Why a clear vision while reviewing your customer relationship management (CRM) system is crucial to avoid organisational paralysis

Regardless of your organisation’s size, implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) system, isn’t something that should be seen as an easy task. Before we delve deeper into this subject, let’s ensure you have a clear grasp of what a CRM actually is.

As its name suggests, a customer relationship management (more commonly referred to as a CRM) system, manages the way IT systems and software is designed in order to manage your relationships with your customers.

Over the years, we’ve worked alongside clients to build hundreds of CRM systems and in most cases, organisations find it difficult to reach a consensus internally to identify the current struggles and most importantly, agree on what they’d like to see the system doing moving forward.

Our many reviews of internal processes and working with clients has led us to offer this following piece of advice that will serve you well, regardless of how big or small your organisation is:

Ensure you have an in-depth understanding of what your customer really wants and work from there.

Trust us, this sounds simpler than it actually is and we’ve seen many organisations diving deep into their customer archives and reviews to find the all-important answers to this question. Numerous client reviews tell us that what your customer really wants isn’t always obvious and it may not even be product related (surprising, we know!).

There are many other things to factor into the process when you embark on building a customer relationship management (CRM) system. A couple of the most important to keep in mind include the potential time requirements of stakeholders to build the best system possible as well as the potential disruption of your staff. You definitely need to weigh up the pros and cons and consider what benefits implementing a CRM system will have in the longer-term.

Here at Pronto Woven, we’re incredibly passionate about guiding marketing professionals, IT gurus and organisations in general, towards the right solution for their needs. While it may sound alarmist, the wrong CRM solution really can eventually lead to organisational paralysis - we’ve seen this occur way too many times!

Below, we’ve listed 6 key steps towards ensuring the CRM solution your organisation builds, is one that will provide your organisation with value in both the short and long term.

Step #1 - Segmentation

Sure, organisation charts have their purpose but when it comes to segmenting your audience for a CRM build, segment your customer based on their needs. In other words, not according to what fits in with your current organisation chart.

Step #2 - Analysis

One of the most important steps in this process is having the ability to analyse and identify the skills, competencies and capabilities required at the customer interface. Doing so properly ensures you’re delivering each customer segment with what they really want (and not what you think they want).

Step #3 - Review

Look at your organisation’s capabilities, skills and the competencies of all customer contact personnel. This is where internal reviews are likely to lead you to having to make some tough decisions.

Step #4 - Implementation

In this step, your organisation will implement training and ongoing coaching/training sessions to create the outside-in culture needed for you to keep your customers coming back again and again!

Step #5 - Define

To ensure the long-term success of your CRM system, you need to clearly define information requirements and have a solid strategy to draw on moving forward.

Step #6 - Automation

By applying a CRM package to automate and streamline the outside-in process, you’re ensuring you continue to keep your customers happy in the longer-term. Your customer should always be your number one priority, regardless of what your organisation’s inside-out view of the world is.

The team at Pronto Woven understands how overwhelming implementing an effective CRM solution can be. You’re not alone - contact us for an obligation free meeting and to discuss how we can assist you in building a complete end-to-end solution. With years’ worth of experience in relation to CRM systems, we can equip you with real peace of mind.

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