The Top Five Problems CRM Users Face

In my time as a CRM consultant, I have had the opportunity to work with hundreds of companies and their employees where they train CRM. In these experiences, I have noticed some trends in common problems across all industries.

Today I will discuss the five most prominent issues that impact your business’s efficiency and growth.

1. Lack of Standardization – 

Every company has unique needs and requirements along with multiple users controlling data integrity and content updates.

Organizations cannot afford to support their clients and prospects by making them work around pre-designed business processes or structure customer data themselves – without the necessary customization tools available within Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Therefore, your company needs to create systematized processes so new users can quickly learn how reports are run and reports can be reproduced consistently.

Standardization is a key theme of the CRM industry because it ultimately saves companies time and money by creating a usable system that can be adopted by a vast number of employees across multiple teams.

Standardizing processes will eliminate the hours wasted each day on training new members who lack knowledge or familiarity with your business’s overall structure.

This will then allow them to focus their efforts on more productive activities – making your company more efficient as a whole. 

2. Data Isolation – 

Data isolation occurs when users neglect to organize their data in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, instead of storing every piece of information they receive within one main activity or lead source (I bet you are guilty of this) time this causes issues with duplicate records, inaccurate data, and irrelevant content.

CRM consultants always recommend that companies separate general business data from prospect records.

Sales, marketing, and support teams can all benefit from this standardization because it makes finding the information you need as easy as a click of a button – by utilizing tools such as filtering and search functions to pinpoint exactly what you are looking for.

CRM consultants also advise that users group data into custom entities within CRM to help increase the visibility of records that are most relevant to them.

I will use sales as an example because it is a very typical CRM industry issue. Let’s say you have two sales executives – Susan and Robert who work in the same department but have different territories.

Susan focuses on selling to companies located in the Northwestern USA and Robert sells to businesses within a 3-state area surrounding his home office. CRM consultants would recommend that these two users have all information about their prospects assigned into separate custom entities, such as “Susan’s Accounts” or “Robert’s Accounts.”

By segregating your data it becomes easier to assign CRM activities, tasks, and reminders because CRM will only show the relevant information that each user needs to execute CRM processes efficiently.

3. CRM Isolation – 

A CRM consultant’s job is also to help their clients integrate Microsoft Dynamics CRM into existing business practices and ensure it is utilized by every member of a company’s staff to its fullest potential.

CRM can be one of the hardest technologies for companies to adopt because CRM industry jargon is often coined by CRM consultants or other CRM professionals who use terms that may sound foreign to non-CRM users.

CRM isolation can occur when CRM users neglect to spread information throughout the company or when CRM’s benefits are under-valued.

CRM consultants believe that CRM is not just another software package but instead a valuable business solution that should be used by everyone in your organization to improve business processes, productivity, and sales performance.

4. User Misconceptions – 

Being new to CRM industry jargon can cause CRM users to develop some false CRM ideas that can ultimately hold them back from CRM success. CRM consultants often call these misconceptions CRM fallacies, and they are usually based on CRM industry hearsay.

CRM fallacies were created when CRM users who did not fully understand how CRM worked implemented their CRM practices. CRM consultants explain that CRM is only useful to your sales, marketing, and support teams if it adds value to each department’s CRM processes.

CRM fallacies are incorrect methods of using CRM to process CRM activities that can actually cause damage to existing CRM data or pull valuable information out of CRM altogether – resulting in CRM user frustration!

CRM fallacies are common CRM industry issues that CRM consultants frequently come across when consulting for clients.

5. CRM Data Overload – 

CRM data overload occurs when users fail to keep their CRM records updated and organized, which can be a result of CRM user misconceptions (such as CRM fallacies).

CRM data overload can cause delays and lost sales because CRM users may not be reaching the right people with their CRM touches. CRM consultants advise that CRM data should always be updated and organized to ensure CRM information is current and accessible.

CRM touchpoints only provide value to your company when they reach the right CRM users at the right time. CRM touchpoints that reach old or outdated CRM records will not add CRM value to your CRM processes.

CRM consultants recommend that CRM users update and organize their CRM information regularly to prevent data overload from occurring in their Microsoft Dynamics CRMs.

In conclusion, CRM consultants believe that CRM is not for everyone and CRM users should be sure to utilize CRM data to its fullest potential. CRM data isolation, CRM fallacies, and CRM data overload can all cause frustration for CRM users who do not understand the full value of their CRMs.

What Are Shoulder Aches And Neck Pain?

Shoulder aches and neck pain are bothersome, but common. Both shoulder aches and neck pain can be a symptom of a more serious underlying problem in the shoulder joint or neck bones. 

There are many potential causes for shoulder aches and neck pain, including:

In most cases, shoulder aches and neck pain will resolve on their own without treatment.

People experience shoulder aches and neck pain when there is pressure on the shoulder joint or the cervical spine (a type of back bone). Common symptoms include shoulder stiffness, shoulder warmth or coldness, shoulder weakness or numbness/tingling in arms or hands. There are several possible causes for shoulder aches and neck pain, some of which may be serious.

The shoulder is one of the most flexible joints in the human body. This type of shoulder joint consists of a ball and socket. The shoulder blades (scapula) form the outer edge of the shoulder as well as shoulder blade muscles, ligaments, tendons, cartilage and bones.

The shoulder blade has three distinct areas: 

Shoulder aches are typically felt in your shoulder or upper back but can also relate to neck pain or cause chest pain when you press on your sternum with your fingers at about the level of your nipples. If you take anti-inflammatory medications for shoulder aches , they won’t touch trigeminal neuralgia head pains .

One potential cause of shoulder aches and neck pain is a shoulder separation. A shoulder separation involves the ligaments surrounding the AC joint, which connects your shoulder blade to your clavicle (collar bone). This may be caused by a direct impact to your shoulder, or from falling on an outstretched hand or directly onto your shoulder.

In most cases, shoulder injuries heal within several weeks. If you have not had medical treatment in this time period and still experience shoulder pain that limits movement in your arm and shoulder, then you should visit a doctor immediately for further evaluation.

Serious conditions such as nerve damage and fractures may cause similar symptoms but do not usually improve without treatment.

Shoulder aches can also be due to sprain-strain, which is damage to shoulder ligaments. The shoulder is a ball and socket type joint, so it can suffer dislocation or subluxation in the case of sprain-strain injuries.

Shoulder aches can be due to neck strain in which neck muscles are injured in some way causing shoulder pain. Some neck strains occur from direct trauma such as falling onto your shoulder or whiplash associated with motor vehicle accidents; others result from poor posture at the computer, carrying heavy bags on one shoulder (especially if you overdo it), or sleeping badly (if you get neck ache when you wake up).

Neck pain is often caused by arthritis, an injury to the neck bones themselves, muscle strain and inflammation – all things that can make the neck bones less stable and more likely to irritate the joints in your neck.

Shoulder aches may also be due to shoulder arthritis, which is when the shoulder joint degenerates over time, resulting in shoulder bone spurs and inflammation. This condition frequently causes shoulder pain that gets worse with shoulder movement and at night while sleeping.

A shoulder “snapping” sensation can be associated with shoulder arthritis or a detached tendon of the rotator cuff that has retracted into the shoulder joint space after an injury.

A torn rotator cuff usually causes weakness in one arm plus shoulder pain on exertion such as lifting heavy bags.
Another possible cause of shoulder aches is bicipital tenosynovitis (also known as “tennis shoulder”), a painful shoulder condition resulting from irritation of tendons surrounding the biceps tendon as it passes between two bones near the shoulder.

The shoulder pain is often felt when you lift your arms out to the side and up above your head, such as in an enthusiastic “thumbs-up” gesture. Check out shoulderaches.net for more information about shoulder aches and neck pains.