Moving is never fun, whether it is a physical relocation or a digital migration. However, sometimes it is necessary in order to grow as a person or as a business. As your business grows, its needs change and you might find yourself in need of a new CRM system that can meet all your business needs. Though the move might seem overwhelming at first, this is your chance to create a CRM system that best fits your business environment.
Like any move, things can start getting complicated pretty easily. Here are some tips to consider when setting up your new CRM to avoid unnecessary work, streamline your business process, and leverage your new CRM to best meet your needs.
Not Cleansing Your Data
Data is key in a CRM. Instead of attempting to migrate all the data in your current system to the new one, clean your data first and save yourself and team from hours of unnecessary work. Take this opportunity to audit your current data and eliminate duplicates, outdated, or irrelevant data pre-migration. A Nigel Frank article gave some great tips for things to look out for when cleansing data:
- Spelling errors — Incorrect spellings can seriously hamper your team’s ability to find the information they need to do their jobs. It can also put a dent in customer relations and increase bounce rates for email marketing.
- Conformity — Databases should have naming conventions in place to ensure data is consistent in the way that it’s captured. If you haven’t had formal naming conventions in the past, now is the time to standardize your data and set a precedent for future imports.
- Completeness — A record isn’t much good to anyone if there’s crucial data missing. Add in extra information to make sure your data is as comprehensive as possible.
- Accuracy — People move or change their emails and phone numbers all the time, so don’t take for granted that your information is up to date.
- Duplications — Keep an eye out for duplicate records which can cause crossed wires. Match and consolidate any dupes to keep things in order.
Inadequate Training
No matter how great your brand–new CRM system is, it will render useless if no one knows how to use it. Often, businesses switch over to a new CRM system in the hopes of streamlining their business practices but neglect to provide the proper staff training to take advantage of the new system.
Involve your team in the migration process to get them accustom to the new system by hosting training sessions as well as encourage them to explore on their own accord. Not everyone will be motivated to take the time to learn the new system immediately, but training is crucial for the long-term goals of your business. This is the system all your employees will utilize daily and they need to know how to leverage it to best work for them.
Lack of Enforced Standards
Take advantage of the training sessions to create and enforce good practices. This is the perfect opportunity to end bad habits and develop new standardized business procedures for your business. Creating standardized ways for your employees to enter data or interact with your new CRM from the beginning will encourage and sustain the new procedures long-term. It is much easier to introduce new practices along with the new CRM system rather than attempting to rectify bad habits later when employees are already used to doing it a certain way.
Over Architecting
It’s so easy to go down a rabbit down when organizing your data. Your intentions were good, but the next thing you know, you’ve created way too many custom fields and the sales team hate you for making them fill in so much information. Keep it simple and adjust along the way.
Under Architecting
You don’t want to over organize the data, however, you don’t want to leave businesses process undefined either. Leaving your business process open can lead to mistakes, inconsistency, and overall confusion. Develop a concise plan for all the essential information and a clear guide to avoid any of the mistakes mentioned previously.
Thinking It’s Only for Sales
Traditionally, most professional saw CRMs as tools to help sales, customer service, and marketing, but things are changing. Dynamics 365 does not only offer services for those but much more. Dynamics 365 has applications for field service, finance, project service automation, supply chain management, and more to help fosters the entire customer life cycle. It is not only solely for the sales and marketing team, but your entire organization is going to interact with the system.
These are just a few of the mistakes that frequently occur. If you are thinking of switching CRMs or overwhelm with a CRM migration currently, KTL has a team of experts that are readily available to share their expertise.
As a gold-certified Microsoft partner, we have over 20+ years of experience in the field and have teams of qualified professionals to assist you in your next CRM migration. Schedule a free consultation with a KTL CRM consultant.
