Customer relationship management (CRM) software should give you higher profitability, improved productivity, lower costs, stronger customer retention, and greater insight into customer and prospect behavior. Is CRM doing all that for you? Let’s take a look at three reasons CRM may not be achieving this for you.
1. People.
That is right. The number 1 reason CRM does not deliver on its promises is not technological glitches, but the people who use the CRM software. These are the people in your company! If the people in your company are unable or unwilling to use the CRM software or are using it incorrectly, it will not be able to deliver on its promises. In most cases, this is not a person here or there, but teams of people influenced by their peers to think the new software is “too hard to use or learn” or “does not service their customers like I can personally.” Or it can be due to lack of training.
2. Lack of clear business plan.
Does your company’s business plan spell out what success is? Do you know when you’ve had a successful month or year? Do your employees understand what success is? Next evaluate your company’s processes. How do you do things? What methods are comfortable or “the way we’ve always done it” and what methods are efficient and effective? What is the motivation for people to change how they do the processes? Does your CRM software assist with your processes or throw a hammer in the gears, bringing the processes to a halt?
3. Lack of ownership of technology.
If most of the company feels the CRM software “belongs” to the IT department and the IT department feels it is “company-wide” software, nobody feels responsible to understand it or make it work. Therefore, it is of no help to any department. If it is viewed as “another technological contraption” it is doomed to be only marginally useful. The full company buy-in has to be enthusiastic and the software must be embraced as the best way to assist each department and each person in performing optimally.
For CRM software to be as successful as it can be for your company, each person must be involved in various steps of the process. The three-legged stool of CRM software implementation – people, process, technology – must not be allowed to break or the whole thing will collapse.
People need to embrace and use the system to enable the company to achieve its goals. The company needs to have well-defined goals and processes and must identify those that need to be improved or automated. The technology must be the right features in the right places. The timing must fit the company. The implementation and training must generate excitement and buy-in.
