Your CRM Software is Not the Problem
Two key factors are critical in a successful implementation of Customer Relationship Management
When companies ‘fail’ at using Customer Relationship Management (CRM), the finger usually points to the software or the IT department. That’s like blaming your car or the police officer for your speeding ticket. However, since CRM applications have converged to the point that they essentially offer the same or similar features and functions, technology is probably not the problem.
The good news is — in Slalom’s decades of launching hundreds of CRM projects — successful at realizing the benefits and beauty of using technology to manage customer activity, we’ve discovered there are two key factors that make or break a company’s CRM implementation. And they are people & processes.
Customer Relationship Management beautifully combines people, processes, and technology to support and implement the company’s customer-centric strategies. It’s an integrated approach that seamlessly and transparently tracks customer relationships from acquisition to retention.
To focus only on the technology — lose sight of the users, processes, and their intended goals — misses the point and the myriad of benefits CRM offers.
In this article, the first of a series, we will discuss one secret ingredient for the success of any CRM implementation: the people who use it.
People use CRM, not the other way around
The famous quote from the movie Fields of Dreams, “If you build it, he will come,” is not always true for technology implementations, especially CRM. The people who use the technology must find their ‘Why’– the reasons and results expected — before investing their time and energy in learning or using CRM software.
I learned this lesson from personal experience with my mom. Mom does not embrace new technology for she sees it as just another thing to understand, fears the unfamiliar, and finds no value. So, she decides against using it.
During one visit to Seattle, I brought along my Garmin GPS (before GPS in mobile phones) for I would be driving in unfamiliar areas of Puget Sound.
While my mom and I day-tripped to my grandfather’s, I turned on my GPS. Fiona (what I call my GPS) politely guided us with her lovely British accent. About the half-way point, she directed us to turn, which wasn’t the way my mom has traveled for 50 years. Mom immediately began to panic as we were led down an unfamiliar road.
Assuring her the GPS knows best; we eventually merged on to my mom’s standard route and arrived much earlier. Astonished, mom said, “Wow, that’s one thing I would be willing to invest in.”
It always comes down to a personal ‘Why’
I quickly learned my mom’s ‘Why’. Her priority is to know where she is and where she is going; she is frightened to get lost. She saw the value in the GPS technology for she could detect where she was on the map, the device directed her to the shortest route, and it kept her on track. The Garmin was something she could trust, keep her from getting lost, and ultimately reduce her stress when driving.
If the technology provides personal value, the individual is more likely to use it.
After this encounter with my mom, I now strive to clarify my client’s ‘Why’ to ensure they understand how CRM delivers on their goals. For example, I once worked with an insurance company implementing CRM for the first time. This company was unique for its sales representatives are independent consultants, thus the company could not mandate the use of the software. We invested extra time and effort to understand the representatives’ critical needs, wants, and expectations. This delivered insight to position CRM as a tool to achieve the sales team’s goals faster, yielding higher sales. This approach not only ensured the client’s CRM solution was used when management wasn’t around, but the users also embraced and celebrated the ways the tool advanced their results.
Discover the users’ pains and goals
While fleshing current-state processes, I discovered one item the sales reps found painful: Quarterly Reviews. They conducted this same activity for each one of their larger customers. For every review, the rep would present the client’s purchased products and volumes, sales trends, and what additional products/services the rep could offer their members. The sales rep’s customers — Credit Unions — wanted to provide a variety of insurance solutions for their members.
In preparation for each Quarterly Review, the representative would gather their client’s sales and service statistics from multiple sources, consolidate and assess the buying trends. The rep then converted the information into a useable presentation. It could take up to a week of effort for a single review!
Although time-consuming, the sales reps continued with this free offering for the Quarterly Reviews were lucrative in retaining and growing their customers. However, the thorough preparation took time away from their prospecting efforts in gaining new accounts.
Provide users value
To ensure the sales reps fully understood the value of the application, we proved various examples of how CRM reduces the preparation for Quarterly Reviews; thereby providing more time to acquire new customers.
We embedded within the Account page a robust account Business Intelligence (BI) dashboard. When the user navigated to each account, the dashboard aggregated and displayed the current year vs. previous year client purchase information in a graphical manner to quickly identify trends. The user could interact with the dashboard to define date ranges, drill into products and categories, and even discover the Credit Union’s ‘white space’ — the products the Credit Union wasn’t purchasing.
During a proof-of-concept meeting with the client, a sales rep responded, “Now that is something I would use!” This calmed the concerns of the management team about user adoption and compliance since this was the company’s #1 rep and had great influence over the others.
This client achieved its CRM objectives because it aligned the CRM offering with the ‘Why’ of its users and their most important goals. The lesson learned: demonstrate how technology assists in achieving and advancing user goals and allow them to discover how CRM uniquely delivers.
To understand the additional key factor for succeeding in CRM, join me in reading the next two articles regarding the importance of evaluating and updating your customer-facing business processes: Are Your Business Processes Ready for CRM?, and How to Conduct a BRP for your CRM Implementation.
Author:
Michelle Lessard is a CRM and Salesforce Consultant based in Phoenix, Arizona. For nearly 25 years she has helped companies select and implement CRM technology to reach their customer-centric goals and high user adoption.
About Slalom:
Slalom is a modern consulting firm focused on strategy, technology, and business transformation. In over 35 markets around the world, Slalom’s teams have autonomy to move fast and do what’s right. They’re backed by regional innovation hubs, a global culture of collaboration, and partnerships with the world’s top technology providers.
