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Employee Adoption of Your CRM – 8 Tips to CRM Success
It’s an all-too-common story: A business owner or manager spends months and months, if not a year or more, and countless thousands of dollars researching, implementing and rolling out a CRM system to his/her employees only to find that hardly anyone is using it. As an advisor for companies implementing CRM systems or simply maintaining their existing CRM, we’ve heard this story over and over again – “my employees just aren’t using it”; “we really only use a fraction of what we know the system is capable of doing”; “we don’t use the system the way other companies you deal with use it”; “our CRM is really just an over-sized Rolodex”, and on and on. Let me tell you, folks – we’ve heard it all! Low employee adoption of your CRM isn’t new.
But why is this a continuing issue? A recent article published on the Act! blog explores some of the issues that we have all faced – how to engage your employees in your CRM system. So how do you get your employees to adopt and utilize this system you’ve implemented, and not waste more time, energy and money?
8 Tips to CRM Success
Here are some tips from the experts at AspenTech CRM on how to increase employee adoption of CRM:
- Training: Making sure your employees, managers and admins are properly trained in your CRM system is the number 1 key to making sure they don’t feel like they are wasting time on the system or feel like it’s a chore to utilize this tool that is meant to make their daily lives easier.
- Make sure you’re on a current and up-to-date CRM system that is fully integrated with your other systems. It’s important that your users have tools that are operating at full-speed and effectiveness.
- Take the time to listen to your users. Is your system missing some minor customizations that could make things work better for your team?
- Celebrate success! Track your progress with sales efforts and show them how things improve as they utilize the system. When things are on the upswing, take them out to lunch or devise a bonus system. Encourage your users to think of the CRM as “my system”.
- Set “traps” for yourself and your users: Is there something that your users must do every day? If so, then incorporate that task into your CRM to ensure that they must go into the system daily.
- Set an example. Make sure your users know that you’re fully on board with your CRM system by showing them that you’re in it and using it every day. If some of your processes should be incorporated into your CRM, work with us on how to make that happen, to make sure you’re operating at peak capacity and effectiveness.
- Your CRM was implemented for a number of reasons. Make sure you have a comprehensive set of reports that show you the value of your CRM. These need to match your CRM system goals, but typically these reports would involve opportunities, marketing, customer service and activity level. If your CRM reports aren’t matching what you are seeing in other areas of your operation, then it’s time to evaluate CRM usage and report effectiveness.
- Ensure a mindset of continuous improvement. The rollout of your CRM is not the end of your CRM implementation. The world never stands still, nor does your organization. The nature of CRM is one of continuous improvement. To gain the most from your CRM, the goal of always looking for ways to improve should be an ongoing effort.
A well-functioning CRM has its challenges but also reaps significant rewards in terms of loyal customers, improved sales, and profitability and more satisfied team members. AspenTech CRM’s team of experts is here to help you make sure that your business is getting the best return on investment for your CRM. Contact us today at 866-880-4228, to start a conversation about employee adoption and optimal efficiency of your CRM.
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