Achieve Complete CRM Software Adoption with These 3 Easy Tips

Looking for the right CRM software for your business can be a grueling process. Finding it is just the beginning, though. You still have to convince your whole team to actually use the thing.

Getting everybody on board your new system is just as important as finding the right one — after all, without everyone doing their part and populating the system with meaningful data then you won’t really get the most out of it.

Here are three key tips that will help make CRM system adoption a much less painstaking task.

Make data entry easy

WORK[etc] Customizable Webforms.

Data entry is often cited as one of the biggest hurdles in getting an entire team to accept and use a CRM system. Sales teams, in particular, have traditionally been averse to it — you did hire them to sell your product, after all, not to populate a CRM system with data.

Look for a CRM system with multiple ways of making data entry easy and painless. The key word here is “automation” — you need a system that makes data entry a matter of a few clicks, instead of hours upon hours searching for and typing in relevant data.

In WORK[etc], there are a number of ways to automate the data entry process. You can embed a custom web form into your website and have the system automatically turn any data entered into support tickets or new leads and contacts.

WORK[etc]’s GMail and Outlook plugins, meanwhile, allow you to turn any email you receive into virtually any kind of actionable object within the CRM system. You can, for example, attach an email from a client to a project or turn it into a support ticket assigned to a specific team member.they also let you make better use of the time spent combing through your inbox.

Make data accessible but secure

WORK[etc] Mobile CRM Apps.

BYOD, BYOT, or BYOPC — whichever term you choose to use, more and more employees are bringing their own gadgets, from mobile phones and tablets to laptops and PCs, to use at work. As such, you need a CRM system that can easily be accessed through any of these many devices.

Since it’s a cloud-based CRM system, you and your team can log on to WORK[etc] practically anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. All you need is a browser and you’re good to go. Its Android and iPhone mobile apps also allow for easy access while you’re out on the field — a must for companies with off-site teams and agents.

Access into the CRM system itself is just one part of the equation, however. You also have to think about WHAT data your teams can see once they’re in the system. WORK[etc]’s granular permissions settings can give every team member quick and easy access to business-critical data without compromising security.

For example, any project created by one of your project managers can be viewed by everybody else, but only the project manager who created the item can update and edit it. Managers and administrators, on the other hand, can easily be given complete control over all modules and the data they contain.

This can help speed up adoption in two ways: you keep your team members focused on their specific tasks as well as minimize errors by closing off areas and data that’s not in their range of expertise.

These security settings also come in handy when an employee leaves the company. You can easily set all of their security permissions to disable any kind of access to the system and keep your data secure. In much the same vein, a new employee might be given permission to only view data in the system to keep them from accidentally messing up any business-critical information or settings.

Make it your whole reality

WORK[etc] Activity Stream.

The fastest way to adoption is to have everyone use the CRM system for practically everything. Not just the sales team or the support team, but everyone from the CEO down to the newest intern.

While a run-of-the-mill CRM system will still prove useful for almost all aspects of your business (your sales team might not be the only ones who need client contact information, after all), having to switch between two or more different applications constantly inefficient.

It also raises the chance for errors; there’s always the chance for mistakes when retyping data from one app to another.

WORK[etc] keeps everything simple and easy to access by integrating practically all of the critical components that a business may need into one cloud-based system. Instead of a half a dozen apps or more, you can use just one to cover the whole spectrum of the customer lifecycle.

If someone from the support team needs an overview of what the sales team has been doing for a client, there’s no need to log on to a separate app just to do so. It’s the same deal if management needs a report on how a project is coming along; the CEO, for example, can quickly generate reports and check on sales, project, and support ticket status through a single system.

Not every CRM system is made equal. The most important thing about achieving complete CRM system adoption for your business is to find one that can be used by everyone on your team — and not just for pulling up contact information, either.