CRM is a technological marvel that is increasingly being adopted by both small and large businesses in this expanding business world. And for good reasons, CRM automates and streamlines your day to day business operations. You’ll get higher sales, better customer satisfaction and more leads. But more than 70% of the CRM projects fail and the reason for that is the challenges it presents in the implementation phase.
In today’s article we are going to talk about the main challenges and pitfalls that a company may face in the implementation phase of CRM and how to avoid them. But first why don’t you go over these short reads about software legacy and reengineering and top 7 web development trends.
CRM Implementation
CRM or customer relationship management software is basically a centralized database which accumulates all of the customer data and interaction. It aids in managing many activities helping maintain a long-term relationship with not only customers and vendors but also workers. Below are the steps you must follow for successful implementation of CRM.
Define Solid Strategy
The pillars of successful implementation of any CRM software lie on a building a solid strategy. The strategy tells you the processes the software must support, the areas of business it must cover and the goals it has to achieve.
For example if streamlining the sales processes and automating them and bettering your sales is your goal then you will go for sales CRM implementation. If later, you see the results you hoped for then you can complement the sales CRM with customer service solution.
However, if you want a full on digital transformation and are ready for new business processes in your marketing, sales and customer service then you can go for at-once CRM implementation solutions. You may need to involve a professional CRM development team here for smooth implementation.
Map Out the Plan
Once you have a plan ready, start dividing it in multiple phases with timelines for each stage. It will be easy to manage then. The following is a general overview of the various CRM project stages.
- Consulting: Consulting for CRM means that you analyze your business needs and identify the solutions you need to address them. Specifying possible customizations and integrations also happens in this stage.
- Cleaning and migrating data: This stage involves checking your data for any discrepancies and transferring it from the old system to new one.
- Customizations: In this phase you use tools to customize CRM solutions so that they better fit your requirements.
- Examine: Now you test out the solutions for any deficiencies and seeing that everything works as you planned to.
- Deployment: Here you roll out the approved CRM solutions.
Risk Assessment
The following are the most common challenges you may face when implementing CRM.
Falling Short of Time and Budget
It is not easy to get an accurate estimate of the timescale required for the implementation of CRM without the help of professionals even if you understand your needs and the CRM features you need. If your needs constantly change then it’s all the more reasons to get a consultants’ help or your project may go off track.
The same goes for budget estimation. If you fail to point out the hidden costs then you’ll miscalculate your budget. You need to be very carefully while calculating the implementation budget.
CRM Solutions/Features You Don’t Need
It doesn’t matter how feature rich your CRM solution is, if it is not convenient for your employees then they won’t be use it to their benefit. To avoid this pitfall, you should conduct a survey and find out the issues the employees had with the previous system.
Not Involving Users In CRM Development
The success of CRM mainly depends on its adoption by users. That’s why it has to be user friendly so they must be involved in the development process from the beginning.
Final Words
A CRM software successfully implemented will help you run your business efficiently, reduce costs, retain customers and improve sales. But if you want all of these benefits then you must be ready to invest efforts and money and overcome the challenges you may face pre, mid and post implementation.
