End user adoption... Experiences, tips & tricks for this challenge!

[JackPK]

Hello everyone,

I've been working with Sugar for a while, I find it just awesome, even with its little bugs and weird behaviors from time to time, but, something that i always find curious (and frustrating) is the way of how every company handles CRM adoption.

Today, I'd like to ask to everyone kind enough (and with a few minutes to spare) to share how they experienced this. Of course, I'll be the first.

The objective of this post is to gather different experiences in order to take tips & tricks to helps us with new implementations and to make a little easier for our end users to adopt the CRM.

My most educative experience goes like this;

Not so long ago, i faced a CRM implementation quite ambitious, the objective wasn't only to have an awesome tool to manage customers, but to get every part of the company into order.

The technical part went quite well, smooth, the development was nice with few stones in the way, but, after releasing the final version into the wild, the problems began to arise.

The biggest one were the end users, sure, they had everything they requested before development, but they just didn't wanted to use the CRM. A couple of months later, i sadly found out that the CRM was almost empty!!, obviously, there was a serious resistance against change inside the company and even after a nice approach to correct this with training sessions, personal assistance and even a hot-line specially for CRM related issues we just didn't had any kind of improvement...

Then, the ugly part took place, after several meetings, there were changes in the company processes, making the use of the CRM obligatory, meaning that, if the info wasn't there was only because the end user didn't did his work, thus, they didn't receive commissions, got warnings and lots more of not-so-nice-things, this carried a loooot of complains, but extreme measures were needed... in the end, people got to use the CRM, well, because they had to, but eventually, they understood everything once they work became easier, faster and more effective with it! and the same phrase got out of their mouths every time: "why didn't you tell me this at first!!??"...

I'm aware that this kind of things comes tied with the company's internal processes and culture and all that, it's always hard to adopt a new system or a new ways of doing things, specially after years and years of the same, even if it is for better, there'll always be friction.

So, what will you suggest to all of those who read this, to make adoption easier for the end users, and to make our job easier as well??

[rafael.q.g@hotmail.com]

Hi,

I laready had experience with users which come from others CRM systems, as salesforce.com.
Once this especifc system at least for eand users looks very nicier and they already worked with it fro years, was difficult to convence them to use sugar.

But explaining to them that sugar is very more flexiable and could be adapted to fit better in company needs, they start to like it more. But of course just say it was not enough, a good study of what they really expect from a CRM system, and modify and increase sugar to get there is a work that have to be done, this way the users starts to like sugar more than any other CRM tool.

[JackPK]

I totally agree with you, its very important for the end users to get involved with the system on its early stages, it s something that the company not only does to improve the way they handle the info but for the end users to have something that will help them do their job more efficiently, easier and why not, even fun (I'm talkin Sugar Invaders )

However, i wonder which will be the best approach to do that? Something that i always wanted to test is a Sugar Hang Out with other users who already experienced and liked sugar, sadly, there's not many people like that available in my area but i do think that is a good option, to get together the seasoned and the new users in one comfortable location, either a coffee or a restaurant for they to share they experiences and how they got benefit from the tool

[Blake Peterson]

For me the implementation in any system has been about "sales". It's my job to sell it to the teams.

I also found that being the boss helps ... "Do this or your fired"... But that's not the desired result. I too want user buy in without it being forced.

We've recently replaced ACT with Sugar - and since we had ACT from day 1 - the team have always had something to use.

So my tips are ...

1) I always make it a point to "sell" new technology in... What's the real deal for team... how will it make their life easier?.

2) I always do a seminar on change before I launch any new technology. "When you're green you grow, when you're ripe you rot" kinda thing.

3) I try and get each member of the team to do a small training session each week - This is not really for the benefit of the team members - it's for the benefit of the trainer... basically ... they have to learn it. (They also have to produce a document / screen shots detailing the steps they are demonstrating)

I've never tried to implement technology into a company I didn't run... so I don't have any insights into that perspective, but I would follow something along the same lines. (Tip #3 really helps).

Blake

[jmertic]

Great thread everyone, and some really good advice all around on CRM adoption.

Like everyone has mentioned, it's all about making your end-user's life easier and solving their problems. One part of this is effective training, so that people know how to do things and aren't confused or intimidated by the application. Often times it's people just not knowing how a CRM system is supposed to work ( especially if they are coming from something non-CRM like spreadsheets or working out of their e-mail ) and the advantages to them of using it to it's full potential.

The other part of adoption is the user feedback loop. In other words, making sure you are talking to the users about their experiences and struggles. This gives you the opportunity to make those minor adjustments to the system to save them time and streamline their work. Even simple things like logic hooks, workflow, and sugar logic rules to handle many simple task automatically ( changing fields based upon rules, automatic notifications, etc ) can really help you "win" over users in the long run.

Let's keep this thread going. I've emailed it to all of our products team to monitor as well so they can take your feedback into the product itself. Also I'd love to get developer/implementer testimonials to post on our blog, as a way to help all of us be more successful in bringing Sugar into various organizations; if interested feel free to email me.