Contact Management & CRM’s – A healhty dose of patience can be required

Based on many conversations I continue to have where certain issues keep coming up, I think it is time to re-visit a few points about trying to find, and learning how to use, Contact Management and CRM Solutions.

1) Do not judge a CRM by its graphics alone. There are several products available that may not appeal to the eye aesthetically, but if you look past the graphical appearance, you might be surprised. There is one product I have in mind in particular that definitely looks dated, but in actuality it has been improved more frequently based on user suggestions, and for a longer time, than any other product of which I am aware. They have a Catch 22 going on. This particular product puts user suggestions higher in priority than the appearance of the product, and they end up with people passing their product by based only on its dated look. I keep encouraging them to put a higher priority on giving it an updated look, but it is still on the list. Be aware of the ‘Shallow Hal’ tendency in yourself with CRM’s if you have it.

2) Do not spend too little time evaluating a product. Do not rush through 10 of them. You need to narrow it down to 2 or 3, and then spend the time necessary to evaluate them well. On a regular basis I see people discount a product because they think it does not do what they want. That is because they have not taken enough time to properly evaluate it. The interesting thing is that even after I point out that itdoes do that function; ofttimes they have already talked themselves out of the product due to those falsely inferred negative feelings! So do not let yourself count out a product for lack of doing something you want it to, until you confirm with the company or myself, that it does not do it.

3) Stay with a technical problem until it is solved, rather than a few minutes here and there when it is convenient, frustrating yourself and the support people. Sometimes support is bad and non-responsive, but other times it is the user’s fault for only being available during a small window of time once every few days. Recognize if you are the cause of the problem, because blaming the vendor may make you feel absolved, but it does not get the problem solved. Sometimes you may have to wait for hours or even until the next day for a response from a support person. What I see very often is that someone will have a problem but not make the time to deal with it. Rather they will wait until they getthe time to deal with it. They then make a call or submit a support ticket, and then wait for a response. If the response does not come in fifteen minutes or an hour, and they have moved onto something else, they then miss the phone call, or do not answer support’s e-mail for days. They then get time to deal with it again, respond to the call or the ticket, move on to something else, and get back into the same vicious cycle. That happens 3 or 4 times, and then they say “I’ve had this problem for 8 days and it’s unresolved! The reality of it is that they’ve only actually been working on it for a matter of minutes! Their next step is to berate the support team and flee that product, blaming the support. Now you are into the cost of a new product, and worse, a whole new learning curve. Talk to me before you throw the baby out with the bathwater. I will be honest and tell you whether or not you should try to stick it out with your current product, or move on to another. It depends upon many factors. What is best in the long run; a product that does most everything you want, but can sometimes be tough to get support from; or a product that does less of what you want, but has great support? The obvious answer is – I want both! Well again – your needs determine if you can have both.

4) Do not let the normal initial frustration of getting your old database into your new database, and getting used to the software, get you to the point of dumping it for something else, assuming the next product will not have the same issues. Starting something new, or changing to something new, is very likely to be painful for any number of reasons. Deal with it. Certain things are going to require your time no matter which one you choose. Then again, maybe this product that you chose is having problems it should not have right up front. Does that mean you have made the wrong choice? Not necessarily. None of these products is perfect. Maybe this particular product’s imperfections are right up front. After that maybe it will be great most of the time. All these factors are just that. They are factors. Each product has a very long list of pros and cons. The one with the most pros, and the least cons, foryour needs, is the one for you.

All in all – if you spent a fair amount of time determining that this one does more of what you want it to do than all the others you looked at, give it time. Give it a chance. Do not be so quick to jump the gun. You may be glad you did.

It is hard to know when you are right to be upset with a product/company, if you have little or no experience with which to form a perspective, compared to similar products. What is normal? What is fair to expect? Are you even interpreting the problem correctly? Again – call me, and I’ll tell you what I think.