In our last post in this series, Spenser Segal on Software Optimization, we wrote about Level 3 – Building Processes Into Your CRM, in which we covered how moving out of your head (Level 1) and away from paper (Level 2) benefits your entire organization. Now it is time to go to Level 4 Utilization and get on the road to gaining speed in completing work and giving more time back to your team for high-value activities.
Let's start with the why of automation. You've just gained tremendous advantages for your entire team just by embedding processes into your CRM system. You improved clarity, efficiency, accessibility and reporting capabilities. What more can automation bring? Automating within CRM will bring you more speed in completing routine tasks and processes, thereby giving time back to your team which they can then spend on high value activities like bringing in new clients or proactively reaching out to existing clients.
You gain greater consistency in how tasks are actually performed and remove dependence on the tribal knowledge of a single person or small group. Building automation into CRM requires thorough documentation of what is done and how it is done. Building your processes into your CRM it makes it easy to refine and reassign tasks as your practice matures and grows.
Once tasks are accurate, organized and embedded into the CRM system it is time to have the workflow engine automate specific tasks. Good candidates for automation are any tasks that are repeated frequently and accomplished in the same way every time.
Think about reports that are shared in client meetings or the follow-up that happens after those meetings. The process of gathering the data for the reports was likely embedded into CRM in Level 3, the same data gathering process can be automated using a workflow engine.
Further, it can automatically be output into a pre-defined format and returned to a specified folder without human interaction. Thus the hours that your staff previously spent pulling and formatting data can now be spent on something the system can't do: building strong working relationships with clients and prospects.
