As with any enterprise business system, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is not a set-it-and-forget-it solution to your decision and forecasting needs. By connecting to a business’ data and records, a lot of information is going to be produced. All the money spent on the software to reduce wasted hours is going to be wasted amyway when spending those hours sifting through mountains of CRM reports. Employee adoption is one of the key factors in the success of any CRM system, but this overwhelming amount of data is one of the leading causes of lack of user adoption. The best way to way to increase adoption? Only produce the most important reports.
CRM DATA REPORTS – JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN, DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULD
It may be tempting to flood your employees with every report made available by the CRM software – after all, one of the selling factors of modern CRM systems is the amount of usable data available at any given time. However, to drive up user adoption it may be prudent to do the opposite; only provide the most integral, actionable reports. This prevents the users from getting data-anxiety and points them in the right direction instead of shotgun-blasting them with too much information.
An added bonus to cutting down the number of CRM reports produced is that encourages enterprise organizations to focus on what is most important to their goals. Instead of being overwhelmed by a sea of information, they will have the specific data they need to succeed. Instead of viewing the bloated CRM reports as a burden, they will view the refined CRM reports as a critical tool in their arsenal. The goal of a CRM system is to achieve goals, not bog them down.
In the end, it’s not about forcing a company to choose which CRM data is “unimportant” – none of it is. It is about figuring out what CRM data is critical to success and decision making. By focusing on the most important CRM reports, an enterprise organization can and will discover just how useful their CRM software can be for achieving long term goals while increasing user adoption.