Dynamics 365 User Adoption Tips: It’s All About the Data Quality

It’s no secret that your end users will adopt a CRM system faster when the data helps them to do their job. Likewise, a surefire way to hurt user adoption is to give them poor data. It’s all about the data quality.

Let’s look at an example to illustrate the difference between each approach: an organization who ensures data integrity and an organization who does not spend time on data quality.

Scenario #1: Data is King.

Jane, a salesperson, is on the road about to call on an account. While she’s there, she accesses CRM on her mobile device to view any prospects and leads that are in the same area. She finds three prospects and two cold leads and decides to visit each while she’s in the area. CRM tells her the name of the contact person at each location, so she is ready to make the most out of her time in the area.

Scenario #2: We’ll figure out data quality in “Phase Two.”

Bob, a salesperson, is on the road about to call on an account. He accesses CRM on his mobile device and looks up the Account name to remember who he should call on. When he searches the Account, three accounts of the same name appear. One is an Account generated from ERP. A second is an Account that was entered directly into CRM by a Customer Service rep. A third Account is the same location, but is spelled differently. He spends time searching through each Account to view Contacts listed. Bob then searches for prospects and leads in the same area. CRM gives him duplicate entries for each. He is frustrated and decides it’s simpler to track his own leads in an Excel spreadsheet.

These aren’t imagined scenarios – they are real life scenarios from organizations who have adopted CRM and have placed different emphasis on the importance of data quality.

What can you do to help improve data quality?

From a configuration standpoint, there are several things you can to do help improve data quality.

1. Field Validation Rules

I am a big fan of utilizing out of the box functionality within your CRM system. One simple way to help improve data quality is to build your fields properly. If you have a field that will display numbers only and not letters, specify that when you build the field. Use Option Sets versus free text fields whenever possible. Add Two Option fields for Yes/No or checkbox fields. Leverage these simple field types when customizing the system and setting up new fields and your users will enter the right data in the right place.

2. Tooltips

Enter tooltips for each field to let your end users know what the field should be used for. When your end user hovers over a field on a CRM field, whatever you have entered as a tooltip will appear.

How a tooltip appears to an end user.

To configure a tooltip on a specific field, open a field within a solution (or in Customize the System). Click on the Primary Field tab. The text you enter in the Description field will appear when a user hovers over the field name on a form.

Configuring a tooltip on a field within a solution.

3. Set up Duplicate Detection Rules

You can configure Duplicate Detection Rules in your Dynamics 365 system to help maintain data quality. To find Duplicate Detection Rules, navigate to Settings, then Data Management. From here, you can create, modify and publish duplicate detection rules.

Need help figuring out how to get help with data quality in your system? We are User Adoption experts at Beringer Technology Group. Let us help you make sure you don’t miss the mark when it comes to User Adoption.

This blog is part of a series that will focus on a deep dive in User Adoption. User Adoption is so very important in a CRM implementation and often overlooked. So, what can you do to help encourage adoption for a system? Over the next several months, we will look at ten ways to help with User Adoption at your organization.

View these other blog posts in the User Adoption series:

• End Users are the Most Important (But Management is important too!)
• User Adoption and the K.I.S.S. Principle

If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact us at 800.796.4854. We can help you with all of your Dynamics 365 needs. Beringer Technology Group is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and has proven excellence in Managed IT Services.

Beringer Technology Group, a leading Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution. We also provide expert Managed IT Services, Backup and Disaster Recovery, Cloud Based Computing and Unified Communication Systems.