Choosing a CRM should be a pleasure, not a chore.
As the adoption of digital technology has advanced exponentially over the last 12 months, choosing a customer relationship management system has become a necessary decision for most B2B or B2C operations, but with so many on offer it can seem a daunting process.
To aid your decision and ensure you gain a return on your investment it is essential that you take the time to consider what tasks you need the system to perform and that it will help you achieve your business plans and delight your team members.
Considerations such as the following:
- What areas of your business would you like or need to improve?
- Do your future plans include any increases in staff numbers or new additional departments?
- What additional features will assist you to grow your operation and be able to scale with it?
- Will the platform allow you to integrate existing external software tech and more importantly be flexible in allowing collaboration with future versions and developments?
- Do you want to focus on one area of your operation or require a system that can incorporate all departments and aspects of your business, aligning and uniting your Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, administration and website development teams?
- Would an industry specific CRM that is built with your business in mind suit your needs? Whilst this may be a solution for your immediate needs, they can more rigid and less adaptable in their construction and can prove to be less effective as your business develops.
- Or would a fully customisable system that can be configured to your requirements and SOPs (Standard operating procedures) work better, especially as they can be less expensive, even when you include the additional costs of a CRM expert to customise the platform to perform as you would want it to?
- Finally, how do you ensure your chosen CRM will offer a good user experience?
Many companies have decided to invest in a platform only to discover that their teams struggle with its implementation, either because the system itself isn’t user friendly or more often insufficient levels of user training.
Ways to help you in your decision process
There are many CRM review sites that can provide answers and suggest possible uses and if you have the time to do so it would always be recommended that you refer to these during your decision process.
Many CRMs offer a free or trial version that allow you to gain an idea of how easy it can be to use. However, these often don’t allow you to fully assess the features and benefits that the paid for version will provide your business with.
Another resource available to you is approaching a CRM expert for consultation. They will offer an assessment, suggest a solution & advise on related training programmes, often without charge, which can prove to be a useful method to assisting your decision process.
Remember, it’s a business decision
Always bear in mind that many businesses have a bad experience in this important operational shift, either by choosing a CRM that does not support their goals, or in providing their team with insufficient user training in an attempt to save money.
If you take the time to consider and choose the CRM that not only satisfies the needs of your business and you ensure your teams learn to fall in love with it through adequate training, you will not only be helping your business to work smarter and happier, but see a real return on your investment.
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