7 steps to managing your CRM initiative

By now you've probably heard all about Customer Relationship Management (CRM). But before you make any moves toward implementing CRM, stop and think about what you want to accomplish. Identify specific customer needs and areas of customer service you want to focus on. Regardless of what vendor and product your firm chooses—and there are many to choose from—recognize that the right solution to meet your business needs must be tailored specifically to fit your firm. A successful CRM implementation requires a solid plan. Here's how you can develop one.

Follow these 7 steps

1. Business analysis: Focus on your customer data-collection process

The first step in your CRM project should be business analysis. Take a step back and look at the areas of your firm that deal with customer data (most of your firm, probably). How well are you handling data right now? Are you collecting all the data you want from your clients or would you like to collect more? Is this information accessible by all those who need it? Do you ever have to reenter information as the client moves from Marketing & Sales through to Time & Billing?

2. Needs analysis: Make a list of your customers' needs

As you ask yourself these and other questions, make a list of your customers' needs. Start with the absolute essentials at the top. Examples of these needs may include collecting certain types of information, a centralized database, scalability, and capability to access the system remotely. An important note to remember—this list should include all your essential needs, even the needs met by your current system. As you work through your list of essentials, begin to add nice to haves. These are needs that you would like to meet but are not critical to the success of your CRM system. Make sure your whole project team contributes to this list—you won't think of everything on your own.

3. Product evaluation: Compare vendors and products

After you have your list of needs compiled, you can start comparing vendors and products. As you are looking at features offered by the different products, try to cross the critical needs off your list first before you look at nice to haves. There will undoubtedly be products that meet a lot of your nice to haves, but are lacking in one or more critical needs. Critical needs must be met so that the time, money, and ideas given to the CRM project do not change systems for the sake of change. When you are making your project plan, allow plenty time for this phase. It is very important not to rush through your evaluation. Take your time, view lots of demos, and ask lots of questions.

4. Product configuration: Make the system fit your firm

No matter what product you choose, there will most likely be some configuration that needs to be done to make the system fit your firm. Treat this as a subproject with its own project plan that includes timelines and milestones. Many products are highly customizable at the front end, but far less so when they are implemented. Don't get poor results because you sped through this step. Customization may not be all at the software end; you may have to do some process reengineering in your firm, as well. Remember to document everything. Make a user's manual for the software, and a process manual with flowcharts for the business processes.

5. Pilot implementation: Roll out a small pilot to marketing first

After you have customized the system to your specifications, roll it out in a small, pilot environment. Start with your Marketing users; they will use the software heavily and will be able to provide you with some high-quality feedback. Keep it in a small group until you have the system customized the way you want it. When you have reached that point, roll it out to all users.

6. Full implementation: Communicate with users to explain the change

As you roll the system out to all users, this will be a significant change for most of your users. In addition to learning a new software interface, many users will be faced with entire new business processes. The biggest factor here is communication. Make sure your users understand why this change is taking place; don't just mandate the change. Use training sessions and documentation to assist the users with the new system.

7. Evaluation: Follow-through for a successful implementation

As more and more firms are implementing CRM systems, plenty of success stories are emerging. The firms that experience successful implementations have a plan from the beginning and follow it through to the end. Failed implementations often are the result of choosing a product that does not meet the firm’s needs or poor communications between project teams and end-users. Follow these 7 steps to managing your CRM initiative for a successful CRM implementation experience.

John McCall is a network administrator with Boomer Consulting, Inc. His experience with Boomer includes writing for industry publications, developing new technology strategies for clients, and speaking at industry venues. John can be reached at askboomer@boomer.com.

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