One of the biggest challenges companies face when introducing a customer relationship management (CRM) software like salesforce.com is getting their teams to actually use it. End users often view the new system as another thing to do. As a result of their lack of adoption, quantifying the technology’s ROI can be challenging for leadership.
What if companies could introduce elements of gaming and influence user behavior to help drive CRM adoption and ultimately, sales results?
Enter Gamification…
Gamification is a powerful strategy that can drive adoption and keep users engaged throughout the roll-out of an application. It can also be an influential tool to drive improved productivity.
Many organizations face the common adoption challenges when deploying a CRM; however, motivating users by engaging users plays a significant role in helping to drive adoption. Focusing users on learning one part of the CRM application, or simply rewarding them for completing a record, is a good way to start. Changing the elements in the game to another part of the application each week will ensure users become familiar with all aspects of it. This is an effective way to keep teams engaged with the entire application.
Driving user adoption does not stop at the user level, either; management needs to be engaged. Too often, user adoption can slowly disintegrate after time because management is not engaged. Defining a strategy that demonstrates to users that management has bought into the application is crucial. Finding ways to recognize and reward those users who have not only adopted the application but excelled in adoption is imperative to the success of a CRM deployment.
Helping your organization drive user adoption through gamification will also help to identify and develop “super users.” Basically, super users are people who understand and advocate the technology. Once a company has them, their users struggling with the CRM can easily seek out those super users for help.
Gamification is a powerful tool; it feeds off the natural competition that exists among employees who want to be at the top. As competitive juices begin to flow and the gamification culture takes hold, the benefits of CRM tools become evident. Ultimately, quantifying the ROI is more measurable as it drives sales results. Those results reflect an attentive, competitive culture, stemming from top-down buy-in.
Mike Vespa is a senior account executive at CRM manager.
Interested in gamification? Check out this free eBook: Your Top 5 Questions on Sales Gamification.
