5 Ways to Improve CRM Success

---

What is Customer Relationship Management?

Sales and marketing teams use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to automate and manage the client lifecycle. CRM software consolidates client information into a single database, allowing users to better organize and manage relationships. A CRM helps automate common operations, while measuring performance and productivity. But, what are the essentials to improve CRM success?

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a collection of approaches, methodologies, and technologies used by organizations to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout their relationship. The goal is to strengthen customer service relationships, increase sales, and encourage client retention. 

Customers give data to CRM systems through a range of channels, including the company’s website, phone, live chat, direct mail, marketing materials, and social media. CRM systems may also provide a wealth of information on a customer with a 360-degree view of data. A CRM implementation helps companies financially as well as in terms of overall performance over a period of time.

Why Use a CRM?

• Systematic Lead Management
• Streamline Sales and Marketing Activities
• Improve Customer Service 
• Relationship building with Customers
• Real-time data and Reporting capabilities

Challenges with CRM and how Strategy Consulting can help to improve CRM Success

1. Convincing Your People to Change

While adapting to new technology can be frightening, your people will be the most difficult of all the CRM issues you’ll confront. The shift will be relatively simple for a start-up with a young workforce. However, when it comes to persuading older employees to learn how to utilize a CRM solution and modify their habits, it’s a whole new ballgame. Building trust in your new CRM infrastructure can be a challenge. An unreliable infrastructure could negatively impact the business operations and customer experience.

• 

The Solution

People frequently have difficulty migrating to cloud-based tech solutions because their firm might have a clearly defined strategy for the changes ahead. Managers must foster a culture of learning and digital innovation for this change to succeed. This is a change that must begin internally. With clear communication and value building through strategy consulting, even the most apprehensive team members will realize how CRM adoption can help the organization succeed in the digital era. This must be promoted from the top down. CRM consulting guides and assists in handling the situation by focusing on key areas of distress among users and providing the right course of action. 

2. Defining a Clear Scope

Lack of clarity in scope can lead to budget overruns. Many companies might fail to anticipate the amount and nature of data that needs to be migrated to the new CRM because of this. The capabilities and functionalities of a solution you choose may be much more/ much less than what your requirements are. The results? Lack of user adoption, failed implementation, and a constant back-of-the-mind alarm that goes off at the thought of a new CRM.

• 

The Solution

Getting a training or workshop session for your organization in this regard can help dissipate some of the confusion and ensure that everyone is on the same page. A one-on-one interaction with the users can yield surprising results. And once those are uncovered, it’s about documenting the requirements and devising a plan to map the same with the most essential features or tools the CRM can offer. Again, the result – improved morale, better user confidence, improved efficiency, and a higher chance of success.

3. Selecting the Right CRM and the Right Partner

An obstacle that countless companies have difficulty in overcoming. Many organizations have paid three times as much for a CRM Software, only to be dissatisfied with it. This often happens because organizations, at the back of their mind, believe that if a CRM worked for a similar organization, it ‘would work’ for them too. The result – they might choose the ‘BEST’ CRM in the market, but not the ‘RIGHT’ CRM for their daily organizational requirements.

• 

The Solution

Before deciding on which CRM software to choose, go through a thorough selection process. Define your process precisely, establish all CRM needs in advance, and evaluate who will utilize the system. CRM consulting helps in deciding and finalizing the best way to align organizational requirements with the right CRM. It also immensely helps to understand the implementing partner’s skills and expertise in the organization’s industry. If the partner has proven experience in successful implementations for organizations similar to yours, then the chances for improved CRM success is higher.

4. Getting the Management on board

One of the most difficult aspects of CRM deployment is obtaining management approval. Not just the approval, but also their active participation in the deployment phase. The sales and marketing department heads may believe that switching to a fully integrated CRM system will help the organization, but the C-suite may still need persuading.

• 

The Solution

To persuade top executives to give CRM adoption a chance, employees and team leads must express the right message. To put it another way, they must show how a CRM implementation will help the company strategically as well as in terms of overall performance. Once the convincing part is taken care of, the top management should also be involved in instilling the confidence among the end users to improve CRM success through active involvement. Once again, the value proposition and vision can be created with a comprehensive evaluation of the CRM implementation through end-to-end requirement mapping and most suitable suggestions.  

5. The Investment – Time and Cost Factors

CRM implementation entails extra costs for training, maintenance, data migration, updates etc. It might also take away from the time required to run a business during the initial setup. Organizations with its existing systems might realize the need for a system upgrade, but the thought of all the investments and the hassles behind the process keep them from taking the step.

• 

The Solution

The best way to tackle this dilemma is to undertake an unbiased evaluation of a CRM and weigh out the costs vs benefits through a comprehensive analysis. This is one of the key outputs of a CRM consulting engagement where subject matter experts interact with the users, identify business gaps and pain areas to lay down most suitable steps to ensure the best ROI. This presents an organization with a vision of what a CRM would bring and what are the benefits that can be derived.

Improve CRM Success with Metadata

So, if your organization is in a phase where it’s looking to implement a CRM, or thinking about replacing a CRM system, then CRM Consulting is the way forward. Sometimes, it’s also a case of getting a third-person view on the situation for an unbiased evaluation; an expert advice to get things under control, and have a clear plan moving forward. This is something that Metadata Technologies has successfully done in the past with Transformance Business Solutions Limited and FitBiz 360.

Metadata Technologies is much more than a CRM software vendor. Metadata’s years of experience in the domain has opened doors to a variety of different situations, be it reviving an organization’s previously failed implementation, or offering custom solutions for specific customer requirements. The team of certified and experienced experts interact with various user groups in your organization from start to end to improve CRM success.

Connect with Metadata Technologies quickly and easily. To know more, book a session with us.