3 Keys for Better CRM Onboarding

Agile CRM is an awesomely productive tool, but only if your employees actually use it.

CRM systems such as Agile CRM can boost a company’s revenue by as much as 41 percent, according to guidesforcrm.com. That’s because a good CRM system brings all of your customer and sales data into one place and allows you to connect in real-time. Once the onboarding process is complete, your team can access data for your website, social media, email marketing campaigns, sales calls, service requests, and much more by simply using one interface.

The problem is that employees must onboard properly first or they won’t use the system, and that crucial first step often makes the difference between a well-used CRM system and one that sits idle.

Agile CRM is particularly easy-to-use, making the CRM onboarding process a lot easier than many competing systems. We also offer live onboarding support for every customer, something CRM companies usually only offer large enterprise clients (just one of the ways Agile CRM helps SMBs market and sell like a Fortune 500 company).

Businesses still play a crucial role in onboarding their employees and getting the CRM used, however.

So here are three keys you should keep in mind when planning your CRM onboarding.

1. Learn Your Tool

If you had no interest in learning how to drive, would you go out and buy a luxury sports car? Probably not, but if you did then you would have to learn how to drive or the car would be useless. The same can be said when integrating any new system or technology into a company. The most powerful tools are only as good as the people using them.

It is important to take ownership of the new CRM system and learn the ins-and-outs of the product. The education process should start before the actual onboarding process, ideally during the buying process. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Remember in school when teachers would say that there are no dumb questions? The same logic applies to CRM. Knowledge is power, and the more you know about your system, the easier it is both to take advantage of the system and help employees do the same.

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2. Get Employee Buy-In

We’re all creatures of habit, so change can be hard. This is where taking ownership of your new platform will make all the difference. Like with any product, if you truly believe in it then it will be easier to sell to your team.

Stravity Group founder and president, Lior Arussy, believes that language makes all the difference when implementing a new CRM platform. In an interview with CRM Magazine, Arussy said that it’s not necessarily what you say, but how you say it.

“Whenever you say change, what employees hear is, ‘Whatever you’ve done until now is wrong, and now we’re going to put you on the right track.’ That’s not a good message,” Arussy said.

Arussy told CRM Magazine that it’s important to highlight that company values will not be changing.

“In a sense, you’re introducing a consistency while asking them to evolve. It’s a much easier transition because they don’t feel they’re leaving everything behind,” Arussy said.

In order to get employees excited about the evolution, put together a short presentation and explain how the new platform will directly benefit them and make their jobs easier. Once everyone is on board, the actual training and onboarding will be a smoother transition.

3. Keep the Ball Rolling

Remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day. The same applies when adding any new technology platform.

Onboarding is something that happens only when the system is rolled out and when a new employee joins a firm, but that doesn’t mean education about the product should end there.

Hold extra meetings and encourage your team to voice any questions or concerns they may have, and keep training employees on the CRM since many will settle into a small subset of the total CRM functionality and require a refresher.

With Agile CRM’s rapid evolution and growth, we’re also adding new features every month. So onboarding is an ongoing process because our feature set grows all the time. Employees won’t know how they can best use the new functionality or even that it exists if you don’t periodically call attention to it and offer training.

A good CRM system should be easy to use, and we think we’ve done that with Agile CRM. Full and effective use still requires good onboarding, however. That requires understanding your tool, getting employee buy-in and implementing ongoing training.