The advantages of a CRM system are obvious. Better collaboration between sales, service and marketing increases productivity and thus sales. Unfortunately, it often happens that this potential is not used to its full extent. The faster you use the potential of a CRM system, the sooner this will also be noticeable in your customer orders.
For example, after the introduction of a CRM system, productivity can initially drop noticeably. Which is only indirectly related to the learning curve. Often, employees are diffuse and tense because they have to leave their comfort zone. Depending on the degree of application, CRM systems can be highly complex systems and pose enormous challenges for less technically savvy users. Read our advice to avoid this scenario.
Advice for high CRM user acceptance
Involve employees in the implementation of the system
In larger companies, it is of course difficult to involve every employee. Despite all this, you should identify a group of users for each department who are in close contact with the CRM implementation partner. Regular meetings should be held with these key users in order to exchange information about user behavior and desired functions in the system. The remaining employees can communicate their ideas and wishes to the key users. With this approach, communication is channeled sensibly and chaos does not ensue. If these key users feel that they have been picked up, the remaining employees are automatically taken along.
Adapt the system to existing wording in the company
Listen carefully and use terms in CRM that are widely used in the company. Many companies have their own sub-culture with their own language. Use this language in the system, even if it sometimes seems strange at first glance. This reduces the effort involved in relearning and rethinking. A familiar environment increases CRM user adoption.
Make the CRM intuitive
Management may already have ideas about which sophisticated processes should be mapped in the system. But be careful with the complexity, don’t overwhelm your employees right at the beginning. Implement processes that are also needed by your employees at the start. You can then implement more complex processes in smaller subprojects. This gives the employees a certain amount of time to get used to it. It is also important to have the system extensively tested. This allows you to create the system according to the user’s ideas.
Initial data migration to the CRM
Try to migrate all important data that you have in Excel spreadsheets, Word documents or other systems initially. Especially the Excel spreadsheet, which is popular among many, is difficult to banish from a company. If the data is available in the CRM, employees have one less reason to access the Excel spreadsheet. Of course, management should be a good role model and refrain from doing so altogether.
Training and education for a high CRM user acceptance
Train your staff in advance. Lack of training leads to frustration and a negative attitude towards the system. As a rule, CRM implementation partners also offer user training including documentation.
Plan a time commitment for training
At the beginning, the new CRM system leads to additional time spent on training and data maintenance. Be sure to take this into account in your target planning for the fiscal year. If the sales employee has the feeling that he cannot meet his targets because he uses the CRM, he will even be punished in the end for the correct behavior.
Standardize data collection inputs
Use option sets or lookups to try to standardize data collection input as much as possible. If there is too much room for interpretation when entering data, this can lead to a loss of motivation among users. Especially in the initial phase, many people move around the system with a great deal of uncertainty. Eliminate this uncertainty with standardized inputs.
Management should be a role model
Management should use its role model function. If there is a lack of commitment from management when using CRM, this will be noticeable in user behavior. Incentives and impulses should be set. Explicitly mention the CRM in the written task description or in verbal communication.
Take away the fear of losing power
There are quite a few employees who are afraid to share their own information with the entire team. Suddenly, the information about a hard-working lead is to be made accessible to everyone. Make it clear to your employees that there is a mature security model in the CRM that can clearly define ownership and access to information. By the way, it’s not a good sign if your employees have such concerns. Everyone should pull together and pursue a common goal – namely to help the company grow.
Conclusion
Try to eliminate the resistance in the company as much as possible. Have an open ear for criticism and feedback. Involve employees in the development of the system. Try to eliminate the doubts through skillful communication before they even occur. Break down prejudices and make the added value clearly recognizable for everyone. Be proactive instead of reactive. The success of a CRM system depends not only on your implementation partner, but also on the acceptance of the workforce.
