In her previous post, Cajsa Vestergårdh mentioned the challenges that arise when email campaigns and CRM operate in different systems. Excel spreadsheets being moved around, data stored in two places, and a lot of manual work. Here, she describes what a typical project usually looks like when they start working with Customer Insights – Journeys alongside customers who use Dynamics 365.
When you’re “ready” to take the next step
It often starts with a customer recognizing exactly that: Dynamics 365 on one side, a mailing tool on the other, and a feeling that there must be a smarter way to do things. They want to move away from ad hoc mailings and Excel lists, gain a more comprehensive view of the customer, and make better use of data from Dynamics in their mailings.
Of course, every project is different. The extent to which you want to automate, the nature of the data, and how CRM is currently used vary from organization to organization. However, there is still a recurring approach that, in our experience, tends to work well.
This is what the process usually looks like—in four steps
Step 1: Requirements and Current Status
In some projects, there’s already a clear set of requirements when we get involved. The client knows which mailings or trips they want to replace, or has already identified what they want to do but can’t with their current tools. In other cases, we formulate the requirements together. In those situations, we often hold one or two workshops to understand how they work today, where the Excel spreadsheets and manual steps come into play, and where there are gaps or opportunities for automation.
This is where our guidance comes in early on—we can draw on experience from other projects and offer advice on where it makes sense to start and what can wait until later. Or opportunities they haven’t thought of themselves yet.
Step 2: Introduction to Customer Insights – Journeys
To help customers become self-sufficient, we want to get them started with the tool early on. That’s why we almost always begin with basic training. This training provides an overview of how segments, triggers, campaigns, and customer journeys are interconnected, and how to use the data they already have in Dynamics.
We often find that the training sparks new ideas, and then we decide what’s reasonable to tackle right now and what’s better suited for a “version 2.”
Step 3: Building Together
Once the foundation is in place, we move on to working sessions where we build together. We alternate between demonstrating and letting the client take over. Sometimes I share my screen and build, and sometimes the client shares their screen and clicks while I guide them. That way, they learn by both watching and doing, with our support.
The idea is that people learn more by doing things themselves with support than by simply having something handed to them without actively participating. Toward the end of the project, the client often takes the lead, and we’re there to serve as a sounding board for questions and decisions.
Step 4: Test and fine-tune
We conduct ongoing testing in controlled environments, both for individual components and entire workflows. Together, we determine when something is ready for its first version, and we all feel confident about everything from content selection to design and workflow.
The goal is for the customer to feel confident about both how the workflows function and how they can adjust them as needed or further develop them with new ideas once the project is completed.
When It Feels Overwhelming—Our Role as Support and Advisors
It’s not unusual to feel overwhelmed at first. Everyone learns at a different pace, and everyone has different backgrounds and experiences with similar systems—and I usually make that clear. Our role is to take things one step at a time and provide support by explaining why we do things the way we do and why the system behaves the way it does. The goal is always for the customer to become self-sufficient, confident, and feel a sense of ownership over their journeys. Our ambition is not to create a dependency on us, but rather to build a long-term partnership.
What happens once the first trip is underway?
When the first real customer journey gets underway, several things tend to happen at once. You can see in real time how the workflow functions. You can see what data is actually being used and where there’s room for improvement. And pretty soon, new ideas start popping up for the next journey or the next automation.
Above all, the difference from the current situation described in Part 1 becomes clear. Instead of manual mailings using a separate tool, the organization begins to benefit from more cohesive, automated communication based on the data available in Dynamics.
