Technology runs our lives, and we’ve become more and more dependent on it as the years go by. However, do you notice that we’re only dependent on the features we know how to use? Do you use the complete functionality on your phone? Do you know how to? The same can probably be said for your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. Do you know how to use your CRM? I’m not asking if you could completely reconfigure it. I mean, do you know how to use the essential features of your CRM such as: managing your contacts, email marketing, task management, project management, etc.?
I was conducting a webinar today with the topic of a broad overview of a specific CRM software. The majority of the people didn’t know what I was talking about. I could’ve probably been speaking in Pig Latin, and the message probably would’ve been clearer. I scrapped the original point of the webinar which was about broad topics. Instead I covered a couple specific topics to show the attendees the basic functionality of them. If a company doesn’t have a solid support staff or documentation for the users that is one problem. However, it’s an entirely different problem if the user doesn’t look at the help section or doesn’t contact the company for support. This could’ve been a communication breakdown between the user and the sales representative when the product was first purchased. Either way, I’m happy for these particular people that I was able to help give them the proper information. My question, though, is why would you pay for a product and not use it, or at least inquire about how to use it? That seems silly to me.
However, this happens more often than not. People are afraid of technology and don’t really have the desire to learn. That’s why the products need to be as simple as possible. Even then, that can be a struggle. For instance, my dad and stepmom rely on me for everything computer related. They won’t even plug in their own computers. That’s an extreme case of being really lazy. There is only one place you can plug in the wires into the back of your computer, plus it’s color coded. That’s an example of not even trying to learn technology. If you can’t plug something in, then why do you even have it? Would you bring your phone back because you can’t be bothered to plug it into the charger? I don’t think so.
If you can’t be bothered to even try and learn that, then I’m sorry to say that you probably won’t get very far. You don’t have to master the CRM to do well. That’s why support staffs exist. Everybody knows at some point a user will have a question or not know how to complete a task. What matters is desire to put the effort in and learn how to complete the task that counts in the long run.
Sandip
