Reader beware, you’re in for a scare…
Spooky Season is here, the perfect time for gathering to share scary stories around the campfire (though, realistically, these days it’s more likely to be over a Zoom call).
Once, these horrifying tales would have morals like “don’t wander off the path” and “strangers can’t always be trusted”. However, for the modern business, where securely collecting and storing data can feel like a matter or life or death, we felt we needed to update things a little.
Read on for some truly terrifying Tales of Horror in the world of Customer Relationship Management software. None of these stories are true… but they happen every day across the UK.
Sonya was pleased with her choice of CRM for her small business… to start with.
However, as with most entrepreneurs, she wanted to keep growing the reach of her nail salon. She wanted to open in new locations, start creating personalised emails, maybe start a loyalty club… that’s when the trouble began.
The low-budget CRM which had been perfect for keeping track of a few returning customers began to crack under the pressure. At first, when her contact list became too large, Sonya could simply upgrade to the more expensive package. However, as her ambitions and understanding of her business grew, it became clear even the enhanced features couldn’t meet her needs.
She began using integrations and workarounds but these were difficult for her team to understand, the CRM software slowed and glitched under the added strain, and mistakes began to be made. First a few, then more and more, until clients began to lose faith and become frustrated.
CRM systems often fall apart because the business haven’t fully researched whether it meets their needs. This can be tricky because, for software to be a sustainable choice, it doesn’t just need to meet your current requirements, but the requirements of your company in 2 or 5 years. No one enjoys moving data frequently.
If you have ambitions to grow your business, use automation, or try different marketing strategies, check whether your chosen CRM can scale up in this way before investing. This doesn’t mean choosing the most expensive option straight away, but researching the different packages and features your chosen software offers, thinking of the future.
Once, there was a b2b company who everyone loved. They were understood to know their clients well, built solid relationships, and made positive decisions based on changes and patterns in their client's data. For a time, everyone was happy, until one stormy night…
The CEO heard a rapping at their chamber (well, office) door, and in came the marketing manager, drenched in a cold sweat.
“It’s all gone wrong!” They cried, “When we try to reach out to potential clients, we keep finding they’re not at the company we thought they were, half the phone numbers don’t even work! Our email bounces have shot up, and when we try to make decisions based on our data, it never works out how we thought - we’re even losing old clients.”
Could this be the work of demons? Phantoms? No… it was even worse… It was bad data management.
Data deteriorates over time. Without a management strategy in place for this - such as regular database cleansing - you’ll find more and more of the data you’re working with is inaccurate, which can have a disastrous effect.
It makes it difficult to judge if your campaigns are working, since so many of your contacts will no longer be active, and can harm your reputation as clients may perceive you as misinformed on simple matters such as leadership changes.
Yosef was an optimist. “It’ll probably be fine” was his mantra. So, when his COO pointed out that their current CRM had developed a bad reputation in terms of security, he simply shrugged.
“We’re a small company,” He pointed out, “Who would care enough to get into our systems? It’ll probably be fine, and it would be a massive effort to switch everything over or add extra protocols now.”
That night, Yosef had a dream that cyber criminals were in the system, with access to names, phone numbers, and private messages. They sent threats to Yosef threatening to sell the data unless they paid them. When the breach became known, clients left in droves, feeling violated, and the company made such a loss that, as a small business, they could never recover.
Yosef woke with a gasp, determined to at least add in two-factor authentication before dawn… but it was too late.
Data breaches may seem like a nightmare, but they’re becoming a terrifying reality for an increasing number of small and medium sized businesses in the UK. Surveys show that up to 46% of UK businesses and charities now report a cyber-attack each year. The attitude of “it couldn’t happen here” is dangerous to your clients and the future of your business.
If you’re thinking about increasing the cyber security in your business, it’s important to think carefully about the companies you’re trusting to safely store your client’s data, as well as having procedures in place within your business. Cyber Essentials is a great place to start.
“Would you mind logging that on the CRM?” said Nicki, with a smile.
Terry from Sales gulped and nodded. He opened the CRM with a shiver. A dazzling display of options and buzzwords leapt out at him, each more confusing than the last.
He couldn’t tell anyone how lost he was, the software had officially been integrated 2 years ago, they’d think him a fool! But there had also been no training for the Sales Team other than one PowerPoint the Tech Team had sent over, mostly about Service tools he’d never use. It had intimidated him too much to do more research.
Screwing up his courage, Terry found the contact record and selected an option from what he really hoped was the right property from the list of acronyms. It definitely wasn’t, and the promising deal was dropped.
Effective training is absolutely key to a successful CRM migration. This should be relevant to the different teams, attuned to different learning styles, and should happen on an ongoing basis rather than a “one and done” approach.
This means data and potential deals are accurately recorded and helps team morale. Even the most user-friendly CRMs can be complex pieces of software, so giving your employees the tools to navigate them properly, discover useful new features, and help others with difficulties can only be beneficial.
SpiderGroup are experts as helping businesses through every step of successfully integrating new CRMs and keeping them in fine working order going forward. Contact Us today to find out how we can help.