The Art of CRM Design: Creating User-Centric Systems that Deliver Results

When designing a CRM system, try to avoid these common mistakes:

1. Overloading with Unnecessary Features

You should clearly understand what features you need, because one of the most frequent mistakes is overloading the system with unnecessary features. At first, it might seem a good idea to include a lot of functions, but too many will overwhelm employees and lead to confusion. It's important to have everything necessary for daily work without overloading the interface. Unused features will simply clutter the screen and confuse users.

2. Inadequate Data Management

Data management is a key to productive business. CRM systems contain contacts, names, calls, and email history. All personal data is important for clients, so it's vital to safeguard it with the highest level of security. Poor data quality-including inaccurate, outdated, or duplicate information-can undermine CRM's effectiveness. Data can be kept accurate and clean through regular audits, and mandatory fields can help manage data from the first point of entry.

3. Lack of Customization

Employees will soon notice how customization increases productivity. When routine tasks are automated, workers will have time for the more interesting, intellectual work that adds value to a company's bottom line. One of the beauties of a strong CRM system is that fewer people can do the same amount of work. However, this effect is only achieved if the system is adequately customized to all business processes. Customizing dashboards, reports, and processes conforms the CRM with your operational needs and maximizes its utility.

4. Ignoring User Training

It's a mistake to assume that users will automatically understand how to use a new CRM system. A company will only realize the best benefits from CRM if users know how to use all its functions. Learning new processes takes time, and a CRM development team can help everyone learn the system faster. Corresponding documentation should be prepared to save this knowledge and teach future employees.

5. Poor Integration with Existing Systems

A CRM should be well integrated with current business processes; it shouldn't operate in isolation. The new CRM system should logically continue the existing workflow, which is why all necessary data-including contacts, documents, and other files-should be carefully transferred to the new storage. This step is vital, as the system is connected with high-security control and big data files.

Roofing subcontracting company

Our client was a roofing company from South Carolina. The family created their own business that specialized in providing asphalt, EPDM, and TPO roofing installation services. They faced difficulties with management because they were using several programs for internal processes: CRMs, Excel spreadsheets, and Word documents.

Our aim was to simplify the provision of services and statistics. We wanted to provide the client with a solution in which one CRM system filled all needs and sped up the work process. Another important goal was to save the client's data and catalog it for easy access.

As a result, we created a single CRM system using the previous one as a base while significantly updating its design. The most obvious change was abandoning the dark green theme in favor of a light interface with contrasting icons and text that was easier to read. We also added visual elements to manage the catalog intuitively; for example, we marked different types of roofing projects with distinct colors. In this way, remembering the project order was possible even without reading the details.

Medical consulting company

A small medical consulting firm approached us with the goal of speeding up their work. With only 15 employees, this firm could hardly keep up with the orders. Their current cloud service experienced various technical issues and users found its design confusing. They wanted to create their own CRM system to better meet their goals and fit their business processes. Also, because this firm was coming off a negative experience with the previous developer, we only had one chance to impress them.

To deliver a new CRM system with updated functionality, we began by thinking through the logic of the program and how to improve navigation for the client. Working together, we developed a new, user-friendly design with quick-access buttons to connect different parts of the CRM system. These buttons helped users send emails and messages to the clients and present the most important data on screen. We also added filters and rewrote the search system so users could easily and quickly find important data. Our design enabled staff to form groups of clients by a particular characteristic and add status markers for customers so sales personnel could see an overview of where customers stood in their journey toward completing a sale. In short, the system now works smoothly and improves the order processing for this small company.

Electrical infrastructure service

Our client was a company that manages electrical infrastructure in buildings. They wanted a product not only for themselves but a complex system that would take into account all possible building infrastructure projects. In other words, the CRM system was only a part of the project; the software needed to help connect applicants and technicians who troubleshoot issues.

We created a single platform, including an application with tabs for easy navigation. The software visualizes all the processes, floors, infrastructure, and key elements and helps users to understand the connections between different parts of the electrical staff. Visualization greatly speeds up the troubleshooting process. The client's history helps employees dive into the problem faster and find new solutions. The user-friendly and personalized design is not only intuitively understandable, but it also includes customer-specific information that enables users to explore more data and optimize quality services.

Consulting company

A law and tax consulting firm contacted us to create a platform that would unite several functions: a CRM system and a marketplace for their services. The goal was to monetize their knowledge and experience and find a new way of earning income. To help them do this, we created a new product and managed it from idea to realization.

We proposed a new structure for the e-commerce platform that displays the company's courses and services. A catalog makes searching for products more intuitive for potential customers, converting them from browsers into buyers. We also added high-quality images to make an abstract consultation clearer for the end user. Finally, we added videos for additional visualization. As a result, the company experienced a significant boost in sales after just the second month of using our platform.