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08.12.09 Get The Most From CRM By Continually Fine-Tuning  By Jim Berkowitz Here is a synopsis of an article by Robert Poe, 6 Ways to Get Better Results from Your CRM Investment: Your CRM efforts should not stop when your implementation is complete. You'll have to manage the technology - and far more so, the people - in order to wring out value from your CRM investment. Analysis One of the secrets to getting the most from CRM is to continually fine-tune the process. Here are six techniques for continually improving your CRM system and reaping the rewards of better performance. 1. Find and plug the cracks. Theoretically, a CRM system doesn't have any cracks. Phone messages are always acted on, leads are always followed up and promises to customers are always kept. The real world is messier. A properly implemented CRM system will eliminate almost all of these problems, but they will still happen from time to time. When problems do pop up, your job is to find out why and to fix them. 2. Sell CRM to your organization, and keep selling it. You need to sell CRM to your organization at all levels, just as if you were selling a product to outside customers. 3. Continually encourage users. CRM isn't so much a product as an ongoing process. It's important that your efforts don't stop when the system is declared live. One way to encourage the use of the CRM system is to make sure it makes life easier for the people using it. 4. Advertise successes. As part of selling CRM to your organization, don't be shy about reporting successes. Constantly be on the lookout for ways in which CRM has made life easier, made employees more productive and helped improve customer loyalty. 5. Force the change gently. Selling CRM is needed, but don't expect it to do the entire job. Everyone must be guided gently, but firmly, to use the CRM system and to populate it with correct data. 6. Monitor your progress. Finally, watch your results. CRM is rich in dashboards and reporting tools which will help you follow your progress by just about any metric you choose.
Recommendations Don't ask for unnecessary information. It seems odd that a successful CRM implementation - whose lifeblood is information - should involve not gathering information. But keep in mind that all information is not created equal, or equally useful. The downside to information is that in a lot of cases someone - usually the sales and marketing people - has to generate it. This takes time and takes resources away from their primary jobs, which are growing the company. One of the very best ways to get the most out your CRM Investment is to use our Customer Lifecycle Management Assessment. This assessment (a web-based survey followed by a review of the results analytics) will help you to identify weaknesses such as: Process deficiencies and productivity obstacles; Incomplete, inaccurate and innaccessible information and Any lack of timely performance feedback. In all, more then 100 specific customer management weaknesses are critiqued. Comments About the Author: Jim Berkowitz is a seasoned executive with more than 30 years of professional services and project management experience related to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Financial Management (Accounting & ERP) software solutions for small, mid-sized and Fortune 500 companies. As a Sales Force Automation and CRM Consultant, Jim has assisted more then 100 companies with the design and implementation of custom CRM solutions. Mr. Berkowitz is the founder and President of CRM Mastery, Inc.; a company dedicated to serving small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) by offering affordable tools and guidance to help them plan for and succeed with their CRM initiatives. |
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