Is it in the system? Require IT use at each project approval stage
The other day I was talking with a woman at a large non-profit that is trying to improve their enterprise knowledge management efforts. She said that they are using a CRM system and SharePoint to manage information related to all of their internal projects. The CRM is used to track all of the people involved and track key activities and SharePoint is used for sharing and storing all project specific knowledge content.
The problem, as you would expect, is that very few people were using either tool. Sure, there were some pockets of success, but for the most part each individual or team would just do their own thing. Obviously, this did little to preserve knowledge and make it accessible for future use.
She needed help and asked me what she could do to increase effective use of the systems.
Do you have different approval stages for your business projects?
When we were talking about how they manage their internal projects, she indicated they have various formal project reviews and approvals required for a project to proceed to the next stage. The reviews are primarily to manage quality and were required in order for the project to get funding. But they didn’t actually check to see if internal processes were followed or if people were growing the institutional knowledge of the organization.
Make complete & accurate IT use a condition for project advancement
One of the easiest things you can do to help increase effective IT user adoption is to integrate it into the workflow and approval process of your normal work activities. This can apply to internal projects as well as sales reviews.
To be effective, define very specific, measurable system use requirements that must be met in order to gain approval.
This could be things like requiring all related contacts and accounts (specify required fields) are entered, that all major pre-requisite activities are entered (specify required vs. optional activities), and that any required documents are entered.
Also, make sure that all naming conventions and status fields are correct. This is not just an opportunity to make sure information is entered, it is also an opportunity to maintain the quality of the data.
Include timely system use in individual performance reviews
If you want to encourage regular, timely use of your systems (instead of just ensuring data is entered immediately prior to an internal project review), think about including a quick audit of created dates as part of your project approval process. If an individual did not enter the data within required timeframes -- and thus deprived other people the ability to make use of the data in a timely way -- you can identify them and then take appropriate action.
For example, I know of a sales professional at one organization who made his numbers, but didn’t enter the information in the required timeframes. As a result, he was ineligible for a major sought-after reward, namely attending the President’s Club celebration.There are lots of ways you can encourage (or discourage) effective system use as part of your regular business processes. How can you do it in your organization?
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5 Things to Include in Your Customer Success Management (CSM) Strategy
Increasingly, investors and SaaS leaders are recognizing that customer retention is essential for their success. As a result, they are rushing to build Customer Success Management (CSM) programs that will help their customers maximize IT adoption and ROI from their systems.
However, they are facing significant challenges because Customer Success Management is new to most organizations and they are not sure exactly how to get started or what to do first. They don’t always know that right question to ask, how to allocate scarce resources, or how to prioritize their efforts to get the best results.
Investing in a CSM strategy will save you time & effort
The first place to start is to create a CSM strategy and road map. Your CSM strategy should identify exactly what you are trying to achieve, define how you will achieve it, specify who will make it happen, and provide a clear road map moving forward. Your CSM strategy will help develop a shared understanding and vision for what you are trying to achieve. It will also enable you to move forward with confidence while allowing you to avoid costly pitfalls and mistakes that can threat your CSM program before it even gets going.
So, how do you create an effective Customer Success Management strategy? Here are 5 things to help you get started. Keep in mind that this is often an iterative process, and decisions you make later on may require that you revisit some of your earlier decisions.
1. Define your goals
Not surprisingly, the first step is to figure out exactly what you want your CSM team to do and the results they need to achieve. This will set the goalpost from which you will determine the specific staffing, services, tools and methods you will need in your CSM team. It will also help you identify the budget you will need to allocate for building and maintaining your CSM capabilities.
2. Define roles, responsibilities and org structure
One of the first questions people ask is what exactly should the CSMs do and where do they fit within the organization? Should the CSMs be responsible for sales and renewals, or just for driving customer IT adoption and satisfaction? Do they report to sales? Do they report to customer service? Sales? And what authority do they have when it comes to working with other departments internally (like sales, product management, professional services, customer support)?
3. Develop CSM methodology, tool and processes
Once you have figured out what you are trying to achieve and how you will work internally, identify the specific tools and processes you will need to make it happen. This may involve internal-focused tools, such as having a way to identify and report on actual customer-use of your system, and externally-focused tools, such as creating a CSM consulting methodology / toolbox that you use when working directly with your customers. You may require a combination of tools such as IT systems (like the one offered by Apptegic), spreadsheets, presentation slides, email templates, report templates, and other such things that enable your CSM team to deliver a consistent, effective, high-quality CSM service.
When building your CSM strategy you only need to identify and prioritize the methodology and tool development requirements. You don’t actually create all the tools until after the strategy is finalized since it may go through a few iterations before you have final agreement on how to move forward.
4. Recruit and develop exceptional staff
Identify how you will recruit and develop exceptional staff. This may include identifying a high-level profile of the types of temperament, skills and required experience levels you will want for your CSM team. And, it should outline how you plan to quickly on-board the CSM staff, train them, and ensure they are able to get up to speed quickly.
Just a quick word of caution: at its core, CSM is about driving IT adoption of systems. In order to be effective, CSMs need to understand the root cause of IT adoption problems and have a firm grasp of the proactive steps you can take to increase adoption. This is knowledge and skill that, generally, are in short supply. You may need to provide additional training and development to help your CSM staff learn the skills they need to be fully effective in this role.
5. Manage the roll-out (internally & externally)
Introducing your CSM capabilities requires changes both internally to your organization and externally with how you interact with customers. Both can be major transitions and you will want to map out in advance how you will manage these changes.
For your internal roll--out, consider how introducing CSMs will change the way existing staff perform their jobs. Have you changed the job responsibilities of sales and service staff? Will having the CSM team impact revenue and renewal targets for sales professionals? How will you go about informing people about the new service? Introducing the CSM function will kick off a domino effect of changes to all other parts of your organization.
For your external (customer) roll-out, be careful how you introduce the CSM function to both new and existing customers. Take care to ensure you set accurate expectations about what the CSM team will – and will not – deliver to customers. Also, you may want to consider if you want to pilot the CSM effort with select customers before rolling it out to everyone.
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Contemporary Thinking on Change Management and User Adoption (video)
I was recently asked to participate in a discussion on change management by our friends over at The Washington Webcaster.
Change Management Insights
In episode 6 of The Washington Webcaster, we talk about a variety of items related to change management and user adoption. Watch the episode below where we talk about things like:
- User resistance to change
- Change Leadership
- Cloud computing
- Driving change and sustaining user adoption of IT systems
- Change management and ROI on IT investments.
Jacklighting Executives – The question that always stumps them!
Here is a fun game to play – I call it “jacklighting executives”. The way it works is you ask an executive (the more senior the better) a question (often an obvious one) to which they have no answer and see how long they stare into space. You get 1 point for every second they are stymied.
My record score is 4 years, 8 weeks, 14 days, and approximately 11 hours.
Just kidding. (Sort of.)
The question that gets me this result is simple. I ask, “Who owns CRM user adoption in your organization?”
Immediate supervisors are the biggest drivers of CRM user adoption
Many organizations spend millions of dollars on CRM implementations without having thought about what it takes to ensure success and whose job it is to make it happen. This, as history has shown, is a great recipe for disaster.
If you want to improve effective CRM adoption within your organization, don’t just look at the end users. Look at their immediate supervisors. Managers and direct supervisors have the biggest impact on making sure CRM systems are used consistently and effectively. If the manager insists that their team use the system, it gets used. If they don’t, well, I think you know what happens.
Manage your managers for improved CRM adoption
When I work with clients, I often ask them, "what role do you expect your managers to play in driving CRM adoption?" Often times the answer is, “we hadn’t thought of that”.
It turns out that direct managers, those who are the most influential in driving CRM success, are typically not even asked to make sure their team uses the system. Managers typically don’t have this as one of their official job responsibilities. And they are often not given the tools and support they need to ensure their team adopts the CRM system.
Managers need to be held accountable for CRM use within their team
If you want to maximize CRM adoption in your organization, don’t just focus on the end-users. Target some of your efforts on their managers. Let managers know that this is an important part of their jobs. Set them specific targets, measure results, and hold the managers accountable for ensuring their team consistently and effectively uses the CRM system.
If you do this, you will be amazed at the results you get.
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How IT user adoption affects your business case