With just a couple of weeks left until Halloween, and every sweet tooth holder and horror film enthusiast’s favorite holiday coming up, we’re going to take a look at 4 frightening CRM training experiences. For the purpose of this article, I’ll use a fictional company called Spoox to illustrate common 4 missteps in CRM employee training.

1. Fearsome Faux-pas! Forgetting To Conduct A Training Needs Analysis

Let’s say you spent a bit too much time planning Spoox’s company Halloween party and forgot to analyze what you wanted to get out of your CRM training process. In a recent interview, Dr. Eduardo Salas, a professor of organizational psychology, said that the biggest mistake that a company can make is not analyzing their training needs before starting the process. It’s like starting the trick or treating process without analyzing your candy needs. To be successful, Spoox should always think about what their desired outcome is before beginning CRM training.

2. Scary Slip-up! Not Allowing Employee to Practice What They Learned

Studies show that 90% of new skills are lost within the first year of employment if the new employee isn’t being allowed to practice what they learn, making it a deadly important thing to consider. Think about losing 90% of your Halloween candy! Sounds awful, right? Spoox must give employees meaningful assignments and assessments so that they are able to practice what they learned in the initial training period and apply those skills long after the training is over. Otherwise, the training process, which will have gone in one ear and out the other, will have been a waste of time and resources both for the employee and for Spoox.

3. Bone Chilling Blunder! Not Providing Employees with Feedback

Remember that cat loving old lady in your neighborhood that used to hand out apples for Halloween, year after year? I’m sure you do, every neighborhood had one. She continued to provide those apples because none of the neighborhood kids gave her feedback about how unsuitable the apples were. The same concept applies in the business world. After the employee is finished with CRM training, no matter what they learn, feedback must be given to them by companies like Spoox so they know how they’re doing. Otherwise, they won’t know if they’re applying the skills they learned in training correctly.

4. Frightening Fault! Not Leveraging Technological Aids

Here is where an online platform like WalkMe might be of use. Using WalkMe’s platform, your employees are trained on the CRM platform rather than a brick and mortar training session. In this age, where everything can be done online, it’s spine-chilling that a company like Spoox wouldn’t consider using a dynamic and innovative technological aid like WalkMe to help make the training process more efficient and streamlined. There’s nothing petrifying at all about using online guidance for your next training session.

This list should help to identify some common pitfalls of any company’s CRM training process and now that you’re aware of them, they should be easier to avoid. We hope you found it useful and hope you have happy training, and a Happy Halloween!