Overview
Prepare your CRM implementation
Before you start importing data and configuring the system, we suggest you evaluate what you want to change in the user interface. The CRM system should support your business processes and support your users, as well as improve reporting in your company.
Preparing the implementation of the CRM system involves, first of all, considering your plans and goals for your CRM initiative and making sure your CRM system supports those goals.
Your role as an administrator is vital here, because it is the most important role in making a CRM implementation successful.
When you are planning your CRM configuration, it is important to define your data segmentation needs. You also need to outline which data fields you need to track in various reports.
Note
You can use all the information you register in the system as search criteria when you create target groups for call lists or mailings. Therefore, you should decide what criteria you want to segment your contacts on.
Common things to edit
Categories: You may want to classify companies into main target groups. It can be Customer, Prospect, Supplier, Partner. (To edit them, go to Lists and edit the Category list).
Business: You can edit the list of industries you register companies in. It can be Transport, IT, service, production and so on. (To edit industries, go to Lists, and edit the Business list).
Interests: On both company and contact you can edit the list for interests. It can be different types of accounts for company and type of roles for the contacts.
Subscription type: All contacts in your SuperOffice CRM may maintain their own type of subscriptions. These types are much used when creating selections and sending out mailings.
To review important considerations for the configuration, please download your configuration preparation document. After answering the questions in the document, you will have the information you need to configure your system.
After preparing for your CRM implementation, it is time to create and manage your CRM users.
Create your own workflow guides
Workflow guides, such as the sales guide and project guide, help users stay in control and work according to best practices.
Help your users to stay in control of every step in the process, ensure all projects are delivered on time and all sales opportunities are followed up. Without a pre-defined workflow guide, it is easy to lose control, especially when juggling multiple projects or sales at the same time. You may lose sight of the things that need to be done during each stage of your project or sales, and as result – miss your deadline.
Every project and sales opportunity will have a status that indicates how far you are into your process. A project status can be "Planned", "In progress" and "Completed", for example. And a sale can have the stage: "Lead", "First meeting", "Proposal" or "Verbal acceptance".
Every status in your workflow guide contains the necessary follow-up activities and documents, to guide the user through the entire process.
You can create a different guide for each type of project or sale you use. Your guide will be available when a new sale or project is created.
When one of the stages in your guide is completed, SuperOffice CRM will automatically prompt the next step, so that you could plan your next activity straight away. This keeps you in control, and you will never miss another milestone.
In the Workflow section, you can design and implement your own workflows for your project and sales guides.
When you create your own guide, you can determine the statuses, as well as the activities and documents you wish to use per status.
The best way to define your own project or sales guides is to discuss and agree on your best practice statuses with your colleagues. Different sales and projects might need a different approach and perhaps a different guide. Just remember – you can create multiple guides for both sales and projects.
Mobile CRM
Note
To change the language in Mobile CRM, click the Task button in the bottom-left corner. Then select Settings, click Language and select from the options.
Get your users on board - tips and best practices
A CRM system is only successful if it is used by the people it was intended for. To help you manage the changes within your organization that an introduction of a CRM system entails, and maximize the CRM user adoption rate, we have gathered a few tips that will help you get users on board.
Appoint a CRM ambassador
Start by appointing a person in your organization who would act an ambassador for CRM. This person, also known as an administrator (super-user), can be responsible for creating routines and guidelines, ensure data quality, and follow up on users if they have questions or are doing something wrong.
When needed, this person can, for example, organize workshops that introduce best practices and document the results. This person needs to be an expert in the system and have a certain authority in the company to be able to carry out the CRM initiative.
Involve users from the start
It is in human nature to resist change. The reasons for resistance to change can be fear of the unknown, of having to do more work, and unwanted changes in daily tasks and routines.
You can remove all this uncertainty by involving the end-users from the start, by clearly demonstrating how the new system will benefit them, by asking for user feedback. Be sure to listen to the feedback and incorporate suggestions when appropriate.
Make sure the system is easy to use
SuperOffice CRM is supposed to make life easier for your users, not harder. Therefore, tailor the solution to reflect the way your users work and not the other way around. When you implement the workflows that bring results, your CRM solution will be easier to adopt.
Users hate interfaces cluttered with irrelevant information, so leave only the information your team will need today. You can add more later, if needed. In addition, make sure all the users have installed WebTools.
Create a routine guide
A CRM routine guide outlines what kind of information and how the users should capture in the CRM system, as well as who is responsible for what. It also reinforces the actions and behaviors you want your end-users to adopt in order to achieve business goals.
Be sure to update this routine guide continuously to reflect changes, either in the CRM (possibly due to upgrades) or the new routines you have decided on. Learn more about creating a CRM routine guide.
Train your employees
Set aside enough time for training your employees. You can also contact our experienced consultants who will help you train your users. Feel free to contact us to learn more.
Reward users
Review how your employees have used the CRM system and think about rewarding those who use it well and often. The reward system is a great way to get all users moving in the same direction.
For example, you could look at how many outbound calls a user has registered in the system, how many leads they have converted into a sale, and how accurate their data entry is. Then you could reward the best user and make others know what they did to achieve this reward.
Summary
It is great that you have purchased and implemented a CRM system. You will get many benefits from the solution. The only thing you need to do now is to get your users to use it in the way that it was meant to be used, and in a way that supports your business processes.
Start with being a good example yourself, use SuperOffice CRM every day and adopt it to your daily routine. By following the six best practices above, we are sure that you will come far. Good luck!
Install WebTools for your users
WebTools must be installed for all users to ensure the integration between SuperOffice and MS Office Outlook and documents. Every user will receive an email with instructions when they start with SuperOffice, but as an administrator, it is important to make sure it is done.
A great way to keep track of relevant email communication with customers is to store it in SuperOffice. That way everyone can see if someone has been in touch with a particular customer lately, and what this communication was about.
By installing WebTools you will get your email and documents integrated with SuperOffice. You can save any incoming or outgoing email with one click. The users need administrator rights to install WebTools, so help them install it correctly.