Winning hearts and minds is what user adoption is all about. A universal truth at most companies is that after a CRM rollout, someone will love it, someone will hate it, and some will simply resent it.
Navigation is one area where users differ strongly in their preferences, making it a challenge to introduce a system that will be universally embraced. From a user perspective, one size doesn’t fit all, and finding the right interface that will be most widely accepted can add a degree of difficulty to your crm project.
We’ve heard users grousing about systems that require users to scroll though a long screen of information (Salesforce.com). And although others might be tickled pink to have data organized in separate tabs (Sage ACT!), others much prefer to scroll. LeadMaster, an online CRM solution, lets users choose between scrolling or tabs, although not as a sticky setting (yet). I’ve heard both praise and damnation for any of the navigation methods. So, what’s a project lead to do?!
It’s clear that it isn’t possible to please everyone. Since you can’t, it’s essential to give your team ownership in the outcome. End-user buy-in is easier when users contribute to the system design. Yet, many of our initial meetings with managers reveal that they intend to make unilateral decisions about the system and impose it on their users. Eek!
Managers who go forward without end-user input have missed the point of planning sessions. Management often sees only the end results of their staff’s efforts and not the actual steps taken to accomplish them. A manager can be unaware of a convoluted process that could have otherwise been baked into the system (“What! The same information is entered in three places?”).
The project leader needs to get as many of the stakeholders – or respected representatives of those stakeholders – involved in the needs assessment and planning. And then actually engage and listen to them. Complaints about “Big Brother”, “it’s too complicated”, or “this makes my job harder” can be minimized or eliminated by user involvement early in the process.
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