Business owners tell us one of their biggest questions about implementing any new software is how they are going to get their staff to actually use it. After all, people are comfortable with the old way, and they’re bound to have a learning curve with the new way, even when training is provided. Tell anyone a new system is in the works, and their first thought is resistance: “It better be easy to use, or I won’t.” Obtaining user adoption is a key requirement to obtain business success with CRM.

Two people in your organization hold the keys to the success of adopting a new CRM system. You know the first one really well – it’s you!

Photograph courtesy of PinkMoose

I’m in the process of putting a piece together on training on CRM systems, but as a quick preliminary I thought would walk through some of the options for training delivery, and their relative strengths and weaknesses:

Externally delivered training

This is generally by using the CRM vendor or implementation partner, though training can also be available from other parties and freelancers. On the plus side, the big strength of this approach is that delivery will be by an experienced trainer, who will know the technology inside out, which are not small considerations. On the negative side, external training can be expensive, but perhaps its biggest weakness is that while the trainer may understand the technology, they’re likely to be considerably less au fait with the client specific customisations and processes.

Internally delivered training

Photograph courtesy of Eva Luedin

Anyone involved with implementing CRM systems will be familiar with the conversations that go on in the background. A whole range of quibbles, gripes, concerns, and issues, are answered with the stock standard response, that of course when the new CRM is implemented, then quibble x, gripe x, concern x, or issue x, will no longer be a problem, because when we have CRM everything will be perfect.

While it’s tempting to bask in the warm glow created by the fact that prospective users of the system feel you’re developing something akin to ending global warming, the problem is that dangerously inflated expectations can be perilous when trying to implement a system successfully. When users go live and find the system is nothing like the vision of the perfect CRM system they had imagined, interest quickly fades and the system is written off an yet another IT failure.

One of the realities of social media feedback from customers is that it would feel more comfortable to not receive that feedback at all—the harsher stuff at least—in an open forum.

It’s undeniably nicer to have your customers voice their complaints to you directly and discreetly rather than hit the social media ‘‘airwaves’’ with them. So, one part of dealing with social media feedback from customers is to reduce the need for it by making sure your customers know, as directly as possible, how to reach you.

Think about it this way: If your friend saw you had your fly undone, would he tweet about it? No, he’d quietly tell you. [And if nobody tells you when you’re fly is undone, you clearly have no friends!]

Use the same principle to your advantage here. Why should customers address issues to you indirectly via Twitter or their blogs when they can use email, the phone, or a feedback form on your website and know that it will be answered—immediately and with empathy?

With their round-the-clock access to the social airwaves, make sure that the first impulse of customers is to reach you—day or night:

• Have ‘‘chime in’’ forms everywhere; this is akin to building escape valves for steam into your machinery.

• Where your FAQ’s fail to answer customer questions, be sure you offer a direct, immediate way to get a personal response by chat, telephone, or email.

• Don’t send out mass emails to customers from “please do not reply” addresses—your goal is to make it easy to reply.

Tools are never enough for anything and never will be.  If I handed you a cyclotron, a spectrometer, or an atom smasher (yes, all physics tools) you would probably end up hurting yourself (as would I).  The same goes if gave you a bulldozer, some wood, bricks, and concrete and asked you to build me a house.  We aren’t idiots right?  I mean, when we raise our kids we spend a lot of time investing in their education, teaching them and showing them new things.  Why then when it comes to anything enterprise related do we assume that all of this goes out the window and that a “tool” is the only thing we need to be successful?

We’re getting lazy and we’re getting complacent.  We want to get more but want to do less.  We are focusing too much on ourselves and not others. We want to say “we tried” when we really didn’t and we want people to be able to figure things out on their own without helping them.  This isn’t good enough.  We should be better than that…we NEED to be better than that.

This just isn’t going to work.  If it didn’t work for you as a kid while growing up and learning about the world then why should it work for your employees in the workplace?  We all need help and we all need to learn all the time, it’s how we grow and it’s how we challenge ourselves.  When we stop growing, learning, and challenging ourselves we become zombies at work who use typing on a keyboard all day as a way to substitute our eating human flesh…ya, not good.

Photograph courtesy of Paolo Camera

Once upon a time there was a small department in a much bigger business who were exemplary users of CRM technology. They used their system to help manage all their key processes. The marketing team used it to precisely target relevant communications to prospects and customers to generate new leads. Those leads were logged, managed, and nurtured within the system to help maximise conversion rates.

Sales people had access to a wealth of tools and collateral to make them effective and productive as possible. Potential sales deals were managed through the system to give better visibility of future orders and to help the sales management identify which opportunities needed additional help and support. When an order came in, the complex procedures which supported its fulfilment were all managed through the system rather than the collection of spread-sheets it replaced.

Let me share my perspective on supplier-customer trust and the supplier’s responsibility to assist the parent company’s desire and business needs to resolve customer complaints. A half dozen years ago Muthuraman, Sen, Gupta, Seshadri, and Narus (2006), discussed the following: “tectonic shifts that we are witnessing on what it takes for suppliers to survive and flourish in today’s fast-changing business environment…described as competitor intensity, market turbulence, and technological turbulence make it imperative for the supplier firm to be market-oriented” (p. 5). However, I would submit that along with resolving and permanently fixing customer complaint, suppliers must incorporate market intelligence vis-à-vis their competitors and consumers before they can become successful.

Photograph courtesy of net_efekt

As I mentioned in my last post – what is a CRM consultant, there are – perhaps confusingly – a wide range of people who use the title ‘CRM Consultant’, but who actually perform very different roles in the world of customer relationship management. One species is the Independent CRM consultant, whose role is typically to provide an independent perspective on matters relating to the selection and implementation of CRM technology. Vendors have something of a vested interest in selling software, and so there are key points where organisations typically look for outside independent advice. These include:

Project feasibility and planning – helping organisations determine whether and how to undertake a CRM project

Detailed requirements definition – to avoid being locked into a vendor/product or choosing the wrong technology before requirements/costs are fully identified

Vendor selection – to help organisations identify the most appropriate CRM technology and implementation partner

The sign in the picture has significance. Well significance to ultra runners anyway. Or more specifically ultra runners taking part in the Country to Capital at least (which takes place in January in case you’re tempted). The sign signals a left turn that takes you into central London. Miss it and you’re heading for Slough instead of Little Venice, and the only way back is to retrace your steps. And despite the fact there is a sign there’s always a few runners who miss it and end up clocking up a lot of extra miles.

I’ve been running ultra races for the last four or five years now. Normally in the forty to fifty mile range, mostly off road and requiring a fair amount of map reading and navigation. Having got lost several times in races, I can attest that there is little more dispiriting than slogging it out in the dark, tired to the core, frozen by rain, lugging the certain knowledge that had I not made a mistake I would be long finished, showered, and nursing a hot mug of tea.