A question which taxes many organisations that begin the process of implementing a CRM system is ‘how do we overcome the resistance amongst staff to share their contacts?’
Firstly, consider if you really do need academics to enter their contacts. Clearly defined scope and aims will identify exactly which contacts should be entered onto the system. Databases which involve many people entering data are more likely to have insurmountable issues around cleanliness of the data so it is wise to restrict entry to a smaller number of trained staff. See scope and aims section.
Alternatively, you might want to use academics’ contacts to create leads for business engagement products and services.
If this is the case, then the strategy for CRM in the institution should be reinforced. For example, the strategy may emphasise the corporate nature of the relationship with the contact, the need to make available the whole of the institution’s ‘offer’ to the contact and the wish to let the contact themselves make the decision of how much and who within the institution they want to engage with.
Furthermore, there are measures that can be taken to assure the ‘owners’ of contacts that their contact’s data will be treated with respect:
- Establish a code of conduct
- Only give a licence to staff after they have had training which includes the code of conduct
- Do not allow exporting of data to excel
- Put an infrastructure in place for using the data for e-marketing which, with representation from all interested parties, ensures that campaigns are targeted, timely and of a high quality
- Ensure that contacts have the opportunity to opt out of receiving communication
- Implement quality procedures which are shared across the institution so the contact owner can manage their contact’s expectations, if appropriate
Click here for a sample Code of Conduct
Access and security policies – systems can enable the design of sophisticated ‘view’ and ‘write’ protocols. However best practice would advise to keep this simple. It is important that access requirements are written into the system specification as they may affect the underlying architecture of the solution.
Click here for a sample access and security policy
Finally the ‘owners’ of contacts should be made aware that contact details are available from other sources and that colleagues may contact them if they wish. Having contacts on a system will enable communication to occur internally prior to this in the majority of cases.