Importance of Training, from CRM implementation perspective

[I found this article on a website. I have made necessary modifications to keep privacy about the person who posted it. Although, the article does not match with theme of my blog, but still posting since i liked it and wanted to share with everyone...]

I am working on Resource Management System for my clients for some time and I would like to share a few, very key thing about training.

The major reason why people resist using the products is poor training. There are a couple of key points that must always be handled.

First: Management must be trained or have access to people who understand how to customize and maintain the product. It is only shear luck that the setup you chose to start is the right one and it will need to be changed -- and you will need to move quickly as often those changes will be directly related to productivity.

Second: The first thing representatives need to be trained on is the purpose and use of each of the different fields. If the CRM has been setup properly, each field has a very specific use, specific data to be collected, and specific ways in which that data may be used or manipulated in the course of normal use. If it is entered incorrectly some functionality may not operate properly. Additionally, if the team doesn't understand the fields, they will end up not filling them out, putting in the wrong data, or even entering junk. In all three cases the data begins to lose value.

Third: Users must be trained in the use of the product. The must know how to do all of the functions that they will be required and need to do in their normal activities - not knowing means not doing or not using and once again the data and productivity suffer. The training should include a test that establishes that the representative can do all that is required in a reasonable time and without mistakes.

Fourth: The representatives need to be trained in the proper work flow usage of the product. In other words, there should have been, by design, a work flow that reps would use to accomplish their daily tasks and make their calls. You must train the reps in the work flow process so they can be efficient, effective, and productive in their effort, especially important for web based products as they require considerably more navigation.
A good CRM person should have tested and addressed the proper and most efficient flow.

Training must be hands on -- not pure lecture or from a book. If you are doing a training manual for a CRM it should be driven by tutorials that walk the user through the process -- then ask trainee to take new data and repeat the process on their own. All of this should be retested later to make sure the learning was not simply short term memorization.

If the training can be integrate with actual working activity even better - in other word a knowledgeable person watches or observes the trainee in the live environment to make sure both usage and work flow have been mastered. It is probably difficult to incorporate some of these ideas into a training manual -- what cannot be incorporated should be detailed so the user can duplicate it external to the manual.