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My Salesforce CRM system would be perfect except for one thing—the users. The lazy, unpredictable, careless users, who wantonly pollute and desecrate my pristine database. They don’t care, want only to get what they need at the moment, and really can’t be bothered to listen very well to what I preach. And I love them, because without them, I’d have to get a real job. Maybe even the kind where you get sweaty and come home with dirt under your fingernails!
Over the years, I’ve tried quite a few schemes to help keep bad data out of my systems. They’ve ranged from things pushed by pricey consultants to oddball homebrew concoctions with more quirks than the crazy guy on who lives in the subway station. No matter what, they all boiled down to three, basic models. I call these three, Beatings, iPods, and Highways. Let’s examine each.
1. Beatings. OK, I mean this metaphorically, but let’s be honest, we’ve all thought about it for our most difficult users. Instead, we proscribe certain behaviors, test for compliance, and then set punishments for violation. “If you enter duplicate accounts, your manager will be notified.” “Salespeople failing to completely fill out the H27-b form will have their commission delayed.”
By itself, using this method, you will fail miserably. Face it, you really don’t have a big enough stick to do much damage. People know the limits of your authority and if they don’t, they will in a very short time. Let’s assume for a moment that you really can make your users shake with fear. How long do you think it will be until the high producers corner the CEO and tell her their sad tale of abuse? Do you really want to go job hunting again?
2. iPods. This is the flip side to being the bad guy. You reward good behavior. “The salesperson with the lowest number of errors wins an iPod.” “Tom is User of the Year and we hope he enjoys his free back waxing coupon!”
Reinforcing good choices has potential, but it also has serious limitations. First, how are you going to pay for all the bribes (and that’s exactly what they are) that are necessary? When you heap accolades on your top five or ten users, do you demotivate the other 600? How do you know precisely what to bribe people to do?
3. Highways. A well designed highway is a pleasure to drive. The roadway is banked to keep you on the main travel portion. Painted markings and reflective cat-eyes delineate your path and mark hazards. Signage keeps you apprised of your location and distance to destination. Guardrails and other safety devices mitigate poor choices and accidents. A well designed CRM system is similar.
Ideally, your users should seldom be aware of the unseen hand keeping them on the path of clean data. Make it easier to stay in the lane then to stray. Use validation rules, auto complete, and contextual help to assist them. Given a choice, people will generally do the easier, so it is to your benefit to make the right way, the easier way.
Like on the roadway, sometimes the unexpected must be expected. A well tuned database or CRM system has mechanisms for detecting errors. Are you using the native reporting functions to their fullest? If not, why not? If you aren’t running regular, quality monitoring sweeps, you aren’t in control, you’re just along for the ride to perdition.
In the end, the perfect solution is a mixture. Truly egregious actions should be curtailed by the threat of swift detection and certain consequences, the beatings. Excellent example users should be rewarded and encouraged, the iPod. And in the end, your users should be gently herded along the smooth, well marked, pavement, to their destination, via the highway you built.
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