{"id":635,"date":"2015-05-03T10:07:38","date_gmt":"2015-05-03T10:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/csm210469\/?p=635"},"modified":"2022-10-21T14:43:43","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T14:43:43","slug":"is-your-crm-system-doomed-to-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/is-your-crm-system-doomed-to-fail\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Your CRM System Doomed to Fail?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Make your CRM implementation a success by first defining these essential rules of use.<\/strong><\/p>\n\"CRM\n

\u201cRight, People. Let\u2019s blast out that mail campaign we\u2019ve been planning for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to put your trusty CRM software to work; to let it earn its keep. You run a search of people and companies you want to target.<\/p>\n

You soon realize something\u2019s wrong when your list is far smaller than anticipated. A quick check reveals many profiles\/categories have not been filled in, impacting your search results.<\/p>\n

Further inspection shows numerous records are incorrect; others are riddled with typos. And that\u2019s just for starters.<\/p>\n

With a sinking feeling, you realize that last push isn\u2019t going to happen in a hurry.<\/p>\n

Time for some Damage Control or Preventative Maintenance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your CRM software is only as good as the information it contains. As the old programmers motto goes \u2018garbage in, garbage out\u2019.<\/p>\n

Fortunately one of the most common reasons cited for the high failure rate of CRM systems – poor data quality – is also one of the easiest to avoid.<\/p>\n

So how can you avoid incomplete, incorrect, irrelevant or out-of-date and generally unfit-for-use data from permeating your CRM software?<\/p>\n

You need to gather your key CRM users together and thrash out a DATA CAPTURE PROCEDURE document, defining the rules of use.<\/p>\n

Spell out:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Who has what rights to the system; who can Create, Insert, Modify or Delete records, assuming your software supports all these functions? Forward this information to your system administrator to action.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Decide on a procedure to check for any duplicates before creating a record. Depending on what \u2018de-duping\u2019 or \u2018data scrubbing\u2019 features your system has, this might require some simple searches before starting a new record.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Do you allow abbreviations or acronyms? For example: IBM, or I.B.M, or International Business Machines Inc. or Incorporated and so on. A policy on ensuring consistency of input will help to avoid duplications in future.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Are records going to be created in Upper and Lower case and when are CAPS acceptable?<\/p>\n

\u2022 By when do you expect records, notes and so on to be created or updated? Same day, on return to the office?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Check to see whether your Postal Services have specific requirements. Ensure your data meets these criteria.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Is the primary address of clients to be created as a postal or a physical address?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Make sure everyone checks spellings if they are unsure and do not trust spellchecker! When in doubt, ask the client \u2013 they\u2019ll respect that. Is it Clark with an \u2018e\u2019; Shawn, Sean or Shaun? One certain way to get your mail binned is to spell someone\u2019s name incorrectly.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Also confirm the kind of corporation e.g. LLC, Inc, PTY Ltd. and so on.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Make rules for creating new profiles or User Definable Fields (UDF) (or whatever your specific CRM software calls them.) Place a lot of emphasis on this. Every time a new UDF is needed, it should first be approved. Otherwise duplicates will permeate your database e.g. Lead Source: Yellow Pages, YP, yelo pages.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Ensure that email addresses are put in correctly. Basic but common mistake!<\/p>\n

\u2022 Set up procedures, if not supported by your software, of how to create records from inbound emails.<\/p>\n

\u2022 If applicable, are you going to use Mandatory\/Forced fields?<\/p>\n

You might as well address the issue of Backups while you are about it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 Who is the responsible person for backing up your databases\/s? Who covers for them when they are absent or unavailable?<\/p>\n

\u2022 How frequently are backups to be done? Diarise!<\/p>\n

\u2022 How are backups done?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Ensure backups are made correctly. It\u2019s no good doing a backup, then finding on attempting a Restore that it doesn\u2019t work! It is also a good idea to copy backups onto more than one data format.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Where are the backups to be stored?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Are the backups secure? This is important for both security and practical reasons.<\/p>\n

Once your Data Capture Procedure Document is finished, get everyone to sign it off as READ!<\/p>\n

As standard practice, ensure that document is handed to all new employees at your company.<\/p>\n

Refer back to this document for possible revision every three months or so.<\/p>\n

Try this: select a couple of records – both good and bad – every week, to put on the overhead at staff meetings. Make sure you don\u2019t unduly embarrass anybody but watch this become the light-relief highlight of your meetings! People learn best when having fun!<\/p>\n

What if your database is in one unholy mess?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Has the rot set in so deeply that your database needs a complete overhaul? Turn this seemingly insurmountable task into an opportunity to you. This is an excellent excuse to re-establish contact with your clients and let them know you care. You can always put lapses down to data crashes but tell them you have fixed the problem!<\/p>\n

Importantly, help your staff understand what you need from the data to facilitate more accurate marketing and reporting and hence the success of your business and their careers.<\/p>\n

By creating a sense of pride and ownership in the company database, you are nurturing the essential process of buy-in, necessary for the success of your CRM initiative. Don\u2019t compromise this critical tool by allowing your CRM software to be infected by inferior data.<\/p>\n

About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perry Norgarb,\u00a0founder and editor of SmallBizCRM<\/a>, has specialized in Small Business CRM solutions for the past twenty-three\u00a0years, offering software tips and solutions for small businesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Make your CRM implementation a success by first defining these essential rules of use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[17],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35988,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635\/revisions\/35988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}