Over time, businesses change, business processes change, your customers become more demanding and of course the economic climate changes as well. It’s always a good idea to regularly review your company CRM system to check if it’s still 'fit for purpose'. Here’s our basic checklist of areas to look at when doing your review:
Is it still meeting its objectives?
You purchased/implemented your current CRM system X years ago. You of course at the time had in mind what you wanted it to do, objectives to meet, issues to solve, business process and efficiency savings. Is it still meeting that? Perhaps your business has changed recently – expanded, downsized, ventured into new markets or providing new services. Does your current CRM system meet these new requirements? Have you had to purchase additional applications to fill the gap of any deficiencies of your system or are you reverting back to the dreaded Excel spreadsheets for tracking information?
Are you up to date?
Especially relevant to ‘on premise’ CRM systems and not so much ‘Cloud’ solutions, but are you taking advantage of the latest versions? Keeping up to date benefits normally with extra capabilities, easier ways of doing things, compatibility with your IT infrastructure and bug fixes.
How actively is it being used?
Rarely does someone use every feature of their CRM system, but check with your Users what features they use most? Is everyone using those elements in a consistent way?
Need more Training?
Training is often overlooked when investing in a new CRM system. Good training helps build confidence with your CRM system and improves accuracy & efficiency. Have you had any new starters recently who need to be up to the same level as existing Users? Do you need to look at training on any new features of the software? Has anyone fallen into bad habits and needs a refresher?
Experienced any Issues recently?
Review any technical or operational challenges you’ve had. Why did they occur in the first place, what was the result and how can they be avoided in the future? Issues could have been technical or operational, i.e. the system could not do job ‘xyz’ so you had to do it manually or use another application involving extra time and expense.
How up to date is the data?
If you’ve been using your system for a good few years, maybe you’ve accumulated a lot of prospect and customer information. How up to date and complete is this information? Poor data quality has far-reaching effects and consequences for companies, wasting millions of pounds every year. Poor data management not only impacts on profit margins, but can also damage an organisation's brand, and increase its exposure to fraud and data protection penalties. So review your database. When were customer records last updated and validated? Do you have all the correct key contact names and email addresses for your customers? Are there any missing or empty fields in your database? Do you have any fields that aren’t being used anymore? Maybe you need to store extra information about your customers. In your database fields, are your ‘pick lists’ still up to date? CRM systems will normally track information about your up and coming sales interactions like phone calls, potential sales etc… Have you had anybody leave recently and need to reassign activities to other Users?
Reporting and Management Information
All good CRM solutions out there have tools like Dashboards and Reports to provide great information to help in your decision making process and management of the business. Are they up to date? Do they still work correctly? Do you need new reports? Can you think of any way of improving on the reporting process or how you access the information?
New Capabilities
In reviewing your current system, can you benefit from integrating it to other systems in your business to enable efficiencies in time saving and productivity? Can you improve on how you access your system? E.g. do your salespeople use an iPhone/smartphone now more than their laptop? Are they more mobile than they used to be 12 months ago?
If you want to undertake a free review of your current CRM system, please contact Wizard Systems for more information. If you’re in the UK, we can normally come and meet you at your offices or in certain circumstances setup an on line meeting and connection to your system.
Tim Wilmot, the author of this article, has over 25 years experience of implementing CRM solutions into small and medium sized organisations.
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