At Hubit, we have a top-level promise of doing things smarter. What do we mean? In brief, too many companies are compelled to use complicated systems, data is fragmented, and with new technologies emerging practically daily, many rely on outdated processes and old-school metrics to manage performance.
Running a business in the late 2020s can, however, be done differently: more flexibility, integrated systems, easy-to-use applications, relevant use of automation and AI, easy-to-follow and manage processes supported by Enablement Technologies etc.
That’s smarter! And a key area for being smart is the tech stack, and, specifically, the engine at the core of any business – your CRM Platform.
Top 5 Challenges Businesses Face with CRM Platform
Believe it or not, I still encounter mid-size companies operating without a CRM – or if they have one it’s poorly used. They’ve managed to get by so far, but even technology laggard industries will have to face the music – very soon.
The importance of CRM platforms should be pretty obvious, so let’s instead discuss the key challenges businesses face when rolling out a CRM project – I think it’s also a nice Top 5 of which criteria you need to consider when choosing the optimal CRM platform.
User Experience
- Most legacy CRM systems are overly complex, with too many features that are not user-friendly, leading to frustration and low usage rates.
- A CRM has to be a travel companion, so mobile accessibility is certainly an issue.
User Adoption
- User adoption needs to be efficient not only when starting with a new technology, but as teams progress and/or new employees join the company.
- Platforms with provenly faster adoption rates have a much higher forecast for success: sales teams especially want to get on with the job at hand, and overly time-consuming, lengthy onboarding programs tend to create bad-will instead of positive, new energy.
Customisation and Scalability
- Technology can and should have an impact on your strategy, but in the end, your CRM Platform is not the master, you are. So customisation is critical – a working environment has to look and feel easily recognisable.
- With complicated systems, tailoring a CRM to fit the specific needs of customer-facing teams can be complex and may require technical expertise. Usually, this leads to external partner dependence, high costs and an inability to flexibly make some of the inevitable smaller adjustments that arise from time to time.
- Scaling is another challenge: As businesses grow, and as customer expectations and technologies develop, A CRM Platform has to be able to efficiently scale to accommodate ao. increased data and user numbers.
Integrated Tech Stacks and Data Management
- If it’s not meant to be integrated with a larger ecosystem, or if it’s costly, don’t buy it. A major challenge CRM users have is the larger ecosystem – having data in multiple places, with little or no data flows in between systems, is a nightmare.
- Ensuring your CRM integrates seamlessly with other tools and systems used by the sales(e.g., email, invoicing, ERP systems), marketing (marketing automation, social, website) and services (Service Desks, Customer Portals, Ticketing, Project Management) is crucial to managing the customer experience.
- Data Integration: Integrating data from various sources and ensuring consistency can be difficult without an easily integrated CRM Platform which acts as a single source of truth.
Total Cost of Lifetime Ownership:
- This of course refers to all costs incurred throughout the lifetime of owning or using a CRM platform, from onboarding to customisation, software licenses, training and maintenance to dependence on external service providers and managing change.
- The challenge here? Understanding how CRM platforms differ in terms of intial cost vs long-term costs is really difficult. What is included in a license, and what is not? What will I need to scale later? How will pricing change in the years to come? What if I want to migrate to another system later? These questions pose very important potential challenges that must be addressed.
So what now?
You may be saying, “Great. You just outlined the Top 5 challenges, but how do we avoid or tackle them?” That is another blog, I guess. A long one. Maybe better to give us a call at Hubit - although we’re an accredited HubSpot CRM Platform Partner, more than that, we’re committed to the principle that as CRM specialists we want to help your business understand what needs to be done, with which technologies – and why.