Setting Expectations
The world of blogging is new to me so here it goes...
I work in the field of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and have for years. I happen to work for a great company where I get to spend nearly every day sitting in the "board room" with senior executives, sit in on project meetings giving our project teams guidance, or spending time with end users understanding the world they live with trying to use various technologies.
Time after time customers and colleagues have said that I should start sharing my thoughts on a broader basis so I came to the conclusion that this was one of the first steps. I also decided to write a book on the subject so the wheels are in motion on that front as well.
After seeing the world of CRM from all sides I continually assess the challenges that companies face in managing the customer experience and the interaction of employees who deal with these customers. Of these challenges one of the most basic is understanding who the customer really is and what they expect from your organization.
As I sat in a meeting today with the leadership of an organization we were walking through the process of deploying CRM for the first time. When we originally started the project I advised the customer on the importance of involving front line personnel in the analysis and design of the system. What was not obviously clear to the users and managers as they went through the process was the effect of their decisions on the overall scope of the project and the impact of adding complexity and automation to their design.
The customer has seen a number of delays and an ever changing go live date due to the decisions that were made some months ago. I revisited this issue with these executives to remind them of some key tenants when setting expectations with the people that will eventually use the system. I decided to include them here because the beginning of a CRM deployment will ultimately have a great deal to do with the success and adoption of any system.
I. After you have selected a system and are preparing for your initial kickoff meetings there should be an internal meeting with the executive sponsors, internal project manager and the users who will be involved in the analysis. In this meeting it should be communicated that they will be asked about their day to day interaction with customers and internal departments. As they communicate what they perceive as "necessities" they should understand that the project has a budget and some decisions will be made after the analysis that may or may not include all of their desired wish list.
2. When you proceed to working with the vendor you should communicate that you want the dialogue to be open and frank between employees and the vendor but that every requirement will be ranked and evaluated on its merit for the initial deployment. It is important that everyone understand that decisions have financial implications and the greater the complexity the greater the cost and the greater the risk of challenges in the adoption of a new system.
3. At your first sit down with the vendor you should also discuss how you want to receive the breakdown on the analysis once completed. Most CRM technologies have a pretty open environment for reaching specific project goals. Ask your implementor to consider a few different ways to achieve specific requirements and present you with a number of alternatives for the the initial deployment.
The bottom line here is that there are many ways to reach your objectives with any CRM project. You should proceed with caution, phase your project and set goals for small and attainable goals for each phase of the project. This will give you the opportunity to recalibrate as you receive feedback from users and maintain your budgets and timelines.
I work in the field of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and have for years. I happen to work for a great company where I get to spend nearly every day sitting in the "board room" with senior executives, sit in on project meetings giving our project teams guidance, or spending time with end users understanding the world they live with trying to use various technologies.
Time after time customers and colleagues have said that I should start sharing my thoughts on a broader basis so I came to the conclusion that this was one of the first steps. I also decided to write a book on the subject so the wheels are in motion on that front as well.
After seeing the world of CRM from all sides I continually assess the challenges that companies face in managing the customer experience and the interaction of employees who deal with these customers. Of these challenges one of the most basic is understanding who the customer really is and what they expect from your organization.
As I sat in a meeting today with the leadership of an organization we were walking through the process of deploying CRM for the first time. When we originally started the project I advised the customer on the importance of involving front line personnel in the analysis and design of the system. What was not obviously clear to the users and managers as they went through the process was the effect of their decisions on the overall scope of the project and the impact of adding complexity and automation to their design.
The customer has seen a number of delays and an ever changing go live date due to the decisions that were made some months ago. I revisited this issue with these executives to remind them of some key tenants when setting expectations with the people that will eventually use the system. I decided to include them here because the beginning of a CRM deployment will ultimately have a great deal to do with the success and adoption of any system.
I. After you have selected a system and are preparing for your initial kickoff meetings there should be an internal meeting with the executive sponsors, internal project manager and the users who will be involved in the analysis. In this meeting it should be communicated that they will be asked about their day to day interaction with customers and internal departments. As they communicate what they perceive as "necessities" they should understand that the project has a budget and some decisions will be made after the analysis that may or may not include all of their desired wish list.
2. When you proceed to working with the vendor you should communicate that you want the dialogue to be open and frank between employees and the vendor but that every requirement will be ranked and evaluated on its merit for the initial deployment. It is important that everyone understand that decisions have financial implications and the greater the complexity the greater the cost and the greater the risk of challenges in the adoption of a new system.
3. At your first sit down with the vendor you should also discuss how you want to receive the breakdown on the analysis once completed. Most CRM technologies have a pretty open environment for reaching specific project goals. Ask your implementor to consider a few different ways to achieve specific requirements and present you with a number of alternatives for the the initial deployment.
The bottom line here is that there are many ways to reach your objectives with any CRM project. You should proceed with caution, phase your project and set goals for small and attainable goals for each phase of the project. This will give you the opportunity to recalibrate as you receive feedback from users and maintain your budgets and timelines.
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