People Change Management – A prerequisite to successful CRM Implementation
People Change Management is one of the most important task that determine the success of the CRM Implementation. As we know, most of the people are reluctant to change because of factors like sense of insecurity, inherent inertia, insufficient knowledge about the change etc. Hence it is very essential to plan for the People Change Management well in advance before the CRM Implementation (in fact right from the time we capture business requirements) otherwise people (front office / back office people) will either reject the new CRM Application or will start complaining about it. It is very important to address some of the questions coming to their mind like:
- What is the benefit that I am going to get out of this CRM Application?
- Will I lose my Job if this gets implemented?
- What should I do differently after the CRM Implementation?
- What is the benefit of this CRM Application to my company?
- Is the CRM Application going to satisfy my customer needs?
- Is the CRM Application easy to use? (e.g. Can I use both Keyboard shortcuts and Mouse?, How effective is the search in the application?)
- Is the application fast to reduce the call handling time?
- Can I save customer call handling time by doing some settings / personalization?
- Have I got enough training including hands on training on the CRM Application?
- Is there sufficient training documentation to make myself comfortable with the Application?
Some of the techniques that could be employed to address these people change management issues are:
- Involve the operational people (call center agents, back office people) in the requirements gathering exercise and capture operational requirements along with Business Requirements.
- Understand their pain points and show your inclination to address these operational pain points.
- Inform the benefits of implementing the new CRM Application in the organization through user workshops, meetings and through emailers.
- Inform them how the new application is going to address their operational pain points, increase operational convenience and reduce their workload / effort.
- Provide detailed training including hands on training prior to launch and address all their queries with the application.
- Provide support and guidance to the people through gold users in their learning phase to make them comfortable.
- Enhance employee moral through rewards and recognitions.
Thus in short, people change management if planned well in advance, will ensure co-operation and participation from the operational people and will lead to successful CRM Implementation.
Comments
Hi Suhas,
In fact about 30% of CRM fails or gets delayed due to no or less end-user involvement. Comprehensive training plan with role-based training is a must for success in change management.
Posted by: Amit | July 16, 2009 4:17 AM
This is a really good article. In fact, people management is a very important aspect for implementing any change. I have faced a similar difficulty while implementing change in one of my previous projects. People resistance to change (in their used-to way of working) is the most important barrier which needs a proper consideration in the due diligence stage itself before implementing any kind of change.
Posted by: Devendra Joshi | July 16, 2009 4:26 AM
Devendra, since I have worked with the customer's training and testing team very closely in implementing the change, I have faced these difficulties many times. Hence I agree that the change management activity should start at the Due Diligence stage itself.
Posted by: suhas | July 16, 2009 9:34 AM
Amit, apart from the 30% failed/delayed projects as mentioned by you, out of the remaining 70% projects as well, many a times companies spend a lot of time, effort and money to get the projects back on track only because they ignore this very important aspect of People Change Management.
Posted by: Suhas | July 16, 2009 9:42 AM