There's an old phrase "junk in junk out", which is also true when it comes to CRM systems.

Over the years we have done many projects implementing Zoho CRM as well as Salesforce on Sage CRM, and have come across a wide variety of quality of data within those systems.

Are the key stakeholders the best users?

In our experience often the key stakeholders who push the systems are the worst at maintaining them!   And low level employees are absolute champions but not giving enough credit for being so.

All users, even the top stakeholders, need to use a CRM system correctly. CRM championms should be given recognition, even a new role, to coach other users, if necessary, so that a culture of CRM perfection sets into the organisation.

Inability to make decisions

Much of the success of the CRM implementation and end system is reliant on the quality of its data. This is where "junk in junk out" comes into play.

If the corporate policy is to record absolutely everything in a CRM system, no matter how relevant or important to the progression of a sale, even to the point that it penalises users if they do not do this (we have seen this in some organisations!), then it may it is easy for the team to suffer from information overload and searching of data becomes very difficult because it's swamped in meaningless updates. In addition, sales users for example become so focussed on data entry that they do not do as well in what they are emplyed to do - sell.

That said, on the other end of the spectrum, if users do not update data regularly or if the fields in the system configuration are not well customised and do not match what manages need to see in order to make informed decisions then the data is also meaningless to them.

Irrelevant marketing and spam

If you've ever received an email newsletter that is utterly irrelevant to what you do or what you are interested in then there's a high chance it's been sent from an organisation that has harvested data from data sellers without any four thought of whether that information is of relevance to you.

Mostly this is because they do not know you and may have purchased your name and contact information from list providers which is still a legal business model, here in the UK anyway, and list providers although they claim to segment their data really have no idea who you are either.

This means the CRM owner has lots of data but absolutely no way of knowing if it's correct and no real way of really segmenting that data into smaller more focused lists, despite the claims of list providers.

Accuracy of data affects accuracy of analysis

CRMs contain all kinds of information, not just the data that users key in.

For example, sales duration is a key metric that's automatically tracked within a CRM based on the stage progression of a deal and this is important when understanding sales metrics such as pipeline and closed deals.

It's no good addressing one area of the business in the hope it fixes the performance if that is not really the area that needs addressing.

Use all of the fields and other data points generated by your CRM software to make better decisions.

Correct Reports and Dashboards

When considering the quality of the data in a CRM system it is also important to consider the reports and dashboards that it generates.

If the data is inaccurate then the dashboards and the reports will be inaccurate and decisions cannot be made.

For this reason we often recommend the use of the Zoho CRM mobile app to all core users because it allows them to update information in real-time directly from their mobile phone.

For example, if a meeting has just been done then a user can update the meeting notes and also the deal stage and any other related information, immediately after the meeting, whilst in the field so that the reports are as date as possible.

Conclusion

Make sure your users are aware of the data that is required to be captured in each of the CRM modules, and importantly, why it is required and by who. Sometimes you will get more 'buy in' and more accurate data entry if people are aware of what data is used by what team(s) and why.

Make sure the modules have been configured correctly and include all of the key data points as 'fields' that your organisation needs in order to analyse data effectively.

Ensure key fields are set to mandatory so that there are no missing fields and set as many fields as possible to pick lists or drop down fields and add validation to text based or numeric-based fields to avoid human errors.

Set up the relevant dashboards and reports and have regular reviews during the implementation phase and thereafter, on an ongoing and regular basis, so they can be tweaked then refined and improved over time,.

A true CRM system is never finished!