for supporting and growing their business. You have to create your CRM strategy. How to get a successful CRM implementation By Marianne Broeng

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1 How to get a successful CRM implementation By Marianne Broeng Many CRM implementations fail or do not give the organisation the benefits they need. This situation can be prevented. Too often CRM implementations happen because someone gets an idea and then realise they don t have enough of a budget to manage a complete CRM implementation project from end to end. It is important to do the detailed planning before starting any CRM implementation. for supporting and growing their business. You have to create your CRM strategy. The CRM strategy Your products or services and your target market is your starting point, and you know how you would like your organisation to be 3-5 years from now. If you want to introduce more products to the market, increase branding awareness or grow your business that sets high level goals. Every element of your business, your processes and how you deal with your customers is important. Any CRM implementation involves a lot of time and money so you need to plan and manage it accordingly. The first step is to discuss what the organisation wants to achieve with a CRM system. Management has to identify the key drivers and priorities Meliam Consulting Pty Ltd Page 1

2 You can do a customer survey to get feedback and insight into how you could improve your business. When you have all your information you can start writing your CRM strategy. Get an external CRM expert to work with you at this stage to make it a strong CRM strategy and to get ideas and experience before you finalise it. Choosing a CRM system You might have some systems in place that provides some customer data already and you want to keep the data or even keep both the old and the new CRM system if they can be linked and work together. You now need to look at your strategy and take it one step further by going through all the business processes and key information you need. It is good to document existing processes and write any new or changed processes into your requirements document. It is important you identify the management information like specific reports and data you need to realise your goals in the CRM strategy. Think anything is possible so you are not bound to what you have been able to do so far. You should dream up your ideal graphical views and reports that are important for your business. This is a very important part of your requirements and will help ensure you have focus on these benefits throughout the CRM implementation. When you have all your functional requirements and have made your basic CRM decisions about whether Meliam Consulting Pty Ltd Page 2

3 to buy and build a CRM system and what part of the organisation are going to use it, you are ready to look at different CRM systems. Find out what CRM systems are likely to suit your organisation and carefully choose a vendor that ideally understands your business or industry. You have outgrown your existing CRM system. If you already have a CRM system but people are complaining about it or you don t get the needed benefits, you need to have a review of your CRM system and your CRM strategy. You can get a CRM expert to work with you, analyse and identify how you can change it around. Often improvements can be made with the existing CRM system. Sometimes you have outgrown your first CRM system that might have been used by part of the organisation. You are ready to get a better CRM system to be implemented across the entire organisation. This will handle many business processes and help you become truly customer driven so you can provide consistent great customer service. You need to look at your business, competition and where you want your business to be in the future. This determines the strategy you want to implement and the priorities for the new CRM system. CRM implementation When you have chosen your CRM system the first thing you need is to identify a Project Owner (ideally a senior manager) and appoint a Project Manager. You will start writing the business objectives and the benefits to be achieved. You will often include a phased approach for the implementation so decide on the appropriate phases, time line and budget. You also need to identify who should be part of the project team and their responsibilities. The project Meliam Consulting Pty Ltd Page 3

4 methodology is decided and the planning is started. Many organisations start with great plans for training, communication and change management, but when it comes to the cost too often change management gets cut. This is such a critical element of any implementation and MUST be handled to ensure the change is happening and managed successfully. You are depending on every employee; so you need to make them understand the new system and processes. This is the only way to ensure you can realise benefits from your CRM implementation. With a strong CRM strategy and having change management as a key part of your CRM implementation you will get success and start realising the benefits you want. Keep Change Management in your CRM implementation budget! CRM benefits You are able to get several benefits with a strong CRM strategy and a well-managed CRM implementation. Increase productivity by automating repetitive and simple tasks Increase sales by cross-selling and up-selling more Streamline and automate business processes Increase customer satisfaction and customer retention Provide consistent customer service Grow your pipeline and manage it better Improve profitability when you can identify and focus on your most profitable customers Deal with your less profitable customers in a more cost effective way Track customer feedback about your products and services Meliam Consulting Pty Ltd Page 4

5 Better customer segmentation for targeted communications about specific customer needs Increase your marketing activities without increasing your cost Enjoy your CRM implementation and prioritise change management. Remember to measure and share benefits and keep the communication open during the implementation and afterwards. Follow up on milestones after the implementation regularly and conduct a review of your CRM strategy, CRM system and benefits yearly Meliam Consulting Pty Ltd Page 5

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