5 Key Considerations When Switching CRMs

The importance of CRMs in business is growing every day. That too, in small businesses CRM helps to improve customer relationships and drive business growth.

But, change is inevitable in business. Over a period of time, you may decide to switch to a new CRM for various reasons. Switching CRM is a big decision for any business, as it involves moving all of your customer data, workflows, and processes from one platform to another. However, with proper planning and preparation, it can be a smooth transition. To help you in switching CRM in a smooth way, we have listed the top 5 things which need to be considered. Here you go:

1 . Identify your current pain points & desired new features:

Every CRM has its own merits. So, the first step before switching to a new CRM is to identify the pain points that you experience in the present CRM. List down all your current pain points. You can also list a set of features that you expect in your new CRM. This forms a major part of switching to a new CRM. Apart from features & pain points, it is also important to consider the below factors:

• Decide how much you can spend on a new CRM. This is because few CRMs in the market are expensive.
• How the new CRM integrates with other tools and systems that you use in your business. These tools include your email marketing platform, customer service software, etc.
• Security features offered by the new CRM. This feature is very important as you are going to deal with customer data. So, you need to carefully examine how each CRM offers security for your customer data.
• How the new CRM allows you to customize according to your specific business needs.
• Storage capacity of the new CRM.

2 . Research your options:

There are many CRMs that are used by various small businesses across the world. But not all the CRMs available in the market may suit your business needs. So, you have to carefully research the features and choose the one which satisfies your needs. In this step you need to look into the following things:

• Collect a list of CRMs and get an overview of each CRM
• You can go through the customer reviews for each CRM
• Go through the recommendations given in the industry websites
• Ask for suggestions from your colleagues / people from your industry
• Check how well the new CRM provides a solution for your pain points
• Check whether the new CRM you are looking for includes the features that you expect

3 . Data Migration:

The most important part when you switch to another CRM is the migration of data. The migration of data needs to be done with utmost care as it is a complex process. So, it is important to evaluate the data migration process of the new CRM that you are preferring.

4 . Customer Support:

A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) support team plays a critical role in ensuring the smooth onboarding of customers and their sales team. A good CRM support team should be customer-focused, proactive, patient, technically proficient, and capable of working effectively as a team to ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty.

5 . Testing and feedback:

Once you have decided to switch to a new CRM, you need to test it. For testing, you can use the trial version of the CRM. Before starting to test the CRM, you have to set up a small team that includes members who are familiar with the features of your current CRM and knows to handle a CRM. You should make sure that each member of this team individually tests all the features. This testing should ensure that the new CRM you choose is user-friendly such that your team will be able to quickly adopt it. This testing can eventually help you in planning a training session for your team members.

Once your team has completed testing the new CRM, the next step is to get a detailed feedback from the team. You can ask the suggestions from each team member as to how  far the new CRM is a good fit for your business.

Though there are many factors that needs to be considered when switching to a new CRM, the top five things listed above are some of the most critical elements which need to be considered when you switch to a new CRM for a smooth transition process.