All too often, when doing a CRM implementation, my customers will request dozens and dozens of email notifications from the system, for every event from a new lead being assigned to a scheduled activity being due, to a note being updated on an account.  I once had a sales manager request an email notification every time any of his sales reps updated one of their leads with a note, scheduled activity, or any other action.  This was for a company with about 85 sales reps, so you can imagine how quickly his inbox became bombarded with notifications.  A week after the system went into production, the sales manager requested that the notifications be turned off.

I typically counsel against the use of excessive email notifications.  While they seem attractive, there are two problems with them.

1. Excessive email notifications defeat the purpose of using a CRM system. A properly-configured CRM system can provide useful tools to allow managers and employees to see the data they need, when they need to see it.  Excessive email notifications encourage people to live outside of the CRM system and only log in when absolutely necessary.
2. Excessive notifications about normal cases obscure the special cases. Email notifications are very useful to highlight special cases that need immediate attention (an emergency ticket being escalated, a new sale for a sales rep, a notice that an approval is needed, etc.) that notify a specific person that immediate action is required on their part.  Human nature being what it is, once a person feels that the bulk of the notifications are fairly meaningless and require no action, that person will begin to ignore the notifications.  Rather, if the notifications are sparse and always require action, a person is more likely to take note and act on incoming notifications.

The key to implementing notifications successfully is to determine the cases where immediate attention is required, and then define the minimum people who need to be notified.  When designing notifications, always ask:

1. Is the frequency of the notification going to be fairly low?
2. Does the notification highlight a “special case” that requires action on the part of the recipient?
3. Can the notification be better accomplished any other way, such as a calendar entry, a queue on the user’s dashboard, or an alert when the user logs into the system?

Always use notifications sparingly.  They can be a very valuable tool to ensure that required actions are executed in a timely manner, and special circumstances are made highly visible.  By avoiding the notification trap, the notifications that are implemented will prove to be more valuable and more useful to the company’s CRM process.

Related posts:

1. Don’t Fall Into The “They Do It The Same Way” Trap