CRM Failure: 7 Warning Signs to Watch For

CRM Failure: 7 Warning Signs to Watch For by Paul Pitman at Collier Pickard

On a site dedicated to CRM best practice, and which celebrates simply successful CRM, should I be blogging about failure? If you're looking for tips and tricks to ensure the success of your CRM initiative then knowing what failure looks like is essential. If you know the warning signs to watch for then you should be able to get your CRM project back on track before too much damage is done.

Why is my CRM system failing?

There are many signs that the processes and tools you use to manage your customer relationships are failing. The following are some of the most common indicators that failure is fast approaching.

1. The original CRM project sponsor moves on and no-one fills the gap...

Having delivered the benefits of a properly implemented CRM project – the sponsor accepts a new job with more money, status or prestige. Great CRM projects have at their core a visionary individual. Their passion and commitment will help to drive usage, and encourage the change that is at the core great companies. If you lose your sponsor be prepared to step into the role yourself. With risk comes reward – so get ready for promotion.

2. The initial project is a success so everyone relaxes

Everyone slaps each other on the back, and goes back to doing things the way they always used too. Change is challenging. Increasingly psychologists recognise that people only change away from their current behaviours when the pain associated with not changing becomes too much. So make sure that doing things the old way is not acceptable, and that there is pain associated with old behaviours. Also, do try to ensure that the CRM system offers an attractive alternative to your users.

3. A new board appointment arrives

Freshly promoted after implementing CRM software in their last job, and keen to do it all again with their “tame” supplier. CRM is not a piece of software. So expecting a change in software to change your CRM project into a rip roaring success is naive. Make sure that they are not confusing product features with Strategy Tactics or Execution.

4. Your organisation assumes technology trends don’t apply to you

Your business does not need social CRM, or Inbound Marketing, or any of this new fangled Web2.0 stuff. It’s just like that internet thing a few years ago – passing phase, soon be back to normal. If your organisations view of “new” technology is instinctively cautious, then beware. Whilst software vendors do want to sell you more, they will only succeed if they deliver real value. To that end, they research the market and emerging trends in great depth. The old days are never coming back – so now is a great time to see just how you can make new technology work for you.

That said however...

5. An exciting new BI / SharePoint / technology project kicks off

Designed to finally bring together all of your customer interactions in one place. Technology is great, but it is only a tool to be used in meeting business needs. SharePoint, BI tools and all the other technology has a place in ensuring CRM success – but they should not remove the focus from your core CRM platform. If this is a management decision to invest in more software, instead of learning to make the CRM system perform – be very worried.

6. The killer Excel workbook takes root

Compiled by an Excel guru, it becomes the tool of choice for the board, but requires everyone to submit data in an agreed format. A combination of warning signs two and five. Managers who cannot be bothered to change, and the lure of a technology solution combine to kill your CRM solution. Far better to work within the CRM software and utilise its reporting tools and dashboards.

7. Excellence becomes boring!

Glib I know, but why else would you desert a successful system. Of course the flip side is, if the CRM system is not perceived as successful then failure is not far away. Time to revitalise the project by getting back to basics. Data quality anyone?

Don't be alarmed if you recognise some of these warning signs in your own business. As long as you understand how they can undermine CRM success you can prepare your response, and hopefully you'll never need to ask "why is my CRM system failing?" again!

Setting the foundations for a successful CRM project

Setting the foundations for a successful CRM project by Professional Advantage (13/03/2012)


Implementing a customer relationship management system (CRM) is usually a pretty major undertaking for an organisation. A new CRM system is a way of re-stating the way a company works; of re-enforcing how an organisation oversees it’s customer interactions.

As such, there are a few things you should try to keep in mind while planning for, and undertaking, your CRM system implementation to increase your likelihood of success. Those of us who implement these systems on a regular basis can vouch for each of these, and most of us can cite examples where ignoring these tips has made life difficult for both the client organisation and the implementation team!

1. Approach the project as a business process improvement, not an IT project
CRM system projects (like their cousin, ERP projects) that are initiated and driven by an IT team are often, but not always, being done for the wrong reasons. Spending the time, effort and capital on a software project that doesn’t aim to resolve a known issue with your business can be an early sign of problems for the project.

Due to the fact that you’re implementing a large software application, IT obviously need to be involved - your IT team may even have people on it who have assisted in CRM system implementations in the past that you can leverage.

2. Know your goals

To believe that your company doesn’t have process issues is to be naive. Ask any worker and she will share with you ways in which their job could be made more efficient.

During the early stages of your project, it’s critical to understand which of these areas you are trying to address and in what way you wish for them to be changed by your new systems.

A few common examples which can be readily addressed with well-implemented CRM software include:

• Management suffer from lack of visibility of salesperson activities
• Account managers don’t understand how the sales or service teams interact with their clients
• Customer service enquiries are “falling through the cracks”
• Marketing don’t know when they last contacted a customer (or whether that customer has responded in the past)
• The sales pipeline is difficult to visualise and understand

3. Make sure somebody wins when the project succeedsIf you have even one person who will really “win” when your project succeeds, they will work hard to get that win. Your potential winners will advocate for the success of the project to their peers.

Winning is easy to identify:

• Time saved on mundane or repetitive tasks
• Continual problems with data accuracy
• Large volumes of work to keep up with other people

On the flip side of the carrot/stick driver, and to a lesser extent, having somebody who will ‘hurt’ if the project fails can cause that person to work hard to avoid the pain. Look out, though: not everybody responds well to such negative drivers.

4. Senior sponsorship and team buy-in
Understanding your goals is important, however if your senior employees and management aren’t interested then nobody will use your new system. Your goals will stay unachieved.

Be wary, this can be referred to as a success! The software was configured exactly to specification, it was on-time and on-budget. A month later, though, you have a server consuming electricity and a bill from your implementation company but nobody is using your system. Ouch.

When your project is sponsored by management, it can give weight and credence to the new system. This can help to build engagement with your team early on. By getting key employees involved in the initial stages of your CRM system project, they can have a say in the direction of the system and feel an element of ownership.

Introducing ownership throughout your organisation helps to prevent staff feeling like a system is being forced onto them with little regard for what they do on a daily basis.

5. Understand your business processes
This might sound obvious, but for many organisations it isn’t until they begin formally reviewing processes that their inefficiencies become visible.

A successful CRM system will assist your staff with their roles, not enforce new rules on them without purpose. By understanding how your company interacts with customers, you can ensure that the system is configured in a way that supports these activities.

That said, there is often no better time to implement change in your processes than when you are already identifying your processes and translating them into your new systems.

Resist the temptation to build a system that perfectly enforces all of your existing business rules without due review – take those staff suggestions on board!

6. Partnership with your implementer
Your system implementation partner should help guide you through the process as a trusted advisor, not simply as an external contractor. You are relying on their services due to their extensive experience: hopefully your partner has done many more CRM system builds than you have!

Every time you go through the process of implementing a large business application you learn something new. Sometimes it’s simple, other times it’s more complex. The sum of these learnings should not be under-valued!

So, whilst you rely on the experience of your implementers, giving them the job and walking away until completion is not likely to end well. At all stages through the process, there should be comfortable dialogue between both parties and a good understanding of roles and responsibilities.

The days of big system builds in back rooms are over. Although many organisations aren’t able to work in a truly Agile way, iteration and open communication are a must. If you and your implementer are not prepared to be true partners, sharing and collaborating throughout a project, you may not get the results you were hoping for.

Be Clever
If you’ve already chosen to build a CRM system for your organisation, you’re already well on the way to improving the management and visibility of the relationships with your customers and suppliers.

By staying wise, selecting a reputable and experienced partner, and being inclusive when it comes to internal team selection, congratulations! The chances are even better that your project will be a success.

CRM Implementation - Fast and Cheap

CRM Implementation - Fast and Cheap by Luneos (10/11/10)

Are you worried that deployment of CRM system in your company would be expensive, time consuming and the outcome won’t meet your expectations? If you want to avoid such scenario, just continue reading this article in order to simplify your CRM implementation.

If you haven’t performed a detailed CRM analysis yet, or if you still don’t exactly know your requirements on new CRM system, then the best way is to start small. Instead of paying and setting up a complex information environment for the whole company, it’s much more valuable to select just a few departments and implement only a handful of core functions.

Such approach has several advantages: not only the whole project is simpler, faster and cheaper, but you can also easily test your vendor and his services. Moreover after launching the limited set of functions and features you can much better realize, in which areas of your business the usage of CRM can create a significant competitive advantage and where its use would be contra productive.

After evaluating the success of pilot CRM deployment (usually after 2-4 weeks), you can extend the system into other departments and add new functions or modules. Because you already have a detailed overview of available features, their benefits and implementation requirements, your chances on successful CRM implementation are much higher.

Also if you want to avoid the most common mistakes in customer relationship management deployment, we recommend you to read our CRM guide.