I’ve reached the age of adulthood where certain medical procedures are required, and here I type in the middle of my prep day. Prepping for this isn’t near as bad as what people have made it seem to be. When you look at the preparation asked of you prior to a colonoscopy, it seems daunting. However, much like your CRM, the human body needs to be occasionally cleaned out.
(Okay, and I’m back). Over time, the human body collects a lot of garbage over time and it doesn’t flush it all out on its own. It sits there. Festers. Attaches itself to the linings. Like countless customer profiles littering your CRM and team member task lists, they don’t go away by themselves. They need to be addressed.
I’m 50 and this is my first colonoscopy. I’ll also be getting an endoscopy. The one favor I asked of the doctors in advance is that they either use a different tube for the two procedures or at least perform them in a sequence I prefer. (Okay, and I’m back). I’ve put this process off long enough, as have you when it comes to cleaning up your CRM. From purging those tasks they have let lie dormant for far too long on their overdue task list to switching customers in their database who are anything but “active”.
Yes, your team should take better care of their task lists. They should be adding the right customer data, completing all of their tasks properly, in a timely fashion, and make sure no opportunity is forgotten. However, occasionally life gets in the way. They don’t care to keep their task list empty, and it becomes bloated with shopper info that should have been long ago removed. When this happens, it is time to do a cleanse of the CRM. A CRM colonoscopy, if you will.
Get with your CRM’s performance manager/account manager and set a future date for your team. This is their window to get things done they haven’t, or save their dormant customers lying around untouched. Provide your team an ultimatum that all their old, existing tasks will be expulsed, unless they complete them by that date. Any lingering active customers sitting in their name that have no future scheduled tasks will be released to Lost status, and their ownership of said customer will no longer be granted. (Okay, and I’m back. This isn’t so bad. It’s just like the after-effects of eating Taco Bell.) Then, when the time comes, purge the system of those customers and tasks. Change those decaying active customers with likely zero propensity to buy due to their advanced age in the CRM into a Lost status. Clean it up for your team, and for your sanity. Make your CRM healthy and manageable. Much like a colonoscopy, this doesn’t need to happen more than every 3-5 years, and if your CRM is bound up, then you’re putting the wrong people in charge of what goes in and out of it. What goes into the CRM is the endoscopy, and what needs to be cleaned out is the, well, you know where I’m going with this.
In the end, pun intended, old customer data and long-hanging tasks need to be cleaned out to make way for better customer data, fewer/newer tasks the team is willing to complete for the good of the store. Don’t look at this as defeat. Look at it as maintenance. Sit down. Review tasks. Review active customers with no future follow-up scheduled for them. Set the date, and start the prep.
I’m certain the procedure will be over before you know it, and your system will be better off for it. Wish me luck.
