Most would think that adoption of a CRM platform would be considered a technology transformation when, in fact, it is a significant cultural transformation. Institutions like yours yearn for change to create more efficient process but when faced with it are apprehensive and defensive. Your institutions are successful, that is not in question. What is in question is are you using the best technology platform to drive future successes and align that to the customer experience.
Adoption is the key to a successful deployment of Salesforce as an enterprise CRM platform. Many institutions find themselves challenged by users when adopting new systems and need to be proactive in the approach and have an adoption strategy completed towards the beginning of the project. Managing change in the institution is paramount for projects like this.
Some key points to ensure adoption:
A great training plan that includes a top down communication plan is very important. During these training sessions, it is important to set clear expectations. The training should be hands on with relevant use cases backed by data that they feel is familiar to them. Create basic “cheat sheets” that provide users the fastest, most efficient way to get their tasks completed in the system.
It’s important to have a change management plan that evangelizes corporate wide adoption and that promotes communication often and always throughout the life of the project. This will be very important as the end user will feel involved and responsible for the overall success if they feel a part of the overall implementation. To ensure accountability, many institutions use the “If it’s not in Salesforce it didn’t happen” quotes during check ins with employees, team meetings and corporate wide communication.
Measuring success can be seen as both a positive and a negative so communication is key for this to be successful. You want the end user to understand how the measurements benefit them. Understanding their personal contribution to the institution is very important to them as well as how their success is aggregated in conjunction with their team. Setting specific dates for updates and changes will provide a guideline for the employees to follow and the manager a goal to hold them accountable to.
The question, whether solicited or not, will always be “what’s in it for me if I use it?” Getting users excited about making their day-to-day lives easier with less manual processes, email exchanges, 24/7 access (as determined by InfoSec) as well as simple reporting will provide them an answer to this question. Many institutions choose to incent their employees on either specific achievable goals in the system or on production for processes such as referral management.
Lastly, solicit feedback throughout the lifecycle of the project. You will truly be amazed by some of the great ideas that your employees will have. Each come from different backgrounds and can provide different perspectives on how to maximize your processes to be more efficient and effective. Interested in learning more? Contact us today.