How Often Should I Conduct A Comprehensive CRM Audit?

Aug 14, 2022

When you implement a CRM platform within your organization, it is important to ensure its healthy functioning. If there are issues in the way your CRM solution works, it would reflect on your business processes and the objectives you want to achieve. 

This is why a comprehensive CRM audit is important. A good CRM audit helps you check the health of your software, identify issues with the same, and find ways to resolve them in the best ways possible. It allows you to maintain your CRM platform's smooth and effective functioning to achieve the goals you had set out to achieve before implementation.

A comprehensive CRM audit involves the assessment of a range of different aspects of your CRM platform, right from the quality of data to the quality of processes carried out by the software. An in-depth audit provides you with results that show a complete picture of how well or poorly your CRM is performing. This allows you to make important decisions regarding the changes to be made to your CRM solution. 

How Often Should You Perform A Comprehensive CRM Audit?

CRM audit should never be performed on a one-and-done basis. It is an ongoing process that needs to be performed regularly. Depending on your needs and preferences, you can conduct CRM audits on a daily/real-time, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. However, the most ideal way to conduct a comprehensive CRM audit is to perform it at least once every year. 

If you are inclined to perform daily, weekly, or monthly CRM audits, these assessments need not be too in-depth and extensive as they would require you to put in a lot of time and effort regularly. However, you can always set aside some time every year to have the health of your CRM platform examined. This helps you understand how the software has been performing all year and identify issues that need to be resolved to restore its healthy functioning.

You can compare an annual comprehensive CRM audit to a thorough medical checkup. Whether you are feeling unhealthy or not, getting an extensive medical checkup done provides you with the assurance that you are healthy and see if there are issues you were not able to diagnose by yourself. 

How To Perform An Annual Comprehensive CRM Audit?

There is no standard way to perform your annual comprehensive CRM audit. It depends on the aspects you want to focus on, the resources you want to use, and the expertise of the auditing professionals. 

However, here are some of the major steps an extensive CRM audit should involve to obtain the best results:

Defining The Purpose Of CRM Implementation

Before you start with your CRM audit, it is important to recall the objectives you had initially set out to achieve before implementing CRM within your organization. Clearly defining the purpose of your CRM implementation provides you with a frame of reference to keep in mind while assessing the platform.

In essence, a CRM audit is all about comparing the current functionality of your CRM platform with the objectives you had set out to achieve. If the software is helping you achieve your business goals, it can be termed as healthy. This is why it is important to clearly define your purpose for implementing CRM within your company. 

Obtaining Feedback From The Users

No one understands a CRM platform better than those who have been using it daily. Once you have defined the purpose of implementing your CRM platform, talk to the users and obtain extensive feedback from them. 

Ask for honest feedback regarding the functioning of your CRM platform and discuss the nitty-gritty details of the same. Let the users talk about the issues they face while working, the tools they think need to be improved, the features they think need to be added, and other relevant details about the platform they work on. 

This helps you identify the areas you need to focus on the most while making assessments and generating audit reports by the end of your CRM audit. Make sure you discuss data and CRM usage while talking to your team members as they form the crux of any comprehensive CRM audit. 

Here are some common questions that can be asked to CRM users while auditing the platform:
  • Does the platform allow you access all relevant information about the customers when you need it?
  • Which features do you think can improve the functioning of the platform?
  • Has the platform allowed you to qualify leads more effectively? Has the system caused errors in lead management?
  • What changes do you suggest for the current CRM solution in the organization?
  • How satisfied are you with how the CRM platform helps you with data management?
Creating An Audit Plan

Once you have enough information to chew on, you can go ahead with the creation of an extensive audit plan. This would provide you with the blueprint of your CRM audit and give you a sense of direction.

Your CRM audit plan should include the aspects you would focus on, the timeline of the audit, and all other details regarding the course of action you would take to complete the process. 

In most cases, a CRM audit focuses on the following four areas:

  • CRM Data – The audit should tell you how clean your CRM data is, how well it is utilized by the users and the value of the data stored within your system. 
  • CRM Usage – CRM audit also involves ensuring that your CRM platform is being utilized to its full potential and provides users with the features that are beneficial for them.
  • Analytics – Your CRM audit should look into how effectively the platform analyzes your records and provides valuable insights to the users. 
  • Data Compliance – This aspect of CRM audit deals with ensuring that you are in sync with all relevant data compliance regulations. 

  Cleaning Your CRM Data
This is one of the most important steps involved in conducting a CRM audit. Always make sure that the database you assess is clean and free from records that are not required. Get rid of duplicate records and data that is older and no longer useful for your organization. 
Assessing The Ability Of Your CRM To Drive Conversions
One of the foremost purposes of setting up a CRM platform is to drive more conversions effectively. Along with checking the quality and usage of your data, make sure you assess the ability of your CRM platform to drive conversions as desired. Have a look at the workflows, tools, and features that help users convert prospects into leads and leads into customers. Any discrepancies here need to be resolved immediately. 
Creating Audit Reports
Finally, create extensive audit reports based on your findings and assessments. Especially in the case of an annual comprehensive CRM audit, make sure that the audit reports are detailed and more specific. Along with the overview of your CRM’s health, also share the most suitable remedies to improve the functioning of your CRM platform. 
The Final Word
If you want to maintain the health of your CRM solution and let it help your team members work towards the core business goals, it is advisable to conduct a comprehensive CRM audit at least once every year. This would help you identify the issues that prevent optimum utilization of your CRM features and resolve them to make the most of the software.

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