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Choosing a CRM
solution for your company can be a daunting task, especially if
you’ve never done it before. It’s no secret that those companies who
know how to develop and maintain customer and prospect relationships
effectively reap the benefits of those relationships.
It’s crucially important to realise that CRM is a holistic strategy;
it is NOT just the application of a CRM tool like “GoldMine”. When a
CRM implementation fails it is usually not the fault of the CRM
software but a failure of the company to adopt the whole philosophy
of CRM throughout the company. This whole philosophy should be taken
very seriously and championed from a high level within the
organisation or it may be doomed to failure from the start. It will
involve looking at the current business practices and processes and
assessing whether there is nay room for improvement in order to
create and develop long lasting customer relationships. It will also
involve customer service training sessions for your “frontline”
service providers, teaching your staff to empathise with people they
come into contact with (having the ability to put themselves in the
shoes of the customer).
Having said all that, CRM does rely on a solid store of information
to back up the whole approach as well as the canny use of
technology. This is where it’s important to do proper research on
not just the software but also the provider of the software. Most
CRM software companies have a main distributor within each strategic
region (usually a country) and then the distributor will have a
group of resellers (usually called “Partners”). There are actually
advantages to using resellers vs. buying direct from a developer.
Some people initially worry they might be getting less for their
money if they use a reseller but often they will be offered exactly
the same price plan with a much more personalised service.
Here are 12 questions I would expect to be asked by anyone looking
to implement a CRM software solution.
- How long has
the supplier been established?
- What are the
specific costs of implementing this particular software (are
there any monthly or annual fees?
- What is the
licensing model ? – usually it is either...
a. Concurrent – meaning you can set up as many users as you like but only
a certain
number can log in at once
b. Named License – You need to purchase licenses for every person will use
the software
- What are the
other costs that may be incurred such as updating your IT
infrastructure in order to provide a stable base for the CRM
software? (this is a question you will probably have to answer
yourself although the provider should be able to provide you
with minimum specs)
- How much
consultancy will be required and how much training and at what
cost? (this will largely be determined by your budget, but the
more you can spend on these two areas the better the end result
will be) Often when budgets are tight the first thing to go is
the consultancy then the training – in that order. Both areas
reap huge dividends so think very carefully before slashing them
willy-nilly in order to meet a short term budget
a. Consultancy – The provider can go through your current
processes with you and due to the fact they visit a lot of
similar companies on a regular basis will probably be able to
make some recommendations. They will then guide you through
mapping the processes to the functionality of the CRM software.
(i.e. showing you how to get the best out of it)
b. Training – There are a few different levels of training and all
should be considered
i. Basic user training -Typically someone who is managing
their own activities and logging calls and possibly forecasting
sales
ii. Advanced user training -Typically marketing staff or
Sales managers who want to be able to deal with making global
updates, sending mail shots and email blasts, allocating records
and running reports etc
iii. System administrator training - Typically one or two
people within the organisation who will be responsible for
creating new fields and screens, managing lookup lists,
maintaining data entry protocols, setting up new users, back ups
and the general day to day well being of the system
iv. Report Writing training -Typically the same people
who do the system administration training. Whether the CRM
software has it’s own proprietary reporting tools or whether the
a specific report writing tool is selected Learning how to
measure the success of your campaigns and efforts yourself will
mean you have access to meaningful and useful data at a fraction
of the cost of asking your software provider to do it for you
each time you want a new report…This leads to the next question
to ask of your potential provider...
- Can the
supplier provide report writing skills and report writing
training if required?
- How much is
charged for technical support?
- Is it possible
to get access to an evaluation system?
- Does the
supplier have access to developers who can create “add-ons” for
the system should a requirement be identified that is not
supplied by the current software functionality or even “Tie-ins”
with existing systems?
- Is the CRM
system scalable – If we double in size in the next year or so or
our customer base expands can the system not only “cope” but
perform well?
- Are there any
free user groups online where ideas or advice can be sought and
experience can be shared?
- Can the
supplier provide reference sites ?– (this sounds obvious but is
often overlooked )
The above is all original material from iWicks consulting ltd
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