Your CRM Made Simple
Does your CRM have you tearing your hair out? Does your sales team complain that it’s too complicated and time-consuming? Is your customer service team frustrated by inaccurate customer data? Are your marketers thwarted by a confusing communications interface?
It’s tempting to blame your employees – “They just won’t take the time to learn the system; they keep inputting bad customer data; they are too set in their ways.” But if you’ve provided appropriate training and support and your employees are still having difficulty – it’s probably not them, it’s your CRM.
A well-designed CRM is created to meet the needs of non-engineers. But CRMs are built by engineers, and they often don’t spend enough time with end-users. Software engineers have huge blind spots around the user experience.
Think of your own experience writing someone an email that you thought was crystal clear, yet the recipient misunderstood what you were saying. It’s the same for engineers building software – they know exactly what they mean, and, without a lot of user input, they can’t see how the interface might be confusing or overly complex.
So when you are choosing your CRM, it’s important to know about who built it and how. Did the creators get constant input from potential users? Do they currently have active user groups and run beta tests of new features? Do they also do continuous focus group testing with non-users, to ensure ease-of-use and a simple learning curve?
Remember that, while you will eventually have a few super-users, you don’t want CRM expertise to be a necessary part of everyone’s job. You want your staff to be able to easily use the CRM as a tool for making their jobs easier. You’ll also have new employees from time to time, and the quicker they can learn system basics, the happier they will be.
Interface design should show a clear understanding of the user and their needs. Usability is key, but usability also takes aesthetics into account. Drag-and-drop interfaces should be easy enough for a non- engineer to understand. Finding key information should be intuitive, with similar tasks grouped together to facilitate simple step-by-step processes.
A well-designed CRM is the product of careful planning, creative design, and continuous refinement. AspenTech CRM has helped hundreds of companies create a productive, easy-to-use CRM system that meets the needs of all employees. Get in touch today at (866) 880-4228 or click here and let’s put an end to your CRM frustration!
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