We are living in a fascinating time. Companies like Amazon haveset the bar high for customer expectations, and advancements inartificial intelligence and big data are poised to help us deliverit like never before. Take CRM systems, for example. The latestadvancements leverage AI and big data to deliver relevantpersonalized experiences and a 360 view of your customer at thefingertips of your sales team and your customer service reps. It’severything you need to deliver the holy grail of the brandexperience — authenticity, trustworthiness, and the sense that youcare for each and every one of your customers as if they werefamily.

And yet despite the capabilities of the technology, there arestill a lot of bad experiences out there and more than a few CRMfails. Bad data, disconnected data, disengaged sales teams, and acustomer who is often left wondering if you even know them. How canthis happen? And more importantly, what can we do to preventit?

In my 20 years of experience leveraging technology to improvethe customer experience, I’ve seen quite a few missteps in theimplementation of CRM systems. Here are the five most common, alongwith advice for how to avoid them.

1. Relying on stereotypes that hide the human behind thedata

Millennials. They wear knit beanies, thick black-rimmed glassesand have at least one earbud in at all times. That’s thestereotype; and it’s one that many marketers focus on — which islikely the reason this demographic is skeptical and doesn’t trustcompanies. It’s hard to build relationships with customers whenthere is a slew of preconceived notions that are at best annoyingand at worst offensive. This is the first mistake many companiesmake when looking at CRM data and executing sales strategies basedon biased information.

Instead Ask: Do I understand my customers acrossall dimensions?

Building relationships with customers means looking beyond thestereotypes. Conclusions should be drawn from raw data based onpeople, their motivations, and moments of truth to build trust andauthentic relationships.

Don’t just create three or four customer personas. Buildprofiles that reach across dimensions, time and transactions. Mapcustomer interactions and attitudes to provide sales and marketingteams with thorough customer data that allows the team to buildquality messages and relationships.

2. Using data to document the past, rather than predict thefuture

Knowing where you’ve been is important, and it can tell you howyou’re doing with current customer relationships and sales.However, a CRM system that only documents past customer actionsisn’t showing you the most valuable piece of the data picture:what’s next. Companies need to get predictive with their customer data toencourage customer action and help them on their journey.

Instead Ask: What do my customers’ actions todaysay about what they will do tomorrow?

Don’t just set key performance indicators. Establish keypredictive indicators and build them into the CRM process toaggregate customer data and extrapolate their behavior into useful,applicable actions. This can lead to helping customers makedecisions and even improve brand loyalty.

3. Implementing a CRM that doesn’t fit with how employeesactually do their jobs

If you don’t take your employees into consideration, theninstead of empowering them, your CRM will become a hindrance. Theywon’t see the value and will resent attempts to get them to use it,which impacts their relationship with the company and affectsproductivity, engagement and ultimately customersatisfaction.

Instead Ask: What is a day in their life? How canwe better enable them?

Do you really understand your employees? Most often, CRMs areimplemented as tracking mechanisms to monitor internal employeeproductivity. Ideally, a CRM system should be a salesperson’s bestfriend, providing them with the information they need to engage andbuild relationships with their customers. Focus the CRM on thecustomer data that your employees really needand the sales numbers will follow.

4. Implementing a CRM that is siloed or singlepurpose

Many CRM systems collect quality raw data; however, that isn’twhat makes or breaks customer relations. What really hurtscompanies is a lack of integration for sharing customer informationbetween departments. Disconnected data is the often overlooked,silent killer of business that frustrates customers and lead themto seek out a competitor.

Instead Ask: What do we really know? Who knowsit?

From sales to customer support, streams of data are flowing intocompanies’ CRM systems constantly. But how much of that dataautomatically transfers with customers as they continue onto theirnext steps? There are many solutions for pairing data withcustomers on their journey, but the initial step is to understandwhere all the data is, as well as which pieces are relevant, and towhom, in order to build an fully-integrated system.

5. Not connecting the CRM to the big picturestrategy

This is less about what a company can do for customers, and moreabout what they can do for your business. If a CRM system is notconnected to the company’s big picture strategy, you may becollecting irrelevant information about customers and notmaximizing potential relationship building opportunities. Customerscan provide insights and feedback if you tailor your interactionsaround the big picture strategy for overall business improvements.Remember, you don’t get what you don’t ask for.

Instead Ask: Where are we going? Who do we aspireto be?

To achieve the big picture strategy, companies need to look atthe intersection of what your customers need and what you have tooffer for the relationship to be mutually beneficial. Ask questionssuch as, “Do our customers impact where we want the company to go?”or “Are we collecting the right data and tracking the best metricsfor future growth?” By asking these types of exploratory questions,companies can drill down and focus on success rather than getbogged down by irrelevant CRM data.

While there may be other CRM implementation fails, these five are theones that can have the biggest impact on your customer and employeeexperience. The good news is you can avoid them if you step backfrom the CRM technology discussion long enough to get a littleintrospective and just ask.