Accelo Acquires Forecast, Adding Depth to AI and Capacity Planning Capabilities
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Many small businesses depend on customer relationship management (CRM) software to stay on top of relationships with customers, prospects, and important vendors. The best CRM software becomes an important hub to drive sales and increase customer satisfaction.
Like all business tools, the value of a CRM system depends on how well it's implemented. Some business owners leave system implementation to front-line team members who don't fully understand its capabilities, or fail to fully integrate all the software’s features with their existing processes.
Follow these six essential steps to ensure your organization enjoys a successful CRM implementation.
As you explore the wide variety of CRMs on the market, it’s easy to get excited about all the features and integrations they offer. The only features that matter, however, are the ones that are a good fit for your objectives.
For example, the CRM features a digital marketing agency needs differ from those of other professional operations. Before you start exploring the market, it’s a good idea to review what you want from a platform beyond basic customer information storage and data management.
Your analysis should address your specific business needs and overall CRM strategy. Think about how a CRM platform can help your firm achieve its business goals, serve customer needs, and overcome challenges.
In other words, ask yourself why you’re considering a new system:
An ideal CRM system will achieve all of the above and integrate seamlessly with your existing business processes, while optimizing your sales process.
Before choosing a solution, audit your current business processes. This will help you identify opportunities for improvement:
Before you begin, establish some metrics you can later use to measure your CRM's success:
Reach out to every department to get their feedback. Here’s a look at the CRM features that will likely matter the most to each department:
Once you know what you hope to achieve, it’s time to research what's available. Finding the right CRM solution requires careful consideration.
List your essential features and some nice-to-have features. You might need lead management and sales tracking, but also need customer service automation and employee skill tracking. Other valuable features might include email marketing capabilities and marketing automation tools.
While software features matter, there are other factors to consider:
Take systematic approach when comparing different CRM platforms:
To avoid feature creep, determine which features are essential for your team versus which ones might be nice to have but not as useful.
For example, essential CRM features might include:
Depending on the size and needs of your organization, these other features might be great to have but not necessarily a requirement:
READ NEXT: How To Build a Business Case for New Software
It's probably tempting to try to roll out a CRM with only your in-house resources. As talented as your team may be, they shouldn't be burdened with the significant task of software implementation. You need them to continue applying their efforts to client work so you won't sacrifice billable time. Despite any hesitations you may have, it's wise to invest in expert help when you're going about a change of this magnitude.
The best platforms should offer an implementation program that guides you through the entire CRM implementation process and helps you develop a detailed CRM implementation plan. Read how one agency succeeded by implementing Accelo with a partnership approach.
We simplify the process. Find out: Why Accelo.
Make your CRM roll-out as smooth as possible by planning ahead to avoid these common mistakes.
Learning a new system is always a challenge, and some team members are more inclined to welcome change than others. That's why it's critical to communicate with all stakeholders about the upcoming change and secure their buy-in, reassuring them you'll provide the necessary resources to integrate this technology into their daily workflow.
With the help of the platform's implementation team, create a standardized plan that you can adapt for those who might be less tech savvy. Practical user training and onboarding are essential for successful adoption across all skill levels.
If your business is undergoing other changes at the same time, structured CRM training is vital. Giant Creative, a marketing agency in London, Ontario, adopted Accelo during the acquisition of another business. Learn more about their approach to platform training here.
Different team members need different levels of CRM training according to their roles. Here’s what your sales, customer service, and management teams should focus on during implementation.
There are several methods you can use to track the progress and effectiveness of your training plans, including:
Even with guidance, you can still run into unexpected scope creep and other problems. It’s better to discover potential issues before your new CRM system is live.
You may want to run a beta test with a small group to identify any gaps in the data migration process and ensure all customer data transfers correctly. Don't forget to test third-party CRM integrations to ensure your custom API setup is correct.
Your implementation experts will help you decide when to go live and plan any necessary calls leading up to this date. Still, you should build an internal support system to help you overcome any unexpected roadblocks. Having a go-to person on your team who can communicate about the implementation process will simplify things.
Here’s a glimpse of a typical implementation timeline, which you can adjust to suit your firm’s particular needs.
When implementing a CRM, always have a Plan B ready to go. Here are a few tips to help you get ahead of potential challenges:
It’s tempting to move on to the next item on your to-do list after you're up and running on a new platform, but the first few months are crucial. Schedule team meetings to collect feedback, stay on top of developing problems, and ensure strong user adoption of key features, ultimately improving retention. Track key metrics to measure success and identify areas for ongoing optimization.
You'll also want to give everyone the access they need to comprehensive platform support. Understand the user support options your CRM offers, read the articles and emails they send, and connect with other users via online communities to troubleshoot complex challenges.
Implementing a new CRM isn't just about the technology itself; it's about aligning that technology with your business and continuously refining how you use it. Learn more about the benefits of working with an implementation team to make true digital transformation possible.
