How would you like to reduce the number of clicks a rep does during the day by 25%. That can equate to 100 or more clicks in just a day. It is a huge productivity gain for both neophytes and expert users.

Key words/drop-down phrases are the answer. They are easy to setup, dramatically reduce the amount of typing a rep has to do, and enforces consistency. It allows a rep to use two clicks to enter a full phrase or word. Therefore, unless the word they wanted to use had only one letter they are ahead of the game. As a byproduct, it allows you to enforce consistency for reporting and analysis. You do not have to worry about people entering things all different ways.

In the end, you want reps to quickly record the information and move on. Drop-down key words and phrases allow you to provide that. Many CRM solutions have this available. You just need to ensure they are turned on, have the right information and show the reps how easy it is to use. Imagine 100 less clicks each day, 2100 a month, 25,200 a year, all per person. Worth the effort to put in place? I think so.

Example of drop-down key phrases:

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Example of drop-down words:

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Tags: crm, crm productivity

One of the best things about using a good CRM solution is the ability to easily keep your team as well as management informed about what is going on with your customers.  It ensures that everyone is on the same page even though they were not part of a meeting or away working with other customers.  It ensures consistent messaging which is one of the top objectives for most companies. 

CRM should automatically inform your team or anyone else you want about customer interactions.  You should be able to simply fill out a call report or opportunity update and the system will automatically notify your team.  The email that everyone gets should allow for a brief note you can add and a link to where the information you updated is stored.  No one should have to deal with searching their inbox for customer information that was forwarded to them.  It should all be stored in one central location, associated with a customer, and a link to it.

Some solutions take it one step further by allowing discussion threads.  This allows people to easily participate remotely and foster a more collaborative environment. 

If your CRM solution does not have a notify function that integrates with your email system, it is worth having IT put it in.  It is not hard to do but will require some small workflow coding and integration with the companies name and address book. 

It does require a little Shaving of the Yak but well worth the effort.

Below are examples on how to integrate notifications and the email people would receive.

Sample Call Report with notification

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Sample email to a customer with notification

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Sample email a person gets with link to record

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Tags: CRM Basics, crm productivity

One of the most basic features of any CRM solution is the ability to manage your calendar. Sounds simple, but with the way sales people work there is more to it than meets the eye. There is your CRM calendar, your Lotus Notes or Outlook calendar, your BlackBerry/iPhone/Nokia/Motorola/G1 calendar. While many companies have been trying to standardize many still allow a combination of devices. And even if you do need to use one type of PDA for business many reps will then have a personal PDA.

Besides the different phones and operating systems there are also the types of entries you want to keep track of. Lotus Notes and Outlook keep only scheduled activities on the calendar. That means things like phone calls will not show up. Many CRM solutions have their own calendar which allows you to see all your activity types and also synchronizes with your corporate calendar (less calls and to do’s). I have found it to be more work and not as reliable. You really want to use your corporate calendar and a CRM solution that uses all the native forms of it. It makes it much easier for users since they are already familiar with it. It allows them to work right in their calendar and still be using CRM.

In order to make using CRM easy and part of your day to day routine you need to have all activities show up on all the clients/devices you use. This means there will probably be some IT involvement in making it happen. The good news is it does not take a lot of effort. Lotus Notes and Outlook calendars have synchronization between Blackberry and Windows Mobile calendars. Some CRM solutions like Relavis CRM allows you to easily track not only synchronized activities but Call’s and To Do’s in the same native calendar view. Dynamics CRM keeps track of it in a separate section plus those calls will not be synchronized with your PDA device. Integration with iPhones and other devices is available but not yet widely used with CRM.

Finally there are the issues around seeing your team’s group calendar. It is important in order to better track and work together as a team. While Lotus Notes has group calendaring built in Outlook requires a third party tool.

To really empower your CRM users try to do what is necessary to keep all their calendars in sync so they can be just as productive out of the office as they are at their desk.

Tags: crm, CRM Basics, crm productivity