simple data exports to Excel. A few of the more advanced systems will also export the underlying calculational data used in a view or report so that the data can be further and immediately manipulated offline in Excel or even sliced and diced with pivot tables.
Can the user launch a mail merge from for a customer segment from within the CRM system? Can the merges be distributed as a nicely formatted hardcopy document or an HTML formatted e-mail broadcast?
Can the user automatically create a quote or proposal from within the CRM application in a keystroke or two and e-mail the quote to a sales prospect? Will all the designated account information, such as company name, contact person, address and other specific account history or product information, automatically export to the PDF document without rekeying?
Several CRM vendors provide integration to Outlook. User experiences have shown many Outlook integrations to be far to simplistic to be useful while others accommodate the flexibility users often request. Top cited e-mail program requests include the ability to perform partial synchronizations based on user-defined parameters, designate synchronization to custom file folders and directories in the e-mail program, designate new file folders for new accounts not yet in the e-mail program, check for duplicate records and perform basic conflict resolution.
Thought on SAAS CRM
SAAS providers which require all users to subscribe to the same version solution in mass and at all times impose limitations to users and serious hardships to customers whom modify their software or integrate their solution with legacy or other systems. A single version requirement would be unheard of, and in fact would be immediately rejected, in the non-SAAS delivered arenas. Many SAAS vendors have imposed the single version requirement in order to achieve commodity level economies of scale. However, effective CRM is a competitive advantage and differentiator and because superior customer service will never be a commodity, customer service providers must be able to operate uniquely and apart from the crowd. Fortunately, a few of the newer generation SAAS vendors have recognized that CRM customers cannot be herded like cattle to new versions immediately upon those versions release. Instead, these vendors permit customers to choose to upgrade to subsequent software versions when they desire. This flexibility allows customers to review and test new versions before adoption, prepare users for changes or increased functionality and plan for an orderly transition with any previously performed customization or integration.
Word of Caution
Through repeated teachings and lessons learned from highly publicized implementation failure rates, the buying market has recognized the fundamental principal that CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a business strategy and process and CRM software solutions are enablers to achieve the CRM vision. Just as most buyers would be skeptical of purchasing an accounting software system from a vendor that couldn’t produce an accurate invoice, so to should buyers be cautious with CRM vendors who fail to achieve CRM strategy with their own customer base.
Although not entirely unexpected for a new technology, SAAS (Software as a Service) vendors are experiencing extremely high customer churn. Churn not only hurts the vendor, but causes great frustration, financial losses and increased risks to the customer that must switch solutions. Interestingly enough, a very high percentage of customers who leave SAAS vendors go to other SAAS vendors, thereby indicating the perceived failure is with the vendor and not with the on-demand or hosted software model.
Good Luck
Your Partner and Companion ( P&C)
DC*
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