How do you know if your CRM is good with your data?
When considering the success of your CRM and its data capabilities, review these four areas.
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Chapter 4
Success Factor 3: Data Accessibility and Security
Modern CRM platforms are designed to do many things, but the heart of their functionality is data capture and management. To be successful, a CRM platform must be highly proficient at capturing information and assigning it to contacts. This process must be simple, fast, and accurate.
Here’s a standard example. A lawyer at your firm has a meeting with a prospective client. Following the meeting, they take the time to update the client’s contact within the CRM with notes and information gathered during the discussion. The data is added to the client’s contact, which can be used to customize future outreach for prospecting and relationship building. If the client retains the firm, this information is part of the foundation for the relationship.
This example demonstrates a truly foundational use of CRM – modern platforms automate much of the data capture and incorporate artificial intelligence solutions to identify trends, develop detailed client history and predict future requirements.
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Data Capture
For any modern CRM, powerful data capture capabilities are a must. If your CRM can’t accurately capture data manually or through automated means, you aren’t likely to achieve success with it. A CRM should be able to capture data, assign it to existing contacts, or create new contacts, all with little to no manual effort.
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Accessibility
Another key aspect of CRM data is accessibility. The data your CRM captures and stores must be easily accessible to staff members who need it and have the proper permissions. Data should be accessible anywhere in the world – after all, few client relationships are built from the office.
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Reporting
Your CRM should be able to produce reports and dashboards to enable everyone in the organization. They should be powerful, easily customizable, and up to date, and they should make it possible for everyone to understand your pipeline. Anything less can leave your teams working with outdated or incomplete information.
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Security
Protecting your data is just as important as capturing it or using it. A successful CRM implementation will offer advanced security options to allow you to assign permissions to specific users or groups. After all, protecting client information and relationship data is critical to the success and reputation of your firm.
What’s next?
If analyzing your CRM’s data-related capabilities has revealed any issues, it could be time to act. You might want to work with your vendor to see if there are additional features or functionality that can be implemented to improve data capture, management, reporting or security. If these issues can’t be addressed with the current system or without additional large investment, it might be time to consider migrating to a new platform that offers the data capabilities your firm needs.