5 steps to develop a custom CRM
5 steps to develop a custom CRM
Do you want a CRM perfectly tailored to your company? Here's how to achieve it in 5 simple steps:
- Define your goals and needs: Identify your priorities, analyze your current tools, and set a realistic budget.
- Map your processes: Study customer journeys and your internal processes to determine essential features.
- Plan the structure: Organize your data, choose suitable technologies, and integrate your existing systems.
- Develop and test: Create an MVP, add features gradually, and conduct rigorous testing.
- Launch and train your teams: Migrate data, train users, and monitor performance for continuous improvements.
Quick tip: Prioritize features that will have the greatest impact on your sales and customer satisfaction. A well-designed CRM can transform your processes and optimize your results.
Are you ready? Let's move on to the details for each step.
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Step 1: Objectives and needs - laying the foundations of a customer-centric CRM
To ensure your CRM reflects your vision, start by identifying your professional priorities at this initial stage.
Define business objectives
Set 3 to 5 clear and measurable objectives using the SMART method (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely). For example: increase conversion rate by 10% in six months.
Analyze current needs
Examine your workflows and existing tools. Identify bottlenecks and prioritize the features you need to address them.
Budget planning
Calculate the costs related to development, maintenance, and training. Add an additional 10% margin to cover unforeseen expenses.
Once your objectives and needs are defined, you can move on to the next step: mapping customer journeys and internal processes.
Step 2: Mapping customer journeys and processes
Once your objectives and needs are defined (step 1), it's time to map customer journeys and your internal processes.
Understanding customer journeys
Identify each point of contact, from the first interaction to post-sales follow-up. Here are the key steps to examine:
- Initial contacts: social networks, website, phone calls.
- Information requests and quotes: initial interactions to gather details.
- Sales process and negotiation: steps leading to a sale.
- Technical support and customer service: post-purchase assistance.
- Post-sales follow-up and loyalty: actions to maintain customer relationships.
For each interaction, specify the data to collect and the actions to automate in your CRM.
Analyzing internal processes
Create a detailed list of your sales and marketing processes, including:
- Steps to qualify leads.
- The complete sales cycle, from initial contact to closing.
- Customer support procedures.
- Recurring marketing activities.
- Contract and invoice management.
Create a diagram to visualize interconnections and identify possible automations.
Determining essential features
Based on your mapping, identify key features that meet your needs. Here's an example:
| Category | Key features | Impact on the company |
|---|---|---|
| Contact management | Communication history, segmentation | Improved customer follow-up |
| Sales | Pipeline management, forecasts, quotes | Increase in conversions |
| Marketing | Campaigns, automation, analytics | Better marketing performance |
| Support | Ticket management, knowledge base | Greater customer satisfaction |
Focus first on features that will have the most impact before considering additional additions.
Once this step is completed, move on to step 3 to organize your CRM effectively.
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Step 3: Planning the CRM structure
After mapping your processes and identifying your essential features (step 2), it's time to structure your data and technologies.
Organize your data effectively
Data structure forms the basis of your . Classify your data into four main categories:
- Customer data: contact details, history, preferences → for a complete view of each customer.
- Sales data: pipeline, opportunities, quotes → to track and manage your sales.
- Marketing data: campaigns, segments, interactions → to personalize your marketing actions.
- Analytical data: KPIs, reports, dashboards → to drive your performance.
For each category, define the essential and optional fields based on the processes established in the previous step.
Choose suitable technologies
The choice of technological tools must meet your specific needs:
- Evaluate data volume, number of users, expected performance, and security requirements.
- Consider the following tools:
- Opt for a modular architecture that allows for easy addition of new features in the future.
Integrate your existing systems
To make the most of your CRM, it is crucial to connect it to your current tools:
- ERP (via bidirectional API): synchronize customer data and orders.
- Accounting (via REST API): manage invoices and payments.
- Marketing tools (via webhooks): automate campaigns.
- Customer support (via real-time API): centralize tickets.
Carefully document data flows, exchange frequencies, necessary validations, and error procedures.
Adopt a progressive approach to integration: test and validate each connection before moving on to the next step. This helps minimize risks and ensure successful implementation.
Step 4: Develop and test the CRM
Once structuring and integration are complete (step 3), proceed to development following clear and effective steps. Here's how to organize your development sprints.
Promote modular development
Start with an MVP (minimum viable product), then gradually add features through agile iterations. This allows for quick integration of feedback and adjustments as needed.
Add specific features
Prioritize developments based on their impact on the business. Focus on modules most useful to your company. Also, ensure optimization of performance by working on caching, queries, and resource utilization.
Implement a rigorous testing strategy
Plan different types of tests to ensure quality:
- Unit tests
- Integration tests
- User tests
Involve a pilot group to gather their feedback. Document detected issues, prioritize them, and correct them accordingly. Finally, deploy a monitoring system and set up alerts to track the performance and status of your CRM in real time.
Step 5: Launch and train users
Once development and testing are complete (step 4), it's time to deploy the system.
Migrate existing data
Plan the data migration in several stages:
- Audit: Identify and eliminate duplicates while retaining necessary data.
- Mapping: Match old fields to new ones to ensure a smooth transition.
- Test migration: Perform a transfer in a test environment to verify consistency.
Set up checkpoints to validate each stage. For 2 to 3 weeks, maintain both old and new systems in parallel to mitigate risks.
Train the staff
User training occurs in several phases:
- Initial phase (2–3 days): Familiarization with the interface and basic features.
- In-depth phase (1–2 weeks): Training on specific business-related processes.
- Continuous training (monthly): Regular sessions to incorporate updates and address questions.
Prepare clear and accessible documentation, such as:
- Guides tailored to different roles.
- Video tutorials for complex tasks.
- An FAQ enriched based on user feedback.
Track and update
Establish regular monitoring to measure the deployment's effectiveness:
- Analysis of adoption rate by department.
- Evaluation of the average time required to complete tasks.
- Tracking the number of support tickets submitted.
- Monthly meetings to identify issues and gather suggestions.
- Quarterly communication of updates and improvements made.
Keep an open communication channel with teams so they can report issues or suggest improvements. This ongoing collaboration helps tailor the CRM to users' real needs.
Conclusion: Ensuring the success of your customized CRM
Once these five steps are implemented, a customized CRM remains effective by regularly updating it, monitoring its key indicators, and providing continuous training to your teams. works alongside Swiss companies to design and evolve their CRMs, combining technical expertise and in-depth knowledge of the local market to optimize your return on investment.