5 Ways to Boost Your CRM Adoption

Organizations spend countless hours reviewing, analyzing and testing multiple CRM options on the market. They may well test several options, before selecting the one that best suits their needs. Oftentimes they may spend thousands (or even hundreds of thousands) on customer relationship management software.

Yielding a positive return on that investment takes time, especially if your sales team is reluctant to use the system or not updating it regularly.

So, what can you, as a company or business owner do to get the most out of your CRM?

1. Choose a CRM platform that’s easy to use

First of all, your system should be easy to use no matter who uses it. Whether it used by your sales team, customer support teams or all your employees, make sure their experience with your CRM is pleasant.

Select a system that is:

• is intuitive to you
• covers your business needs
• helps ensure your team enjoys using your CRM (rather than dreading every time they log in).

Role-based permissions and security settings may help with this, displaying only the relevant information for the given user. It will help declutter your main dashboard and control data security or sensitive information.

Ensure that the workflows or sales processes on the platform are easy to customize to match your business strategy. Find out what your end-users want from their CRM and what they want it to do.

It’s always worth putting together a list of ‘Must Have’s, ‘Nice to Have’s’ and a ‘Wish List’ of features and functions, you want from your CRM. Not only will this help you select the best system for your business, but also let you carry on a concise and tailored demo with your chosen provider.

2. Ensure all users are provided with training

An important factor in helping to maximize user adoption is gaining a clear understanding of each user’s needs, maximizing the benefit for each of them in the CRM’s design and then training them how to leverage the system most efficiently.

Actively practising these factors, while focusing on consistent usage will help you maximize your results, as well as help achieve the return on investment goals you’ve put in place for your CRM initiative.

3. Get Synchronized

Don’t think of your CRM as a standalone platform. It doesn’t have to, and shouldn’t, start and stop with one department.

Integrating with different business systems and mirroring client data from one system to another, can help produce a highly personalized and even predictive approach.

• Leads and inquiries can be pulled directly from your website/call to action banner, straight to your CRM.
• They can be assigned, nurtured and qualified, before moving to the sales cycle, where, if after a successful conversion, would then move to the customer support phase.

All this creates not only a seamless customer journey but also helps you keep all departments in the loop, ensuring they never miss out on opportunities to engage with clients and build long-lasting relationships.

4. Keep Up to Date

In what could be the mantra for some sales managers and team leaders; “if something isn’t in the CRM, then it doesn’t exist.”

The heart of every CRM is the data inputted, and the more you put in, the more insights and analytics you’ll get out at the end.

Put in place the processes to ensure regular updates and define your mandatory data fields to keep your system up-to-date and help prevent duplicate records. This is where an intuitive, easy to use CRM system pays off, helping ensure that the data collected is accurate.

Once you have this level of information, you will not only be able to better understand your customer’s needs but to also predict client’s future needs, adapt your content accordingly and confidently plan your next approach.

5. Go Mobile

For companies and teams who work remotely, or are regularly in and out of the office, a cloud-based, mobile-enabled CRM can help improve effectiveness and productivity.

Mobile and tablet apps can help users to easily keep track of customer interactions, manage leads, proposals and opportunities from any device, at any time.

Yet, there’s always room for improvement. The design or functionality of any CRM application can continually be improved. Livespace Team welcomes feedback and ideas from its users and is always happy to hear of ways we can improve your user experience.

To find out our CRM can benefit your business, book a 1 on 1 demo here.