The CRM Hurdles

While you are running your race toward CRM success, sometimes you can get ahead of yourself – even though you paced yourself, hit your stride and were prepared to go the distance. Your goals are set, everyone is trained, the data quality is under control, the assistants aren’t complaining, the technology is chugging away – and, most importantly, your attorneys are actually using the system. Yep, it’s all downhill from here.

Then suddenly you run into the CRM hurdles: Out of nowhere, your key staff person quits. The venerable old server finally gives up. The attorneys’ new smart phones pour a river of personal and incomplete contacts into the database. Your time and billing integration doubles the database with duplicates. Microsoft stops supporting the software you’ve been using since ’03 forcing you to upgrade to ‘the Ribbon’ and retrain everyone on everything. The custom integrated software you had developed is no longer compatible with the new release and will have to be rebuilt.

You suddenly feel your heart racing and you’re thinking of giving up the race. But now is not the time to stop. You’ve come so far. There’s no turning back now. To keep pace through the CRM hurdles, you just need strategy – and a good sense of humor doesn’t hurt. Just try to take them one at a time – slow and steady – and keep breathing. The finish line and CRM success are in sight. It’ll be ok…