What Is CRM Documentation and How Can Businesses Use It?

When introducing your business to a new software, it is important to be sure that they have both the time and resources to become acclimated to the new system. There are many ways to achieve that. Whether that is through extensive training done with your vendor or additional online research, if your employees have no clue how to use software that will become a daily part of their work lives, money could be wasted and very costly mistakes now have the potential to take place.

Businesses should want to make sure that all avenues are exhausted when educating employees on how to use newly implemented software, so that your entire business is able to benefit from what the software does. In today’s blog post, we will discuss CRM documentation – what is it, how to create it and what the benefits are.

Before explaining the reasons why documentation is important and incredibly helpful to a staff, let us give a clear explanation of what CRM documentation is and why it is used.

CRM Documentation – What Is It?

Documentation is a written text that accompanies software and/or products. The documentation acts as a guide, explaining to users how a product works and how to use it. CRM documentation is the exact same thing, but specifically for customer relationship management software.

Since CRM software is dense in detail and ability, documentation is a vital part of using your software. It gives your employees a reference to refer to whenever they need help better understanding how to use the CRM system. Typically IT departments create formal documents, but documentation tends to be shorter reference guides, helping to reduce friction while making sure your employees are able to do their jobs correctly, with knowledge and ease.

How to Make CRM Documentation – A Cheat Sheet

When creating documentation there are general practices that you should follow. Let’s cover them in an effort to make your documentation as clear and concise as possible.

1. Write Just Enough

When writing documentation, you should strike a balance between notes that are too brief and an extravagant amount of information. Remember documentation shouldn’t be too lengthy, providing an abundance of information over multiple pages may become too much. For documentation, only the most relevant and important pieces of information should be written.

2. It’s a Collaboration

Getting opinions and feedback during the writing process can help you decide what information you need in your documentation, information that should be elaborated on or cut all together. Keeping in mind that writing documentation is a collaborative effort will make it an effective reference point because you’ll have multiple opinions/people involved.

3. Tech Writers Can Be Helpful

Hiring, or utilizing, a tech writer can make the process of writing documentation much easier, since it’s their specific line of work. The tech writer gathers information from software developers, knows the exact language to use when writing this guide and can also write in a way that easily conveys their message. Adding a tech writer to your team is not only useful for this reason, but they can also take part in additional tech related writing projects, which can be extremely useful for your business.

4. Remember That Writing Documentation Is Ongoing

A key rule is making sure that your documentation is up to date. Any information that isn’t current not only loses its value, but it also creates the opportunity for issues to arise on the job. Employees who refer to the guide may be led astray believing that the information inside of it is correct, when it is in fact outdated. Making sure that all documentation is updated when your software is, helps to eliminate this issue.

The Benefits of CRM Documentation

Having a guide at your fingertips to help explain how a system works, is one of the most obvious benefits of CRM documentation. It ensures that employees have a way of understanding the system and answering any questions they may have with CRM software instantly.

Aside from making information easier to understand and software easier to use, there are other benefits of documentation. Those benefits include:

1. Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting is a common occurrence in the tech field and with the help of good documentation, an employee not familiar with troubleshooting may be able to handle it on their own.

2. Installation

The installation process is also very common, but needs to be done correctly in order for business software to work efficiently. Being able to refer to a guide that provides a step by step analysis creates a smooth installation process.

When introducing software to your business, consider writing documentation in order to make the introduction a smooth and understandable one.

Want to find out how our customer relationship management software, Aptean CRM, can help your business? Contact us today to chat with one of our experts or schedule a demo.