As businesses expand, it becomes vital for them to put tools and systems into place for scalability. One such tool is a customer relationship management (CRM) system. A CRM is a tool that can help any business more adequately manage and improve interactions with customers across various interactions. It does so by keeping a history of communication, purchases, and contact information for the customer.
The proper implementation of a CRM can be an excellent tool to bolster any business’s automation and scalability. However, a number of mistakes with implementation can easily derail this success. Fortunately, by knowing about these mistakes, your business can avoid them to ensure the best results. Continue reading below where we will cover five common mistakes with CRM implementation and how to avoid each of them.
CRM Implementation Services: Avoid These 5 Mistakes
1. Unclear or Expanding Scope
One of the most common issues when implementing a CRM is something called scope creep. Essentially what this means is the project begins expanding outside of the original goals or scope. There are several factors involved in this situation and causes that can contribute to the condition of scope creep. These include:
- Evolving Requirements or Needs: As the business changes or expands, the demands of the CRM can change or grow. It can be hard to adapt to these new needs without clear guidance or handling.
- Unclear Goals, Objectives, and Overall Scope: When the CRM project begins, there must be clear goals or objectives. Without these, it can result in the addition of unnecessary features or the lack of necessary ones.
- Delivery Pressure: Upper management or stakeholders may place significant pressure on the implementation team to implement additional features or functions. This pressure can lead to mistakes or team members falling behind on key parts of the implementation process.
Scope creep can be highly problematic during CRM implementation, and it can lead to higher costs, delays, and potential failure or lower function.
2. Preventing Scope Creep
So, while scope creep can be a concern, there are a few different actions that can help to prevent it, including:
- Define Clear Goals and Expectations: Before the project begins, the team should develop a well-defined plan with execution steps. This plan should include communication lines across the entire project, points of review, and a minimum viable product (MVP).
- Create Sections: To prevent oversight or issues, the project should be split into separate rollout phases. This helps to ensure each group of features is working as intended when they are launched before moving on.
- Communication, Communication, Communication: The importance of communication during implementation cannot be understated. The entire team should have established communication through the process, as well as consistent communication with stakeholders.
2. Poor Data Quality
When transitioning into a CRM system, it is vital for all imported data to be well-organized. Simply dumping all relevant data into the system can lead to incredible disorganization that can take much longer to sort through. Disorganized data can easily derail a project, so it is key for team members to understand how to avoid this issue. Some excellent ways to avoid poor data quality include:
- Audit all data beforehand: The implementation team should find and evaluate all sources of data. This helps to understand whether the data is uniformly organized to some degree or how complete it is.
- Format Data Sources: The smoothest way to import data into a CRM is by organizing it all into a similar format. This means recording dates, phone numbers, addresses, etc in the same way to ensure it uploads correctly. For example, if some dates are written using slashes (1/1/11) and others with dashes (1-1-11), these need to be standardized with one format.
- Standardize: Once a format is established, this needs to be standardized and made known. The format should be written in policy and given to all of those who will be entering data into or using the CRM.
3. User Resistance
The next issue you may face is user resistance when adapting to the new systems. After all, switching over to a CRM from old habits can be a difficult transition, and some users may have resistance or difficulty understanding it. Fortunately, this can be a pretty easy issue to avoid with just a few steps, such as:
- Clear Communication: It is important to be transparent with all users throughout the implementation process. Give them a heads-up that a new system is coming and ample time for them to ask questions and address concerns.
- Phased Implementation: To avoid full-on chaos with everyone learning the new system at once, phased implementation offers a gradual approach. This means giving only select users access to the new system at first. These users can then bring up any issues or feedback they have. Then, in the next phase of users, this feedback can be used to improve.
4. Over-Customization
Any CRM implementation will have some type of customization work to ensure the systems fit the business well. However, customization can go too far to the point where the project becomes too complex and causes significant delays. This issue can be avoided by:
- Find a Balance: During the planning phase, decide on a balance between necessary customization and standardization. This helps to create realistic goals that can be completed in the timeframe.
- Only Key Customization: Instead of jumping into over-customization, decision-makers need to identify and name the key parts that will actually require customization. This helps to create custom systems that will fit the actual needs of the business.
- Build and Test Custom Features: When implementing custom features, testing is vital. Before launching any custom features, they should be thoroughly tested to ensure functionality and avoid issues or delays later.
5. Inadequate Project Management
As mentioned above, unclear goals and objectives can be a massive issue during CRM implementation. However, the other part of this is proper project management to guide the process through these goals and objectives. Disorganized or unguided projects can easily fall into chaos or massive delays, which lead to increased costs. The way to handle project management is:
- Roadmapping: Once goals and objectives are established, a timeline or roadmap should be created on when these will be achieved. This helps to easily see how the project is progressing and whether there are any delays.
- Work with Professionals: To avoid any issues with CRM implementation, businesses can hire CRM professionals, such as us here at Graphem Solutions.
Contact Graphem Solutions for Implementing a CRM System
If you are looking for skilled CRM management and implementation, we can help. Our team is made up of experts in implementing CRM systems that can handle all of your business’s custom and standard needs. We will work with you to understand your goals for a CRM so we can put the ideal system into place. Once implemented, we can help optimize any parts of the system that are not performing the way you want or need to be scaled up.
To learn more about our CRM services, you can check out the service details on our website or call us at 1-800-590-0175 with any questions. We look forward to helping you take your business to the next level with a CRM system.
