We're just about to cross the finish line with launching your new CRM, fantastic!
Now, what?
Any successful implementation relies on group participation, clear communication and structured training and support. With that, let's have a look at some recommendations to get everyone on board, for a smooth and successful transition 🙌
Setting the stage with a kick-off meeting!
A kick-off meeting is an excellent way to mark the beginning of your team's relationship with Beacon. This meeting allows everyone to get involved, ask questions, and understand the purpose and benefits of the system. They might not have been as involved as your team leads during your implementation process, so it's a great place to allow a conversation, and consolidate why you went ahead with Beacon to begin with!
We've had certain charities run "Beacon bingo" or even "Hide and Seak" sessions with their new CRM, making their team's first interactions with the system a fun and playful experience.
If you have had a kick off session that you think has gone particularly well, do let us know and we can add this on here as inspiration for others as well!
Process Monitoring
As the famous saying goes, practice makes perfect, and there will definitely need to be some practice with Beacon as a CRM before everyone has fully grasped it.
Other than making sure your staff have signed up to and completed our Lighthouse Beacon training, you'll need to have process monitoring in place in order to track how everything is going - and whether you might need to provide some additional support as your team gain familiarity.
Here, we would recommend the use of internal data cleansing dashboards, which will allow to gain visibility, not only of your team's responsibilities, but also your own provided you set up a personal dashboard!
As your team becomes more confident, you can gradually reduce the level of hands-on monitoring, where having these dashboards set up from the beginning can help you check back in further down the line as well. It's a win - win! 🎉
Internal Support - Train-the-Trainer Approach
Naming at least one Beacon Champion within your organisation is an incredibly effective way to ensure ongoing support and guidance.
Where our support team will be able to provide guidance on how Beacon works as a platform, your Beacon Champion will serve as the internal point of contact for Beacon-related questions and issues, where having your internal process and language in mind, they'll be an invaluable asset!
Beacon Champions will be your team members that:
Act as team ambassadors to assist any colleagues who need additional support.
Ensure all admins on your account are familiar with how to raise issues internally
You might want to monitor what is raised to Beacon support, where having a filter before this gets raised is a fantastic way to see what your staff might be struggling with internally
Formalise how support requests are handled, with users directed to Champions for initial assistance before escalating to Beacon support
Wanting to find out more? You'll find our guide article on Beacon Champions here
Removing Access to Old Systems
And, of course! Removing access to the old familiar. Scary, but effective!
One of the most effective ways to encourage Beacon adoption is to remove access to your previous platform. A clear cut-off date ensures users fully transition to Beacon without falling back on prior methods. Locking or disabling old systems can help you enforce this shift - and get the Beacon show on the road 🚌
Notable suggestions to further support your team
While these might be points you've already covered, these tips are absolutely worth mentioning where if you have any suggestions of what else to add, please do let us know!
Making use of saved Beacon views!
Setting up customised views for your team members is a fantastic time saver, to allow your team to quickly reference lists that might need some slightly more complex filters - that you don't want to input every time (naturally!)
While you can standardise views for your team to see, and make sure they're seeing what they need, views are also a great way to encourage the use of Beacon by asking your team to set up their own views. What information do they need handy? Let them try and set it up!
Internal process documentation
As everything is fresh in your mind, this is a great time to note your process within Beacon, not only for your existing team members who can easily reference the documentation, but also for onboarding new hires down the line!
Staff change will inevitably happen so future proofing this as you get set up is fundamental.
Keeping your team engaged
Well then! We've got everyone happy, but how do we keep this up? The answer would be to keep the discussion flowing!
Your Beacon journey starts with the end of your implementation, where making sure to save time for Beacon discussion and review is truly priceless. Our biggest success stories have had monthly Beacon meetings internally to see how the team is getting along, but also to share tidbits and tricks that people might have discovered through their own time with the platform.
You could spend the meeting discussing which dashboard cards you think are most useful to you, or even spend the meeting using filters to try and find a secret hidden record for your team to try and catch 👻 Why not!