Is Your CRM System Destined to Fail ?
by David Cowgill
Published on this site: July 14th, 2005 - See
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It’s time to put your trusty CRM software to work; to
let it earn its keep. You're about to blast an email out to
several thousand potential customers. First you run a search
of people and companies you want to target. You soon realize
something’s wrong when your list is far smaller than
anticipated. A quick check reveals many profiles have not
been filled in or are missing email addresses. Further inspection
shows numerous records are incorrect; others are riddled with
typos. And that’s just for starters. With a sinking feeling,
you realize this email blast isn’t going to happen anytime
soon.
Time for some damage control or preventative maintenance
Fortunately one of the most common reasons cited for the
high failure rate of CRM systems poor data quality is also
one of the easiest to avoid. Your CRM software is only as
good as the information it contains. As the old programmers
motto goes ‘garbage in, garbage out’. So how can
you avoid incomplete, incorrect, irrelevant or out of date
and generally unfit for use data from permeating your CRM
software?
You need to gather your key CRM users together and write
a standard guideline document, defining the CRM system rules
of use.
10 questions that should be addressed:
- Identify who has what rights to the system; who can Create,
Insert, Modify or Delete records? Forward this information
to your system administrator to record.
- Decide on a procedure to check for any duplicates before
creating a record. Depending on what ‘de-duping’
or ‘data scrubbing’ features your system has,
this might require some simple searches before starting
a new record.
- Do you allow abbreviations or acronyms? For example: IBM,
or I.B.M, or International Business Machines Inc. A policy
on ensuring consistency of input will help to avoid duplications
in future
- Are records going to be created in Upper and Lower case
and when are CAPS acceptable?
- By when do you expect records, notes and so on to be created
or updated? Same day, on return to the office?
- Is the primary address of clients to be created as a
postal or a physical address?
- Make sure everyone checks spellings if they are unsure.
When in doubt, ask the client or Google it.
- Make rules for creating new tabs or Custom Objects (as
salesforce.com CRM calls them.) Every time a new Custom
Object is needed, it should first be approved.
- Ensure that email addresses are put in correctly. Basic
but common mistake!
- Set up procedures, if not supported by your crm software,
of how to create records from inbound emails.
Once your document is finished, get everyone to sign off
on it. As standard practice, ensure that document is handed
to all new employees at your company.
How do I reinforce this as time goes on?
Try this: select a couple of records both good and
bad every week, to put on the overhead at staff meetings.
Make sure you don’t unduly embarrass anybody but watch
this become the light relief highlight of your meetings! People
learn best when having fun!
What if your database is in one unholy mess?
Has the rot set in so deeply that your database needs a complete
overhaul? Turn this seemingly insurmountable task into an
opportunity to you. This is an excellent excuse to re-establish
contact with your clients and let them know you care.
Importantly, help your staff understand what you need from
the data to facilitate more accurate marketing and reporting
and hence the success of your business and their careers.
By creating a sense of pride and ownership in the company
database, you are nurturing the essential process of buy-in,
necessary for the success of your CRM initiative. Don’t
compromise this critical tool by allowing your CRM software
to be infected by inferior data.
David Cowgill is a Senior Marketing Manager in San Francisco.
His coverage area focuses on the technologies that facilitate
managing CRM analytics and lead generation. For further information
contact:
David Cowgill CRM Blog Founder http://crm.blogs.com
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