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RIVA GUIDE

Best practices to optimize CRM adoption and ROI

Global CRM user adoption stats: •  Lack of user adoption is cited as

the primary cause of 70% of failed CRM projects (Forrester

Research).

•  47% of companies reported serious challenges with user adoption that often put projects in

jeopardy (AMR Research).

•  Only 31% of companies reported user adoption of 90% (Accenture

CSO Insights).

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems have proven their value in delivering revenue growth, productivity, and customer satisfaction. But is your organization really getting the best possible ROI from your CRM if your users aren’t actually using it? According to Forrester Research, almost 50% of CRM failures are a result of slow user adoption. Despite the phenomenal global success of CRM systems, most analysts estimate CRM user adoption reaches only 50% in the first year. What would be the impact to CRM Return on Investment (ROI) if this figure was closer to 100%?

Why integrate CRM with email? As we navigate the Internet of Things (IoT), customer-facing teams expect their data to be no more than a click or two away. This data must be accessible anytime, anywhere, and on any device. CRM implementations frequently require teams to enter 2-3 times more data into multiple locations in the CRM and email system. Unless staff is in the office 100% of the time, access to data and processes may be severely restricted. By integrating CRM and email systems, companies are able to maximize their CRM user adoption and increase ROI. Let’s take a look at four best practices to consider when integrating these two vital systems.

Best practices to optimize CRM adoption and ROI

Benefits of CRM process efficiency

•  Save time and money with the

ability to drag and drop from your inbox to your CRM to create opportunities, accounts, contacts,

and more.

•  Increased productivity for your customer-facing teams.

•  Improved proficiency – your team

enters data once instead of multiple time and in multiple systems – giving users more time to focus on

customer success.

BEST PRACTICE #1: PROCESS EFFICIENCY CRM implementations typically mandate that client-facing activity be captured, monitored, and reported through CRM. These include the creation of leads, opportunities, and cases. Best practices in CRM integration with email allows a user to create a lead, opportunity, or case with a simple drag and drop in the email client – from any desktop, laptop, smartphone, or tablet device. Common functions that users require include dragging and dropping an email to:

•  Create account / contact in CRM, archive email to CRM.

•  Create an opportunity, account, and contact in CRM, archive email to CRM, and record actions in CRM activity history.

•  Assign to opportunity / case in CRM.

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Best practices to optimize CRM adoption and ROI

When it comes to “heavy lifting” tasks such as updating opportunities, cases, accounts, and contacts, best practice allows users to open these items in CRM with a single click or tap directly from within your teams’

BEST PRACTICE #2: QUICK DATA ACCESS, ON- AND OFFLINE Use of email clients is ubiquitous, representing one of the dominant means of sales and service team’s communication with prospects and customers. Best practices in CRM and email synchronization allow users to view key data from CRM, in their email client, and from any device, on- and offline. Typical information sales and service teams need to view include details of:

•  Sales pipeline, including opportunity name and value, sales stage, close date, and win probability.

•  Assigned cases, including case ID, client, case description, and status.

•  Upcoming appointments (including from other team members) with the client organization.

email client. This functionality requires that the appropriate CRM client be available on each device and utilize the normal security permissions of the CRM.

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Best practices to optimize CRM adoption and ROI

BEST PRACTICE #3: A SINGLE SOURCE OF CUSTOMER TRUTH

A successful CRM implementation must contribute effectively to creating a single source of customer truth. Paradoxically, email systems contain a plethora of dynamic data which can provide critical value to customer-facing relationships. This includes new contacts, new email addresses, and appointments. Best practice in synching CRM with email should achieve:

•  Automatic capture, creation, and linking of new contacts in CRM (as a result of email recipiency, CC, and / or BCC).

•  Automatic capture, creation, and linking of new contacts in CRM, as a result of meeting invitations.

•  Automatic linking of contacts and appointments based upon team structures or other internal / external relationships defined in CRM.

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Best practices to optimize CRM adoption and ROI

BEST PRACTICE #4: CONSIDER TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP

Companies often forget to consider the total cost of ownership (TCO) of their CRM implementation. The hidden costs of unreliable client-side plugins can now be avoided. Server-side synchronization also provides a more robust and easily configurable platform at a fraction of the TCO of client-side plugins.

BENEFITS OF SERVER-SIDE SYNCHRONIZATION

•  No client-side plugins to install on each and every device.

•  No client-side plugins to configure and support.

•  The ability to monitor and troubleshoot all devices, remotely.

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Synchronization of CRM with email is necessary for any organization and can play a crucial role in CRM user adoption. In addition to facilitating CRM user adoption, CRM and email integration allows customer-facing teams to improve customer interactions and provides organizations with best practices in process efficiency, business agility, and data governance. Synching your CRM and email data will improve customer success, help save your organization time and money, and show almost immediate ROI from your CRM implementation.

CONCLUSION

The ability to access CRM data anywhere, anytime, on- or offline, in any email client and from any

device is a game-changer for organizations.