Once you’ve chosen Sage as your CRM system, you need to train your team on how to use it. Learning to use customer relationship management (CRM) systems is a crucial step to enhance customer experience and satisfaction. Instead of just showing users how to log in and find information, you want to teach them how to use Sage CRM to its full potential and provide better service. This practical guide will show you how to do that in four steps.
Before you begin training, make sure that you’re training the right people! Should it be only customer service, or other teams as well? You may want to create different training groups and customize the learning outcomes and activities for each group. For example, you may have three groups: management, customer service, and others (such as marketing). Each group may interact with the system differently, depending on their needs.
4 Steps to Sage CRM Training
- Build Enthusiasm and Commitment: Before starting the training program, you need to generate enthusiasm and excitement among the trainees. Let them know that they are not only going to learn new software, but they will also be able to solve customer issues faster and easier with it. Share how the new system will help them do their jobs better and faster, and work with the company’s managers to get their support. The adoption of the new CRM system will be much smoother if you build up the excitement for its launch and get buy-in from company executives and managers.
- Allocate Enough Time for Training: Training should not be a one-time event. Allocate uninterrupted time for the initial training and for follow-up sessions. Schedule more time than you think you need, as people will likely have a lot of questions and require repetition and practice. People may pay attention to the in-depth training but forget much of what they learned because they don’t use the skills or repeat them often after training. One in-depth training followed by many shorter refreshers is a better way for adults to learn and retain new skills.
- Use All Training Resources: No need to reinvent the wheel! Use all the training resources you can find, including printed materials or PDFs, videos, and live conversations. You can find many Sage CRM training materials online. Most people have a dominant learning style: visual, auditory, or kinesthetic (hands-on). By providing a variety of training resources, you’re teaching to all learning styles and allowing trainees to absorb the knowledge in the way that works best for them.
- Evaluate Training Results: As with any process, it’s important to evaluate outcomes and results based on the goals you had before beginning the process. What are your training goals, and how well did you achieve them? You may want to generate reports from your software and send out an anonymous survey to employees, for instance. Completing a series of training sessions is one thing, but has it reduced the number of calls and emails to the internal Sage CRM experts conducting the training? Is there any area of the system that seems to cause the most confusion or questions, and can you schedule a refresher around that area to strengthen peoples’ knowledge?
Looking for a Partner?
Some companies have dedicated training resources, while others delegate the task to human resources or the project champions. If you need additional training support for Sage CRM—or if you need help implementing, integrating, or customizing the software—we’re here to help. Contact us or schedule a free consultation today.