CRM: Why You Need It?
Your people work with gusto, smash records in sales and customer service, and pile up the recognition and awards. They do it right, and the impact is celebrated!
But what happens when it’s time for the cream-of-the-crop to retire or move into management? How do you leverage what have you learned from them, and prepare to make sure others are equipped with their knowledge?
You can use CRM to streamline this transition! Here are a few options for keeping the knowledge alive—well before your front runner heads out the door.
Create Contact Records Made of Gold
It’s simple…consistent client notes in CRM set up future account handlers for success. Apart from documenting critical notes about the account and its time-tested value propositions, what are the other keys to maintain a happy client relationship? Does the client receive a handwritten birthday note? What is the best time of year for a follow-up? Is a phone call appreciated or a personal visit best? Knowing the right details carries weight in retaining a customer after their main tie to the company has moved on. Make sure these are pinned at the top of the customer’s profile.
Job Descriptions Gathering Dust?
How up to date are your defined duties? Does your top-performing employee do more than expected in some way that makes them even more successful? Send them to lunch with Human Resources and Training so that they can get a sense of what makes this superstar tick. These departments can then create a profile in CRM to log their habits, ideas, and remarkable characteristics. Creating a simple system for gathering insight will help your company sharpen hiring and training while retaining employee wisdom.
Seize Opportunities to Document!
Before your employees even consider moving, ask them to contribute by writing the best practices tutorial for internal use. If you are working from a standardized sales process, ask them about the most valuable touch points in the customer journey. Where did they grasp the best opportunities, where do they think the process can be refined? How do they set their goals? Another way to glean their knowledge is to take detailed notes at their annual review and log these into CRM or incorporate the findings in process review meetings.
We know parting with your top performers is difficult. Schedule a strategy session with our CRM experts to create a straightforward plan. Take a little sting out of the transition by capturing valuable employee wisdom!
