The unreliable CRM

Do you trust your CRM to give you accurate information every time?

A client contacted me last week because her CRM was giving her conflicting information: one report showed around 600 contacts matching certain criteria, but a search with similar criteria showed only 150.

This is a serious concern.

Just like your bank statements, the gas gauge in your car, and your business partners, CRM data that you can’t trust at the very least useless, and potentially damaging.

For this client, we found the cause: the report was based on a certain custom field, and the search used criteria for another, similarly named, custom field.

Once the difference was clear, she regained confidence that the system was working as it should.

Unreliable CRM output can be the result of a few different problems:

• Incorrect data — this includes things like duplicate records and data entry errors by staff.

• User confusion over data structures and report functionality — this was my client’s situation, mentioned above.

• A bug in the software — this is rare, but it can happen.

Whatever the cause, if you find yourself doubting the results of your reports or other CRM functionality, you need to address that soon.

Because a system you can't trust is worse than no system at all.

All the best,
A.