CRM User Adoption 10 deadly sins

Nov. 23, 2012 - PRLog -- Hello Everybody!

Today we have a very interesting blog post published by the MVP behind CRMGamified®, Pablo Peralta, in which he explains the importance of User Adoption for CRM. The original piece is in Spanish, but we’d like to share an outline of the key concepts with you.

Pablo’s article is entitled "10 deadly sins in CRM User Adoption". Frightening, isn’t it? Well, let’s take a look at the sin list:

1. Believing that a “blessing” from upper management is enough to get users engaged
Sure we need managers to be on board with our CRM program but this is a necessary condition, not a sufficient one.

2. Having a Do-It-Yourself approach and only reveal the final stages of the project to end users
The real problem here is the lack of feedback. You are building the CRM for them, you need to take their opinions into account. Use prototypes, pre-releases, demos. Make sure they know what to expect.

3. Entering too slowly into the system
Of course, implementation needs to be gradual, but keep in mind that it shouldn’t be too slow that users feel the CRM is a mere option. You need to prevent them from getting the idea that CRM is just a side dish in their day to day work.

Once the system is in place, you need to push it whenever you can to promote a change in users’ behavior. Pablo’s post explains that this recommendation was inspired by fellow MVP GUS Gonzalez, who advises to always answer with "it's in the CRM" to any question related to a case, an opportunity, etc - thus forcing users to rely on the system instead of spreadsheets, emails, notes, etc.

4. Blaming the software for lack of adoption
No doubt about it. Microsoft® Dynamics CRM is tightly integrated with Microsoft Office. It’s a very powerful tool that consistently stands out as a CRM solution. There’s a very high chance that the tool is not the problem. If you feel that adoption is low because the software is not friendly enough... well, you are probably doing something wrong.

5. Choosing the wrong Power Users
Selecting your power users by their time availability and willingness seems natural but it’s often a big mistake.

It’s a decision that looks good on paper, but think about it for a second: what can you tell about users that are willing to try new stuff and have the time for it? They are usually the newcomers. Young people that may not have enough experience in the industry and, most importantly, don’t have the trust of veteran employees yet. Choosing them as your power users will probably create a much higher resistance to change.

You need to select power users that are deeply involved in the company’s processes, especially in their particular area or department. However, you need to avoid having only one power user per area. You need to have more than one point of view.

6.Dumping duplicated or dirty data
Data migration from other systems and databases may need to be considered a subproject in itself. Data cleaning and redundancy elimination needs to be carefully implemented in order to have usable valuable information in the CRM.

7. Keeping the CRM isolated from other systems
There are organizations in which is possible to run CRM as an independent isolated system (for a while at least), but that’s often not the case for large organizations, especially if you want to increase user adoption.

8. Underestimating training
Dynamics CRM may seem intuitive enough to any Office user but don’t let that make you assume training is not important. In order to encourage user adoption it’s very important to make them feel confident in the system. You need to allocate time for trainings, if only to make your users feel they invested time and resources in learning something new.

9. Failing to communicate the value of on-going maintenance
As consultants our job is not over the minute we implement the system. On the contrary, that’s when the REAL challenge begins and it’s one in which our clients are going to need our help as much as when they first contacted us . If they don’t see the importance of maintenance that’s probably our fault for not making it clear.

We need to have a previous agreement for the maintenance of the project for at least one year. Optimization is key in every CRM. It will not be truly “complete” until it is put to the test of time and use.

10. Failing to measure user adoption and not rewarding achievements
We need to be able to measure. Always. Everything we do to perfect the system needs to be based on data. How many of them are using it? How are they using it? Which issues are causing them troubles? The answers to these questions are essential if we want to answer the even more important questions: What changes do we need to apply? How do we get them to use it? How do we keep them engaged?

Of course, we don’t need to tell you how we solved that problem at UruIT Dynamix, right?

You probably know that we came up with a solution that encourages user adoption by making CRM fun. That’s right, a complete CRM gamification solution (http://crmgamified.com/) for Microsoft® Dynamics CRM. You may have heard about it. We call it CRMGamified®. :)

We are not going to bore you with all the details in this article  but feel free to check us out and download our FREE beta.