Five stages of the evolution of CRM users
Below is a hypothetical evolution of the owner of a business idea from a startup to an automated company. What is called in full: from creation to large-scale turns. Of course, not all companies go the full path of evolution; it is also clear that through the described steps one can “jump over”.
As such, it makes sense to start the stage of CRM evolution with a conditional beginning: “notebook”, notebook, notebook or something like that, in paper form. As a variant of modern interpretation - a smartphone. This is the level of unsystematic storage of customer information. Up to this level can only be keeping customers in the head, everything else is behind it. The disadvantages of this level make no sense to exaggerate:
Actually, the lack of the first stage will haunt the evolving CRM users for a very long time. In the future, the development is based on work to reduce losses.
What follows after the paper carrier? Usually, it is Access, Excel. More often Excel. Own development is difficult to consider at this stage, rather they are not here, but deep farther and closer to the platforms.
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Excel and everything that is not networked / grouped, in one expression, is a whole separate space, there is no sense in considering how to automate groups. Yes, there may be “shared” Excel tables, but this is not automation. This is some kind of beginning of the path to integrated work with clients. On the other hand, the understanding by a conditional customer of a CRM project of the fact that it is necessary to get away from paper carriers is a good step.
Therefore, on the conditional, third level, after the head / notebook / phone / excel, the level of boxed CRM appears ... Excel is already small, but there is still no understanding of one’s own needs, but it’s already necessary to streamline the work of several people. Boxed CRMs provide some kind of shared, distributed in the network "memory" about the basic knowledge of customers: phones, names, contact persons, etc. There is no analysis at all on this substage, there is no telephony where the caller's number would be determined and the card would be shown on the call. There is just a storage of contact information. This is already very much for those who have not previously been automated at all, as it allows them to avoid the questions: “Who is this?” Or “Whose is it?”.
Inside the boxed CRM systems, the evolution should be divided into the following directions:
Operational and analytical CRM:
For example, if in the boxed CRM there is at least some kind of, albeit minimal, block of analysis, it is already possible to analyze the information and omit the struggle with the personnel on the entry of operational data.
There is a whole class of so-called analytical CRM, although this classification element was created, in my opinion, artificially: analytical CRM is intended and positioned mainly for analyzing information, for example, from accounting systems, from various Yandex.Analyst, etc. Enter data is not necessary, and the soil for analysis is wide. And it already becomes a working tool.
Enter and import information in CRM:
After the introduction of the ability to manage the input and import of information in CRM - the difference is enormous! This is due to the fact that it is the culture of maintaining (entering) data in a CRM system that largely determines the depth of CRM use. In other words, the level of familiarity / commitment of staff to fix everything in the system determines whether the CRM system is a brake on business? Does the company "lose" man-hours or vice versa, leads to an increase in the efficiency of labor in general?
Although such a question: “How to make a CRM system a real helper?” Is already a separate topic, it should be noted here that without the habit and ease of maintaining non-accounting data in CRM systems, there will be no evolution.
If the staff is not ready to enter data, for example, considering them as their own (and not the company), if there is no will of the company's management to reverse this problem, there may be a way out to analyze information in the CRM system imported into it from external sources / repositories data.
I want to express my opinion at this point - with regards to boxed CRM. Far and not everyone needs platforms, many have enough boxed CRM solutions. Therefore, I do not share with many vendors the imposed opinion that a CRM box is bad, little, shabby. If this is enough for a client / project and the owner considers investments in such automation to be profitable for them, as they say: to my computers!
Moving on and we come to the fact that the format, scale, size of the CRM system may be trivially lacking.
How does this happen? This is a very complex topic, which should be described as a separate article. To a large extent, understanding the scale of a CRM project is connected with the company's willingness to automate. Such readiness is a very complex concept. These include:
During the acquisition of a CRM system, not always customers can clearly and clearly express their desires, and even worse - they do not always understand them. This leads to the fact that an experienced seller of a boxed CRM solution can convince the customer that everything will work out, moreover, under the current trends, many vendors began to call their systems “scalable platforms”, although they are not.
A scrupulous situation arises - either the customer, through careful analysis and sampling, realized on his own that a boxed CRM solution was not enough. And what is worse, the system has already been acquired, the introduction is in full swing and the “discoveries” begin, and here, as in a joke, there are two ways:
A CRM project must be created organic and unique: as needed by a specific user so that he can complete his tasks as quickly and accurately as possible. The accounting system is becoming stricter: accounting does not change. It is standardized by the company's accounting policies.
Relationships with customers (and customers themselves), marketing campaigns, sales rules and loyalty programs are changing, and the interface, business logic and CRM system handlers must be flexibly configured with them.
I will try, under the critics of readers, to give my own vision of what a “Platform” is - a system open to change, it has a minimum of restrictions in the equality of data. The platform undergoes changes independent of the developer of practically everything that may be required in the project: interfaces, mathematics, business logic, analyticity, restrictions on access rights, occupancy of jobs.
Separately, I note that the platform is a system that can be developed by increasing its data, its modules, its processes and all this, I repeat, in the end it should be equal in the system.
What are all the expansion options in the platform? In order for the customer to obtain, as a result of the implementation of the CRM project, a means for automation according to the following characteristics:
In fact, it can be stated that the platform is needed in order to always have a quick, adequate and satisfying response to any criticism and any criticism of the CRM implementation project.
Nevertheless, an attempt to create an industrial-level solution for themselves with a non-industrial approach (freelancers) is already a good sign that the company has evolved and needs to get what it needs. It is expensive, because it speaks of technology management company at a high level. The more a CRM system meets the company's objectives, the higher the chances are not only for the success of a CRM project, but also for a positive ROI - a return on investment in CRM automation, which is extremely difficult to calculate, but which can be.
Data storage is conditional, "half the battle." For the normal functioning of the modern complex of CRM requires a lot of custom / programmable functions. It is important to repeat - changeable! The first is the interface. It is in the platform CRM solution should change as it pleases. This is very important, as I repeat: very many have learned how to add plugins, attributes.
Thus, as a conclusion, what has already been discussed above. The top of the evolutionary development of a CRM project is the platform solution covering the project: data, interfaces,
arbitrary analytics, processes, event and timer handlers. Having the ability to quickly change for new tasks, changes and business growth ...
Additionally, I want to draw attention: “Caution! Experienced in business. This is a situation where a person worked previously in CRM and, coming to another company, begins to paint the perspectives of “heavenly life”, but his experience may not go with the current features of the company, and efforts to introduce nothing but fatigue will not cause. Experience in other businesses is good, but platform adaptability is important because Evolution in the head of the customer manager is a permanent process for a lively business.
The current development of the market for CRM-systems, competition, the state of the economy have led to the fact that the vast majority of suppliers promise everything and everyone to their customers, and call themselves platforms.
Stage 1: Unsystematic Information Storage
As such, it makes sense to start the stage of CRM evolution with a conditional beginning: “notebook”, notebook, notebook or something like that, in paper form. As a variant of modern interpretation - a smartphone. This is the level of unsystematic storage of customer information. Up to this level can only be keeping customers in the head, everything else is behind it. The disadvantages of this level make no sense to exaggerate:
- Low analyticity.
- There is no opportunity to objectively evaluate the results of the analysis, etc.
- Losses.
Actually, the lack of the first stage will haunt the evolving CRM users for a very long time. In the future, the development is based on work to reduce losses.
Stage 2: Shared Files
What follows after the paper carrier? Usually, it is Access, Excel. More often Excel. Own development is difficult to consider at this stage, rather they are not here, but deep farther and closer to the platforms.
')
Excel and everything that is not networked / grouped, in one expression, is a whole separate space, there is no sense in considering how to automate groups. Yes, there may be “shared” Excel tables, but this is not automation. This is some kind of beginning of the path to integrated work with clients. On the other hand, the understanding by a conditional customer of a CRM project of the fact that it is necessary to get away from paper carriers is a good step.
Stage 3: Boxed CRM
Therefore, on the conditional, third level, after the head / notebook / phone / excel, the level of boxed CRM appears ... Excel is already small, but there is still no understanding of one’s own needs, but it’s already necessary to streamline the work of several people. Boxed CRMs provide some kind of shared, distributed in the network "memory" about the basic knowledge of customers: phones, names, contact persons, etc. There is no analysis at all on this substage, there is no telephony where the caller's number would be determined and the card would be shown on the call. There is just a storage of contact information. This is already very much for those who have not previously been automated at all, as it allows them to avoid the questions: “Who is this?” Or “Whose is it?”.
Inside the boxed CRM systems, the evolution should be divided into the following directions:
Operational and analytical CRM:
For example, if in the boxed CRM there is at least some kind of, albeit minimal, block of analysis, it is already possible to analyze the information and omit the struggle with the personnel on the entry of operational data.
There is a whole class of so-called analytical CRM, although this classification element was created, in my opinion, artificially: analytical CRM is intended and positioned mainly for analyzing information, for example, from accounting systems, from various Yandex.Analyst, etc. Enter data is not necessary, and the soil for analysis is wide. And it already becomes a working tool.
Enter and import information in CRM:
After the introduction of the ability to manage the input and import of information in CRM - the difference is enormous! This is due to the fact that it is the culture of maintaining (entering) data in a CRM system that largely determines the depth of CRM use. In other words, the level of familiarity / commitment of staff to fix everything in the system determines whether the CRM system is a brake on business? Does the company "lose" man-hours or vice versa, leads to an increase in the efficiency of labor in general?
Although such a question: “How to make a CRM system a real helper?” Is already a separate topic, it should be noted here that without the habit and ease of maintaining non-accounting data in CRM systems, there will be no evolution.
If the staff is not ready to enter data, for example, considering them as their own (and not the company), if there is no will of the company's management to reverse this problem, there may be a way out to analyze information in the CRM system imported into it from external sources / repositories data.
I want to express my opinion at this point - with regards to boxed CRM. Far and not everyone needs platforms, many have enough boxed CRM solutions. Therefore, I do not share with many vendors the imposed opinion that a CRM box is bad, little, shabby. If this is enough for a client / project and the owner considers investments in such automation to be profitable for them, as they say: to my computers!
Moving on and we come to the fact that the format, scale, size of the CRM system may be trivially lacking.
Stage 4: Chaotic Control System
How does this happen? This is a very complex topic, which should be described as a separate article. To a large extent, understanding the scale of a CRM project is connected with the company's willingness to automate. Such readiness is a very complex concept. These include:
- Staff skills.
- Internal organization.
- Regulated.
- Formality.
- Will / authority and power of leadership.
- Understanding the processes in the company.
During the acquisition of a CRM system, not always customers can clearly and clearly express their desires, and even worse - they do not always understand them. This leads to the fact that an experienced seller of a boxed CRM solution can convince the customer that everything will work out, moreover, under the current trends, many vendors began to call their systems “scalable platforms”, although they are not.
A scrupulous situation arises - either the customer, through careful analysis and sampling, realized on his own that a boxed CRM solution was not enough. And what is worse, the system has already been acquired, the introduction is in full swing and the “discoveries” begin, and here, as in a joke, there are two ways:
- Improvements. Moreover, improvements in boxed solutions are more expensive than on platforms.
- The glass ceiling is when the system is not developed. Such an outcome puts an end to investment and their payback, repayment and long-term ...
A CRM project must be created organic and unique: as needed by a specific user so that he can complete his tasks as quickly and accurately as possible. The accounting system is becoming stricter: accounting does not change. It is standardized by the company's accounting policies.
Relationships with customers (and customers themselves), marketing campaigns, sales rules and loyalty programs are changing, and the interface, business logic and CRM system handlers must be flexibly configured with them.
Stage 5: CRM Platform
I will try, under the critics of readers, to give my own vision of what a “Platform” is - a system open to change, it has a minimum of restrictions in the equality of data. The platform undergoes changes independent of the developer of practically everything that may be required in the project: interfaces, mathematics, business logic, analyticity, restrictions on access rights, occupancy of jobs.
Separately, I note that the platform is a system that can be developed by increasing its data, its modules, its processes and all this, I repeat, in the end it should be equal in the system.
What are all the expansion options in the platform? In order for the customer to obtain, as a result of the implementation of the CRM project, a means for automation according to the following characteristics:
- Maximum adaptation to the needs of the company.
- Maximum integration of processes in your business.
- Quick adjustment to business change and growth.
- Prompt response to user requests for inconvenience, lack of functionality, etc.
In fact, it can be stated that the platform is needed in order to always have a quick, adequate and satisfying response to any criticism and any criticism of the CRM implementation project.
Total:
Nevertheless, an attempt to create an industrial-level solution for themselves with a non-industrial approach (freelancers) is already a good sign that the company has evolved and needs to get what it needs. It is expensive, because it speaks of technology management company at a high level. The more a CRM system meets the company's objectives, the higher the chances are not only for the success of a CRM project, but also for a positive ROI - a return on investment in CRM automation, which is extremely difficult to calculate, but which can be.
Data storage is conditional, "half the battle." For the normal functioning of the modern complex of CRM requires a lot of custom / programmable functions. It is important to repeat - changeable! The first is the interface. It is in the platform CRM solution should change as it pleases. This is very important, as I repeat: very many have learned how to add plugins, attributes.
Thus, as a conclusion, what has already been discussed above. The top of the evolutionary development of a CRM project is the platform solution covering the project: data, interfaces,
arbitrary analytics, processes, event and timer handlers. Having the ability to quickly change for new tasks, changes and business growth ...
PS Be careful!
Additionally, I want to draw attention: “Caution! Experienced in business. This is a situation where a person worked previously in CRM and, coming to another company, begins to paint the perspectives of “heavenly life”, but his experience may not go with the current features of the company, and efforts to introduce nothing but fatigue will not cause. Experience in other businesses is good, but platform adaptability is important because Evolution in the head of the customer manager is a permanent process for a lively business.
The current development of the market for CRM-systems, competition, the state of the economy have led to the fact that the vast majority of suppliers promise everything and everyone to their customers, and call themselves platforms.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/339966/
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