End User Adoption – The Silent Killer

Sadly, as a consultant I see far too many instances where a CRM system has been implemented, often at significant effort and cost, and then they find the CRM has not been fully adopted by the business end users. Salesforce.com CRM implementations are not immune to this problem.

The reasons for low user adoption are many and varied. My advice would be to consider how to maximize end user adoption and business outcomes, and hence maximize your investment, during the planning phase. With the benefit of hindsight, I am confident that many an implementation team and business owner had wished they had addressed end user adoption earlier. That said, what do you do when you have an implementation that is experiencing low user adoption?

Strategies to address and prevent low user adoption:

• Identify an engaged executive sponsor (this gives you the authority to drive through the necessary changes)
• Involve the end users in the design or redesign of the CRM features (as they will have some skin in the game for the successful adoption, and may become advocates)
• Be very clear on the value proposition, WIIFM (What’s In It For Me)
• Put adoption measurement in place (Reports & Dashboards)
• Carrot strategies (reward early adopters publicly)
• Stick strategies (have consequences for low adoption)
• Create an organizational message (non adoption may have a negative impact on a user’s career or compensation)
• Provide just in time training in both group and individual settings
• Encourage constructive end user feedback
• State “If it is not in Salesforce, then it did not happen!”

It is possible to rapidly improve end user adoption by taking a considered approach that utilizes one or more of the above techniques.