It’s likely that you have invested a lot of time and money into your CRM database, and while it may be a very valuable asset to your organisation, you may find difficulty getting your users onboard with using it to its full advantage. In this article we will discuss different techniques that you can implement to avoid user frustration and neglect.
Get users involved
Getting users involved from the get go of your Salesforce project will bring about a sense of ownership. We recommend getting these users involved in requirement gathering and design sessions and also asking for their opinion on what a system should deliver. We also recommend a CRM champion from each team so that they can help team mates use the system.
Running retrospectives and surveys once the system has been built will also reassure users that their input matters and will help with the continuous improvement of your system.
User Training
Your users will need comprehensive training sessions and/or materials to be able to use the system correctly and confidently. If this is not invested in, you can find that users may lose confidence in the system and can potentially use it incorrectly, something that can have detrimental effects to the quality of your data.
The following techniques can be employed to ensure users are fully trained:
- Run interactive training sessions and demos where users can follow along and ask questions
- Creating training videos that can be referred to
- Create a user manual or knowledge base with step by step instructions
- Create in app guidance
Get the system right
It is important that your CRM system is correctly configured according to your specific requirements and system best practices. If the system does not correctly meet requirements you may find that users will end up reverting back to legacy system or poor workarounds which will cost you heavily in the long run. On the other hand, if you invest time and money into your system, ensuring that everything is built and automated according to your exact requirements this will keep your users engaged and increase confidence.
Make it look nice
User interface might not have been so important 20 years ago, but it is a vital part of user adoption in the current day & age. If your CRM setup is not configured to have a clean and accessible interface, users may look at other options and start to question design choices. Try to ensure that relevant data is displayed quickly and easily and that users do not have to run through multiple clicks to carry out simple tasks.
Page rendering speed is also very important, try to make the most out of the available tools you have to ensure that pages load quickly for users.
Asking users to set their user pictures can also make a big difference as it will give the system a more personal feel.
Analyse
To be able to drive adoption, you will need to be able to analyse adoption metrics. This will allow you to identify which teams or users are struggling and which areas need improvement/training. A few ways this can be done include:
- Creating/installing user adoption reports & dashboards
- Run surveys and feedback sessions
- Speak to those who are struggling to find out what barriers they are facing
- Monitor data quality
Automate
Automation can save your users having to manually carry out repetitive task. Investing in getting automation right can increase user buy-in if they can see the positive impact it has to their daily tasks.
