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March 23, 2016 at 09:35 PM
With the basic functionality of contact information, history, tasks and to-dos in place and being used regularly, you are ready to begin to use more advanced CRM functionality.
The next stop on our Journey to CRM Success (see the complete series so far: Spenser Segal on CRM Success) is templates, checklists, and workflows. This is where you begin to deepen the impact of CRM.
Variation in process poses a significant challenge for advisory firms and can quickly lead to confusion, inefficiency and ultimately an inability to effectively grow your practice. Often there is little documentation about the process or checkpoints that ensure everyone in the office is performing tasks in an effective manner. Implementing the use of templates, checklists and workflow within CRM are highly effective ways to overcome this challenge.
Templates Drive Consistency
In most practices everyone is philosophically aligned, but execution on a specific process like “prep for client meeting” can be very different depending on who is executing the process. Templates offer a means to document how a task or process should be done and enable them to be performed in a consistent way by all members of the team. Agreement on this definition and documentation of the process is a much bigger step than most anticipate (see this previous post for more).
Checklists Drive Timeliness
At the core of every process is a sequence of tasks in logical order that can be organized in some type of checklist. When the sequence is clearly documented and easy to follow, the process can be executed more efficiently. This increases the effectiveness of your team by minimizing time wasted struggling to determine if they remembered to do everything.
Workflows Automate Simple and Frequently Repeated Tasks
This is the point at which your process is not only guided by CRM, but components of your process are executed without human intervention. Workflow functionality will enable you to easily distribute work among team members while keeping it highly visible. For example, if you have embedded your “prepare for client meeting workflow” in your CRM and your CRM is integrated with your portfolio management and financial planning systems, you can automate parts of the process.
