When we have CRM everything will be perfect….

Anyone involved with implementing CRM systems will be familiar with the conversations that go on in the background. A whole range of quibbles, gripes, concerns, and issues, are answered with the stock standard response, that of course when the new CRM is implemented, then quibble x, gripe x, concern x, or issue x, will no longer be a problem, because when we have CRM everything will be perfect.

While it’s tempting to bask in the warm glow created by the fact that prospective users of the system feel you’re developing something akin to ending global warming, the problem is that dangerously inflated expectations can be perilous when trying to implement a system successfully. When users go live and find the system is nothing like the vision of the perfect CRM system they had imagined, interest quickly fades and the system is written off an yet another IT failure.

These false expectations which are so common to implementing CRM (and I suspect most types of technology)I think arise from a couple of factors. Firstly the forthcoming arrival of a new system provides staff with a convenient means of kicking current issues into the long grass, and, secondly, our imaginations are sufficiently fertile, that, unconstrained by clear vision of reality, we are susceptible to considerable powers of invention.

A key task for the project team therefore is to ensure that expectation-drift is minimised. There are a number of key aspects to this:

• Involve staff. The more potential users are actively involved in the planning, requirements gathering, technology selection, design, development, and testing of the system, the better the understanding of what the system will and won’t do.
• Make it very clear what we are planning to deliver, what we aren’t planning, and when we’re planning on delivering, and who will be using it. This should be documented, but not buried in a hundred and twenty pages of design documentation. Two pages maximum, and distributed to all potential users.
• Communicate. Communicate. And Communicate some more. Keep everyone informed as the project progresses, particularly if things are changing.
• Don’t succumb to telling people what they want to hear. We all like good news, but if this is at the expense of the truth, then this simply perpetuates false expectations. Don’t over-promise, and don’t oversell.
• Focus hard on the management layer and ensure they have a clear understanding of the deliverables for the project, and are able to communicate these to their teams.
• Make it clear that no matter how maligned and despised the old system may be it will still be better than the new system in at least a few respects.

Controlling expectations may sound like a chore, but, to be successful, it’s important that prospective users reframe ‘when we have CRM everything will be perfect’ to something closer to ‘when we have CRM, items x,y,z will be much improved’.

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