A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform is an essential tool for businesses of all sizes, including credit unions. These systems help credit unions manage their interactions with their members and prospective members, streamline processes, and improve overall member satisfaction. However, like any technology, a CRM can encounter issues that hinder its effectiveness.
In this article, we will discuss the five most common CRM issues faced by credit unions and provide solutions to overcome them. By addressing these issues, credit union marketers and sales managers can ensure they are getting the most out of their CRM system and can focus on what matters: providing exceptional service to their members and growing that membership to new heights.
Top 5 Common CRM Issues
When used incorrectly, CRMs can be susceptible to many different issues that hinder your credit union's growth and marketing outcomes. When we perform a CRM audit for our credit union clients, these are the most common problems we come across.
1. Poor Data Quality
Poor data quality is one of the most common oversights we notice within CRM portals. Having inaccurate or incomplete data can lead to missed opportunities, wasted resources, and ultimately, a loss in your credit union's revenue. It is crucial for companies to establish data quality standards and regularly monitor and clean their CRM database to ensure that the information is up-to-date and reliable. By addressing this issue, credit union marketers can improve their overall CRM effectiveness and make better-informed decisions based on accurate data.
2. Lack of User Adoption
The lack of user adoption can be a major hurdle for credit unions when implementing a CRM system. This can lead to incomplete data and missed opportunities for member engagement.
For example, if a member has been engaging with email marketing materials around mortgages, but the marketing and sales teams are not using the CRM system to its full potential, they may miss an opportunity to offer products or services that could benefit the member. To combat this issue, credit unions should provide thorough training and support for their staff to ensure they understand the benefits of using the CRM system and how it can drive sales and membership growth.
3. Inadequate Training
Without properly training your team members to use your CRM system, you'll have a hard time convincing them to adopt the platform into their daily routine, resulting in missed opportunities for growth. For team members who are not familiar with these systems, understanding them can be a hurdle in itself. This can lead to frustration and decreased productivity among staff members. For example, if your credit union's employee does not know how to correctly input their client's data into the CRM system, it can result in inaccurate information being stored, which is often the source behind a slippery slope of problems.
When implementing a CRM, it's crucial that credit unions invest in comprehensive training programs for those who use the CRM. This training can be conducted by either someone who has extensive knowledge of the platform, or a partner agency that can provide you with training and support hours to help guide you with the ins and outs of your portal. By providing adequate training, credit unions can ensure that their team is equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to effectively utilize the CRM system and harness marketing and sales opportunities.
4. Integration Problems
When choosing your CRM platform, you'll want to make sure that you can easily integrate it with your business functions. Your credit union can face integration problems if your CRM software is not compatible with other systems or platforms that you use. For example, if the CRM system cannot integrate with the credit union's core banking system, it can lead to data inconsistencies and errors.
Integration problems can cause frustration and inefficiencies, ultimately hindering the credit union's ability to harness opportunities for sales and growth. One major benefit of a CRM platform like HubSpot is that it can be customized to align with the way your members and accounts are organized within your core.
5. Lack of Customization Utilization
A limited use of customization options can be a source of frustration for credit unions that need a more customized user experience with their CRMs. For instance, in order to tailor your CRM to your credit union, you may need to create custom fields, modify workflows, integrate third-party applications, or customize your CRM views for front-line teams. This more technical scope may be out of your credit union marketing team's area of expertise. That's where a partner agency can come in and provide insight and training to get the most out of your CRM's customization offerings.
Overall, a lack of customization can also impact the overall user experience, making it difficult for employees to navigate the system efficiently. Therefore, it is crucial for credit unions to address these issues proactively to ensure that their CRM system is optimized for their unique business needs.
Top 5 Solutions to Common CRM Issues
Having a CRM system in place is an effective method for managing a successful and organized credit union. Don't let these common mistakes scare you away from implementing one into your marketing and sales operations. Here are some practical solutions to help you solve these common issues.
1. Implementing Data Validation Rules
In order to avoid poor data quality, your team should have data validation rules in place. This way your credit union can ensure that the data entered into their CRM system is accurate, complete, and consistent. This can be achieved by setting up automated validation checks that flag any errors or inconsistencies in the data, such as missing fields or incorrect formatting.
Additionally, it's important to conduct regular data audits to help identify any ongoing issues with your data quality — we recommend performing these on a quarterly basis. This way you can stay on top of your data and create a strategy for an improvement plan. Overall, implementing data validation rules is an essential step toward improving the accuracy and reliability of your credit union's CRM data.
2. Providing Ongoing Training and Support
Providing ongoing training and support is crucial for credit union employees to stay up-to-date with the latest trends relating to their banking CRM. By investing in regular training sessions, credit unions can ensure that their staff are comfortable with the program and are following CRM best practices to ensure they're using it at its fullest potential.
HubSpot, along with other leading CRM companies, understands the importance of having well-trained employees to maximize the benefits of their software. That's why they offer comprehensive training programs to help your team get up to speed quickly and efficiently.
Another effective training resource would be to partner with a specialized agency, (like us!). Partner agencies have extensive knowledge of these platforms and can provide customized support and training to businesses that need a customized approach. This can help credit unions stay ahead of the curve and provide top-notch service to their members.
3. Ensuring Seamless Integration with Other Systems
To ensure seamless integration with other systems, it's important to prioritize compatibility and flexibility when selecting a CRM solution. This means choosing a system that can easily integrate with your other business functions and technologies, as well as one that can adapt to changing needs and requirements over time.
In addition, credit unions should work closely with their CRM provider to ensure that the integration process is smooth and any issues are addressed promptly. It's also important to regularly test the integration to ensure that data is flowing correctly between systems. By prioritizing seamless integration, credit unions can avoid data inconsistencies and errors, and provide a more efficient and effective member experience.
4. Customizing The CRM To Meet Specific Business Needs
Your CRM may need customization to align it with your marketing and sales processes; this includes custom fields, workflows, integrations, custom team views, and custom record cards. For example, if your credit union has a specific process for onboarding new members or handling loan applications, they may need to customize the CRM to reflect these workflows. Customization can help the credit union better serve its members and streamline internal processes.
Addressing these common CRM problems is crucial for any credit union that wants to improve its efficiency and process development. By identifying and resolving these issues, credit unions can streamline their operations, enhance communication with members and non-members, and ultimately increase their membership. It's important to take action and implement the solutions provided in this article to ensure that your CRM system is functioning at its best.
Additionally, there are many resources and tools available to help credit unions address CRM issues. At GreenHouse Agency, we offer a HubSpot Portal Optimization Audit designed for marketing, sales, and service teams in the financial industry. We'll give you expert training to help you understand your CRM's main issue and integrate goals, best practices and solutions to get you back on track to doing what you do best! Click here to learn more about how to start addressing your CRM's issues.
August 15, 2023
