How We Thought About Using a CRM Tool
Only a few months ago, I talked about how we used Trello as a CRM (customer relationship management) system for partnerships. Since then, we made the leap to use a specialized CRM as a secondary tool alongside Trello.
At a start-up, things move quickly so we’re always looking for tools or ways that can improve how we operate and makes us more efficient. For example, my teammate Kirill has recently written about how the design team made the switch to Figma. For the Partnerships team, before we made any changes to our workflow, we had to take the time to understand our current processes, the constraints we faced, and the things that we would love to have.
This process was daunting. It’s easy to get so used to doing things a certain way that you never explore whether or not there’s a better way out there. Even doing the research on CRMs was intimidating as a quick search on Capterra shows 656 options for you to look into.
Two things became immediately apparent. One, we were doing a lot of manual and repetitive work that should be automated. Two, we kept saying how great it would be to have a company-wide contact directory. As Unsplash continues to grow, we’re building more and more relationships with people and platforms to make world-class images openly accessible. We needed a tool that helps us manage this.
Our challenges
Unsplash is a remote company, so we have a responsibility in over-communicating to provide as much context as possible for our teammates. However, as the number of partnerships grew, this ended up becoming a problem. In the image below, you’d see that Steph had to copy and paste 82 emails just to capture her exchange with one partner.
Documentation is important to us, but it was clear that Steph’s time was better spent building and maintaining relationships. This way of documenting emails wasn’t even that beneficial as you’d quickly feel lost amidst all that information. Nobody wants to go back and scroll through a thread of 82 emails.
In addition, that image above showcases how Steph organizes her cards. The problem is, we’re a team of 19 and everyone has their own way of organizing things. A lot of information actually gets hidden from our teammates as it becomes impossible to see all the companies and contacts we individually have relationships with. You’re likely to spend too much time just trying to get caught up.
This was unsustainable.
The main benefit
Introducing a CRM into our workflow has allowed us to set rules and guidelines in making sure that everyone uses the tool the same way. But most importantly, we didn’t need to compromise in our belief of being as transparent as possible.
We now have a directory that displays our relationships with other contacts and companies that the whole company can have access to. There’s increased visibility as every single conversation and email is automatically pulled in.
Although we only slightly changed the way we operate, the process wasn’t completely smooth. Once you get used to a certain tool, it can be a bit scary to change your workflow and learn new processes. I know Steph and I had some of those challenges the first few weeks.
This learning curve of using a CRM was worth it for the benefits of saving time and increased ease of documentation.
But it’s still not perfect…
Don’t get me wrong, using a CRM has solved a bunch of pain points that I didn’t even realize I had. There’s a lot less manual data entry work. But we haven’t found that one perfect tool that seamlessly fits our workflow.
I see this as just another iteration of continuing to improve the way the Partnerships team operates. But having said all this, startups move quickly. If you check back in a few months, I’ll probably have changed my mind about what I’ve written here. Or better yet, Steph and I will have found a CRM tool that completely fits our needs. Any suggestions? Let us know in the comments below.
