Why Your CRM Strategy Needs an Upgrade

Your relationship with your clients isn’t a one-time transaction. It begins the moment they discover your organization, continues while they do business with you, and lasts as long as they’re covered by any warranty or refund policy. In short, your customer relationship management (CRM) impacts every moment of your present and future business.

Too many organizations view CRM strategy as a simple contact tracking tool. But it’s so much more than keeping tabs on the last time someone contacted a client. When used properly, a CRM strategy is a critical tool for project managers, sales leaders, and business leaders. Unlock the true power of CRM by setting aside the simplistic tools of static spreadsheets and manual processes that keep teams siloed. Modern CRM systems use automated, real-time software that integrates with your existing management suite.

Let’s explore how CRM can help drive data-driven decision-making to improve efficiency, supercharge internal collaborations, and boost profitability across the board.

Manual Methods

You can certainly conduct basic CRM with the same methodology businesses used in the early 20th century. Back then, CRM systems consisted of manual tracking, static spreadsheets, and disconnected teams maintaining their own information. Can this outdated model still function? Sure. Does it function well? Almost never. At least, not compared to CRM solutions that run on modern technology.

Manual CRM systems have many recurring issues. If you’re still relying on old-fashioned methods, you’ve almost certainly encountered one or more of these problems:

• Poor visibility into tasks and status updates. This results in consistent (and sometimes extensive) project delays.
• Miscommunication between teams, vendors, and clients. Poor communication causes confusion, delays, and—if it happens often enough—a lack of trust from the client or even among internal teams.
• Inaccurate reporting. Incomplete or inaccurate information leads to poor decision-making.
• Lack of real-time data tracking. When teams work with outdated information, they often miss sales goals and cost-cutting opportunities. You can’t strike while the iron is hot if you don’t know it’s been heated.
• Disgruntled clients. When client interactions are tracked manually, it increases the likelihood of errors, delays in communication, and missed follow-ups. These gaps in service can result in frustration, unmet expectations, and ultimately, a damaged business reputation.

So what do all of these issues look like in practice? Imagine a construction firm using manual spreadsheets for client and project tracking. With a little luck, it might work out. But all too often, the outdated information in the CRM system results in inaccurate quotes based on obsolete pricing and crews being double- or triple-booked on multiple projects. The result? Lost sales, disgruntled clients, and low employee morale.

Many businesses, hesitant to invest in upgrading their CRM, just keep slapping together patches and improvised fixes to make their old, inaccurate system work. But a CRM system can only be held together with so much duct tape and bubble gum before it collapses completely. The smarter long-term solution is to move to more modern methods.

Modern Methods

Modern CRM strategies have advanced by leaps and bounds from the dark old days of manual entry. Automated systems let you move from disconnected tools to seamless operations. They create dynamic, real-time sources of information. Plus, they synchronize multiple teams into a single source of data, making it easy to coordinate asset allocation among all open projects. Project information flows seamlessly from your subcontractors all the way through to your integrators and general contractors. You’ll stop double-booking key personnel or running short of materials, leaving you with happier customers and on-schedule projects.

A centralized CRM solution integrates into every element of your software suite. After all, the fewer apps and tabs your team needs to keep open to get their job done, the better. And if you consolidate redundant tasks, you’ll find savings in administration and overhead as well as project-based cost centers.

For example, if you’re using static spreadsheets to track pricing for each customer, you’ll need someone to update each of those spreadsheets individually. Move to a dynamic system that breaks open the silos and updates pricing on the fly, and your team can redirect all that labor to more profitable tasks.

Of course, it’s worth noting that there’s a learning curve for a new CRM system, just like there is for any new technology or process. While every stakeholder will need to do their own cost-benefit analysis, chances are you’ll find the savings that come with a dynamic and integrated CRM far outweigh the short-term implementation costs.

Selecting Your Perfect-Fit CRM

When you’re ready to find the perfect CRM for your organization, you’ll find a wide variety of choices available. Unfortunately, many of them won’t fit for your needs. Don’t settle for the first solution you see; take the time to make the right choice. Ask your professional and peer networks about their favorite tools and recommendations. In the end, the best software solution will be easy to use and more widely adopted by your organization, which can make the difference between a successful launch and an expensive failed effort.

Here are a few factors to consider when trying out different CRM solutions.

Scalability

Will the CRM solution you’re looking at today be able to meet your needs in a month, a year, or five years down the road? Once you’ve gotten your team’s buy-in and trained them to use it, you don’t want to switch gears again in the short term.

Integration Capabilities

How will the CRM integrate with your existing systems? The more seamless the integration, the higher the adoption rate among your employees.

Ease of Use

If a system is difficult to use, or if it doesn’t come with the necessary training and support documentation, workers simply won’t use it. Instead of the single, seamless solution you hoped for, you’ll end up with a patchwork quilt of improvised solutions, none of which talk to each other quite right. When a CRM system is challenging to adopt, you’re not creating a CRM solution—you’re generating CRM problems.

Cost  

It’s true that you shouldn’t neglect the long-term when looking at a CRM solution. But that doesn’t mean you can completely ignore the short-term implementation cost. Look at the upfront cost of the software, but also consider the cost of training and maintenance, including any subscriptions or support fees.

When evaluating these factors, it’s important to get input from stakeholders representing different departments. You want a CRM that gets buy-in from your entire organization, from administrative assistants and on-site workers to C-suite executives. All these teams may use the system differently, but the information they input should all flow into a central source. If you select a strategy that makes a given department’s job more difficult, chances are good that it won’t be adopted, and your carefully-chosen system will begin to break down.

Take CRM for a Test Drive

The best way to understand CRM’s potential for change is to try it yourself. Contact Quickbase and ask to demo a system. You’ll see how CRM software can transform your project management and enhance collaboration between teams and with your clients.

Once you make the leap to a modern, streamlined CRM system, you’ll be shocked at how much time and energy you save compared to manual data entry. Employees will begin to learn how much easier it can make their life, and adoption will grow throughout the organization. Soon, you’ll have a hard time imagining how you ever managed your customers and projects without it.