Instead of giving you a leg up against your competitors, is your CRM actually holding you back? If you feel like your CRM is letting your company down, here are five of the most common reasons why this may be happening:
You Don’t Have Strategic Goals in Place
A quality CRM can unlock your company’s ability to achieve its goals. Unfortunately, far too many companies make the mistake of skipping directly to implementing a CRM.
Before you start using this system, you need to identify the goals you want to accomplish. Without taking the time to lay out a concrete plan for what you want to accomplish, you are basically flailing around in the dark. Only once you understand how better contact with your customers can help your company will you be able to benefit from what CRM has to offer.
Your CRM’s Data is Questionable
Although there are many CRM systems on the market, the quality of all these options varies greatly. One of the key differences between systems is the quality of the data that they provide.
If your CRM isn’t providing completely accurate data, how are you going to be able to depend on it for making important decisions? The same applies to systems that don’t deliver new data in a timely manner. If you’re constantly dealing with a lagging stream of data, you are always going to be one step behind your competitors who have access to the latest data as soon as they need it.
Your CRM is Too Difficult to Use
Although IT staff members can still provide a lot of value, gone are the days when the rest of your team members should feel like they can’t do anything with a program without first consulting an IT person for help.
CRM and other software programs have come a very long way in the last decade. If you’re still using a clunky program that isn’t user friendly, you’re putting your company at a massive disadvantage. Your team shouldn’t have to spend their valuable time figuring out how to use your CRM. Instead, it should be so easy to use that it saves them time.
You Have to Do Everything Manually
A big part of technology’s value comes from its ability to save you valuable time. However, you only save time when technology is set up to take care of tasks automatically.
If your CRM solution still requires you to take do everything manually, you’re not saving any time at all. In fact, if your CRM makes data entry difficult, it’s actually causing you to waste even more time!
Your CRM Isn’t Flexible
While some CRM features are standard, every company has different needs. What works for a company in a different industry may not be enough for your company. Unfortunately, many CRM systems lock users into a set of predefined features and functionality.
If your CRM doesn’t allow you to make the customizations you need to do business your way, it’s going to hold you back instead of helping you move forward.
If you want to experience what it’s like to have a CRM that supports your company instead of getting in its way, we encourage you to take a look at our easy to use online CRM software.