Driving Salesforce user adoption is critical after companies invest lots of time, money and resources on implementation.
Salesforce user adoption and engagement can sometimes be elusive. How can companies get employees to adopt new technology such as Salesforce and engage regularly with it?
Why User Adoption Matters
Customer relationship management (CRM) helps businesses connect with customers, manage workflows and improve profitability. While not only managing customer contacts, CRM systems, such as Salesforce, help connect customer information and projects across an organization including sales, marketing, customer service, accounting and more.
CRM tools can be quite powerful, generate impressive ROI and help companies achieve business goals. But numerous industry studies report that as many as 33% of CRM implementations fail.
Numerous factors may contribute to lackluster CRM performance, but a low number of users adopting the platform is a primary contributor.
So, how do you get users to engage?
There a number of common tactics that companies use to increase Salesforce adoption. It starts prior to Salesforce implementation. Successful companies assign executive sponsorship, create a plan for what the company needs, define goals for platform and implement proper change management. Most importantly, they introduce the platform to end-users and explain its objective and intended results.
Beyond enterprise implementation, companies must educate, train and reinforce employees so they become comfortable with the new process and platform.
User Adoption Strategies You can Employ to Increase Use
- Increase employee confidence
- Provide Instructor-led training programs
- Be persistent – reinforce the training
Remove the Mystery and Increase End-User Confidence
Many people resist change.
Some people resist because they like the status quo. The old mentality of, “What I do works…so why should I change?”
According to a Forbes study, other employees resist change because they lack confidence in themselves to implement the change the company has asked of them. In fact, the report states that if employees have confidence that they’ll personally succeed with the changes underway, they are 49% more likely to support your change.
Therefore, in both cases, it is important for companies to improve employee confidence.
Provide Confidence in the Company – and the Platform
For employees to consider change, they must understand why it is being implemented. Companies must inform employees why it is implementing the new platform.
- Explain how Salesforce will benefit the company
- Outline expected results
Further, the company should describe how the platform will help various departments and ultimately the employees themselves.
- Explain how the system will help the employee in their day to day job
- Define metrics for success
Provide Confidence in Employees’ Ability to Adopt Salesforce
Trial by fire rarely works. So, companies must provide quality Salesforce training to end-users. Good training teaches employees Salesforce and how to utilize it in their specific jobs.
The best training also instills confidence. Once employees complete training, they emerge confident they can use the system as required.
Instructor-led training is often regarded as the most efficient method of training. It provides the human element. Instructors can react and adapt the course based upon student and class needs. Similarly, students can ask questions and seek clarification from the instructor. Further, students can interact with each other as they embark on their learning journey.
All of this supports the goal to instill confidence in employees and leave them feeling they can easily use the system and therefore benefit the company.
Improve Confidence through Reinforcement Training
Training doesn’t stop once the class begins. It’s well documented that students forget much of what they learned within one day of class. Subsequently, as employees forget some training, their confidence may erode. As their confidence erodes, they may disengage and return to old habits. Once that happens, user adoption rates may decrease.
To combat this loss of training retention, employers should provide reinforcement training to their end-users. Reinforcement training serves to allow employees to revisit classes they have already completed. This allows them to refresh skills, remind them what they learned and let them move confidently forward in their tasks and jobs.
Many companies seek to use subscription based instructor-led training training models. These training programs act as an annual pass allowing companies to place their employees in an unlimited number of classes throughout a year.
Programs like Stony Point Class Pass offer employees ongoing education opportunities they can use to brush up on their skills and increase their confidence, throughout the year. Employees can retake classes to refresh their memory (and boost their confidence). They can also take other classes within the provider’s portfolio to learn new skills needed to advance their career, which adds further confidence.
Summary: Employee Confidence Improves User Adoption
Salesforce user adoption levels improve when companies instill confidence in their employees’ ability to learn and adopt the platform. Quality, instructor-led Salesforce training and training reinforcement programs provide end-users the knowledge and confidence they need to pass certification exams and adopt the system. As a result, user adoption levels improve, which in turn improves company objectives.
So, What’s Next?
Want professional training services for your end users and managers? Stony Point offers world-class instructor-led Salesforce training. With classes for beginners all the way to experts, we can help you train your employees to be more efficient and productive. Stony Point Salesforce training classes provide employees instructor-led training and embed Salesforce study guides and Salesforce certification exam preparation materials. Employees emerge knowledgeable of Salesforce and prepared to pass certification exams.
Stony Point Class Pass provides customers with an annual pass that allows registered students to take any class within the Stony Point catalog in a year. Students can take as many classes as they need for little more than the cost of an individual class.