Getting the Most Out of Your CRM
Robin has been in the Senior Living Industry for over 20 years and recently started a new position as the Marketing Director (MD) at her local Assisted Living. On good days, being an MD makes Robin feel like she is really helping people – something she hasn’t always had. Selling is a big part of this position and so is being personable and supportive. It can often take a while to earn a family’s trust.
“I don’t like to spend much time on the computer during the day; I would prefer to spend the bulk of my time interacting with residents and families around the community. It’s about making that personal connection and building relationships. The new tracking software we’ve started using is incredibly simple. I used notebooks before. I thought I was just bad at computers, but this new program is easy for me and our team feels comfortable knowing that important family information is being tracked.”
Does the above sound familiar? Below are a few tips to getting the most out of your CRM:
- Invest in Your Sales Team: Adopting an intuitive and easy to use CRM is an investment in your team. Your marketing directors will be happier because they are able to quickly track critical information in a secure and easily accessible program.  It is much more likely you’ll get the most out of your CRM when you’ve considered the needs of the individuals who will be inputting most of the data. If the program is too complicated you’ll run the risk of the CRM users reverting back to often ineffective methods like paper and pen.
- Attend Initial and Ongoing Training Sessions: Take full advantage of all of the training resources your CRM provider offers. Stay vigilant about getting training upon coming aboard. Most CRM programs also have a help center with tips, tricks and a FAQ section. You should familiarize yourself with these resources and managers should encourage all users to seek out these helpful aids.
- Pay Attention to Upgrades and Useful New Features: Oftentimes new features will help you accomplish more in the program and make you more effective as a user. In addition, recurring updates are often directly related to maintaining the appropriate security of the system. Paying attention to important announcements and useful new features will help you reap the rewards of better organization and higher productivity.
- Provide Useful Feedback: When it comes to your CRM live by the rule, don’t be shy. Specific feedback on what would be useful to you as the user should always be welcomed as actively collecting and leveraging detailed customer feedback is one of most important facilitators for providers to continuously improve upon their program.
- Integrations: Sharing relevant data between useful web-based applications along with automating data entry is becoming increasingly popular in today’s CRM programs. Auto-population of lead data from trusted sources saves time improves data accuracy and promotes better customers service through faster follow-up to inquiries.
 
Barry Mayer is the Senior Account Executive for You’ve Got Leads.
Don‚Äôt have a CRM? You’ve Got Leads (YGL) offers free web-services to facilitate the auto-entry of qualified leads from referral sources such as A Place for Mom. Click here for a free online demo to discover how YGL can help your community increase their occupancy.