Is Your CRM Wasting Employee Time?

Do Your Employees Really Know How to Use Your CRM?

When you invested in your CRM, hopefully, you chose a system with a clear and simple user interface. Unfortunately, even the best CRM systems can get a bit complex when it comes to fully utilizing all your CRM features. When users are not familiar with a system, they can waste minutes or even hours just trying to figure out how to complete a simple task.

Because of the range of CRM functionality available, training should be a priority as soon as you begin to implement a new CRM. Training should not be optional. Ensure that you invest in training all employees with your CRM and the testing of what they've learned. Ongoing training opportunities to further expand employee knowledge of CRM capabilities can also be a worthwhile use of resources.

If You Don’t Have a CRM Policy in Place, That’s a Problem

The fact is that no matter how great a new system or piece of software is, there will be internal resistance to using it. Salespeople who have their own system in place that they have worked with happily for years are going to be reluctant to switching to something new that they don’t necessarily understand. Users who are trying to constantly flip between an old paper or spreadsheet-based system and your CRM are certainly going to be wasting a lot of time.

If this is an issue plaguing your organization, it is time to enact a CRM policy. Employees must understand that all customer records are to be entered in the CRM promptly. Without this kind of policy in place, it is too easy for the system to languish because of apathetic employees.

Your CRM Should Speak the Same Language as Other Critical Systems

A good CRM should be saving your employees time and energy so that they can put those resources towards strategic business goals. When your CRM is not able to interact with the other enterprise solutions your company uses, it can be extremely frustrating and time-consuming. Users will have to click between multiple screens each time they want to check a record or make a phone call.

One highly effective way to get more from your CRM is through VoIP integration solutions. When your CRM integrates with your VoIP phone system, your team has easy access to customer information whenever someone calls and can seamlessly communicate within the organization with just a click. VoIP integration, as well as CRM integration with other enterprise systems, make for the most effective way to ensure that your CRM is saving employee time rather than wasting it.

If you have invested in a CRM and have not seen measurable results, it is time to take a look at your internal policies and priorities to find out how you can make your CRM work for you.