Time is money.

We’ve all heard it, many of us have said it and most of us believe it. In this digital age that fact has become even more true. With the ability to have data at your fingertips in a matter of seconds consumers are less likely to work with a business that makes them wait too long.

Smaller decisions have a larger effect.

This may be a newer thought for a lot of us, but it’s something I have heard stated more and more and it is true. Large decisions can have an immediate impact on business, but it is the smaller day to day decisions that have a more lasting impact and can revolutionize your business over time.

Creating custom forms within CRM doesn’t seem like a huge deal, but it saves time for your end users and ensures all necessary data is being collected, which saves time spent trying to track down missing data. Let’s look at a couple scenarios where not using custom forms can lose business.

Scenario 1:

A salesperson has an opportunity with a new client and an estimate needs to be provided. The salesperson gathers data about the project and then sends it to the project manager to get an estimate of what it will take to complete the project. Once they receive that they will write up the formal estimate and provide it to the customer.

With a non-customized CRM form there will be fields that do not need to be filled in, so the salesperson must scroll through and find the fields they need and try to make the data fit into general areas on the form. This results in a lot of pertinent data being typed into a description field and makes the initial form entry take a long time.

When the project manager receives the opportunity, they spend time reading through the form to piece together the project and there could be data missing. Missing data requires the project manager to email or call the salesperson with questions. Finally, the estimate information can be put together and sent back to the salesperson most likely typed into notes.

The salesperson now reads through the information and writes up a formal estimate to send the client.

By now the client has already received two other estimates from competitors and the costs are comparable, so the client chooses the one that provided their estimate the quickest. Consumers will view those businesses as more efficient and that sets the tone that those businesses would likely be more efficient in getting the project completed.

Scenario 2:

A current customer calls in with an issue that requires a service call. The customer explains to the phone agent exactly what is occurring.

The same thing occurs as with the salesperson where the phone agent must scroll through and find the fields to enter. This results in the customer being on the phone longer and other incoming calls are holding while the agent completes the form. With no customized fields the agent summarizes the problem as best they can within a description field and forgets a few questions they should ask the customer.

The information is sent to the service technician and they go out to the customers site. Upon arrival they are not prepared for the extent of the problem because the summarization was too brief, and questions were missed.

The customer is now upset because they are explaining the entire problem again and there is a delay in getting the problem resolved as the technician was not prepared.

Sales are important, but a business succeeds or fails on customer satisfaction after the initial purchase.

Now these scenarios may be extreme examples, but I have seen them happen within businesses. Using a generic form for your specialized business is like trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. This can result in low employee morale and low customer satisfaction.

When creating custom forms, it is important to spend time thinking about that particular process to help dictate how the form should flow. What information needs to be gathered? When is the information is collected and who is responsible for collecting it? Should forms be quick create to speed up the process or is it something that requires the longer form because of the amount of data necessary?

Always, create forms from the perspective of the end user. Saving just 5 minutes on form entry means that for every 100 records entered 8 hours of work is saved. Forms that are easy to use eliminate frustration for employees which raises morale and that is something that is vital to a successful business.

Watch for an upcoming blog post on the different things you can customize on CRM forms.

-Jerica Coleman, CRM and Power BI Consultant