Definitive Guide to CRM Dashboard for Sales and Helpdesk

Jack Welch says, In God we trust, all others bring Data. CRM Dashboard is the place where all the data is visible. The idea is that if it’s measurable, it can be manageable. But if it’s measurable in Real-time, it’s manageable in a much better way.

CRM or Customer Relationship Management helps to manage Marketing, Sales, Customer Support and Obviously Team activities. Hence the CRM Dashboard should be able to update real-time statuses of all the activities managed by CRM.

What is a CRM Dashboard

By Definition CRM Dashboard means visual representation of CRM Data. But practically, it means a lot more. It is used to monitor Marketing, Sales and Helpdesk activities of an organisation.

A small video on What is CRM Dashboard?

Let us try to understand CRM Dashboard from a few different perspectives.

1. Web v/s Mobile Dashboards.
   1. More users are using Mobile CRM, as compared to the web (PC) version. Moreover, the entire philosophy of the Dashboard is different when it is used on Mobile.
   2. Mobile CRM Dashboards should be more real-time, precise, short, crisp and effective.
   3. Web Dashboards generally tend to be more detailed, analytical and comprehensive.
2. Admin v/s Executive Dashboards
   1. Dashboards allow Admin View as well as the Executive View. Admins need to have access to both since they have to manage their teams and themselves also.
3. Department wise Dashboards
   1. Different departments like Sales, marketing and Helpdesk needs to be able to see their own data. Eg:
      1. The marketing team would be interested to see Number of leads generated, Source wise leads, the conversion ratio of leads generated, etc.
      2. Sales Team wants to see enquiries followup, lead management, Sales Funnel data, enquiries status wise, users wise, product wise, territory wise etc.
      3. Helpdesk Team will require dashboard regarding tickets received, total tickets pending, tickets user wise, tickets product wise, overdue tickets etc.
4. Team Dashboard
   1. This is a must for every Admin and Team leader. They want to see view team’s dashboard and analyse their performance individually and teamwise.
5. CRM Admin Dashboard
   1. CRM Admins are more concerned with Data Quality Management and Process Audits.
   2. CRM Admins will generally have rights to see data from all the team members so that they can do a proper analysis.

The Philosophy behind the OPRA CRM Dashboard?

OPRA stands for Open, Periodic, Results and Accounts. CRM provides these dashboards on Mobile as well as a Web interface. Let’s understand it in detail to take maximum benefit.

A Small video of Philosophy behind the OPRA CRM Dashboard

1. Open
   1. Open Dashboard shows, everything that is open, pending or due. It’s designed to show you things that are important now, which needs your attention immediately.
2. Periodic
   1. The periodic dashboard shows data created during a specific period for all the modules. It can be today, yesterday, last 7 days, last 30 days, this week, last week, this month, last month, this quarter, last quarter, or custom period. It will show the executive (own) dashboard or team dashboard depending upon the organisation role of the user.
3. Results
   1. Results dashboard shows results achieved during a particular period, for every module. Results can mean tickets closed, Enquiries converted, Enquiries marked dead, Opportunities won, Opportunities closed, Tickets closed, Bugs closed, Calls/SMS/WhatsApp done, meetings done, or even tasks completed. It can be today, yesterday, last 7 days, last 30 days, this week, last week, this month, last month, this quarter, last quarter, or custom period. It will show the executive (own) dashboard or team dashboard depending upon the organisation role of the user, as described in Periodic dashboard above.
4. Accounts
   1. Accounts dashboard shows data which is related to accounts. This is possible with the help of Tally-CRM Integration. Accounts most important dashboard, since it becomes Receivables Management inside the CRM. Accounts dashboard also shows Projected Cash flow, based on receivable amounts.Accounts Receivables are shown user wise, date-wise, territory wise, etc.In a way, it brings your Tally on Mobile.

Some Fundamental Concepts related to CRM Dashboard

What to look in Dashboard?

Best way to look at CRM Dashboard is to look for Exceptions. Lapses in Sales and Helpdesk processes can be easily found from the CRM Dashboard.

Also, the CRM Dashboard helps to differentiate between who is pretending and who is performing.

CRM Dashboards v/s CRM Reports

Reports in CRM are generally designed for a detailed analytical purpose. Dashboard does provide analytics, but Their primary goal is to show Real-time status and updates.

Also, Reports need to be run where as Dashboards are like always visible, something similar to our Car Dashboard.

Should CRM have same Dashboard on Mobile and Web?

Even though the data for both the dashboard and overall structure is the same, but, the philosophy behind both is very different. When on Web (PC) we will look more for detailed pathological reporting. Whereas, while on Mobile, we want more Actionable Insights.

Should Dashboard have Numbers or Charts or both?

The best idea is to have both. But Numbers will make more meaning when seen in the right perspective. Fancy graphs and charts might look beautiful, but sometimes they don’t provide Actionable Insights.

Configuring and Customising CRM Dashboard as per Role

The dashboard is useful only if it shows relevant data according to the user’s role. This depends on the role of the user, Whether the user is executive or an admin. Whether the user is in Sales or Helpdesk team. Here are a few parameters which can be configured in the CRM Dashboard to make its optimum usage.

Video on Configuring and Customising CRM Dashboard as per Role.

1. Executive: User’s Own Dashboard (As an Executive) and Team Dashboard (As a Team Leader or Admin).
2. Team Leaders: For Admin and team leaders it should show information regarding their team members. CRM Dashboard allows admins to select the users who report to them.
3. Configure Modules: Select and configure which modules need to be shown in the dashboard. E.g.:
   1. The sales team needs to see modules like Enquiry (Leads), Deals (Opportunities), Persons (Contacts), Companies (Accounts), Quotations and Activities.
   2. The Helpdesk or service desk team needs to see modules like Tickets (incidents), Bugs, AMC, Persons (Contacts), Companies (Accounts) and activities.
4. Select Grouping: Select which fields or parameters of the Module need to be on the Dashboard. CRM Dashboard has a brilliant feature. It allows you to configure what is shown on the dashboard, which is an excellent feature because it will enable you to set the CRM Dashboard which suits your role and preferences.
   1. Every date field in CRM Modules is reportable.
   2. Every drop-down field is available on the CRM Dashboard.

Benefits of CRM Dashboard

Any CRM worth it’s salt will always have a detailed Dashboard Strategy and philosophy of its own. There are lots of tangible and intangible benefits of CRM Dashboard. Some of the important ones are listed below:

1. Get Real-time Data
2. Actionable Insights
3. Team analysis on the Go
4. Find issues which need urgent attention.
5. Individual and Teamwise analysis.

Importance of Dates in CRM Dashboard

Entire Marketing, Sales & helpdesk activities are based on timely responses. So its very important that we include the “date-perspective” in our CRM Dashboard. Following Dates are important in CRM Modules:

1. Enquiry / Lead
   1. Next Followup Date, is used to monitor the Sales follow-up.
2. Deals / Opportunities
   1. Next Followup Date shows Follow up, whereas, Expected Closing Date helps in Sales projection.
3. Tickets – Due Date
   1. Every ticket has a due date. Either that is the date promised to the client or automatically calculated based on the SLA structure.
   2. Missed Due dates in Ticket would mean escalations and breach of SLA.

Understanding Date & Colours in CRM Dashboard

The Colour combination used in the Dashboard helps to understand what is wrong and what is going to be wrong. Here are a few guidelines to understand that. Please note that all these are drill-down dashboards, which means when you click on an icon, it takes you one level deeper, revealing more facts.

1. Red (Overdue)
   1. All overdue Dates are shown in red. These items need your urgent attention.
2. Green (Today)
   1. If you see Green at the beginning of the day, it’s normal.
   2. But if the Same Green colour (due today) appears at the end of the day means that either your team has not done follow-ups or not updated CRM. Both scenarios are dangerous.
3. Yellow (Tomorrow)
   1. Helpful to plan next day’s work.
4. Grey (Upcoming)
   1. Anything beyond tomorrow is shown as Upcoming. This is useful to plan upcoming activities and visit Schedules.
5. Blue (Empty Dates)
   1. If we say that red is dangerous, then Blue is more dangerous. because in the case of Red, you at least know that they are overdue. But in the case of Blue, they are not even on the horizon.

CRM dashboard examples

CRM allows creating any kind of Dashboard, based on any module in CRM. Although important aspects of CRM Dashboard explained elsewhere in this article cover many examples. The most important criteria are listed below:

1. Marketing Dashboard.
2. Sales Dashboard
3. Helpdesk Dashboard
4. Team Dashboard
5. Exceptions Dashboard

How to view my team’s dashboards?

As a manager, you always need to Just click on 3 dots on the right top corner and select my Team. More commonly known as Sales Tracking Dashboard, these dashboards help you analyse your team’s activities and performance. Following points need to be considered while viewing this.

1. My Dashboard
   1. As the name suggests, this dashboard will show you your own records only. It can also be called an Executive Dashboard.
2. My Team Dashboard
   1. In CRM there is a concept of “Reporting to”, which is used to manage the hierarchy of the organisation. Every person is reporting to one person. So if there are users who report to you, then this option will show data of all the users.
   2. It needs to be noted here, that as a Management principal, every user should have only one boss.
3. Selected users Dashboard
   1. Admins and team leaders can select the users for which they want to see the Dashboard.

Sales Dashboard

Even though there might be a debate about whether Sales is an Art or Science, but Sales Management is definitely a science. It’s disciplined, has to do with numbers and timely actions. Sales Dashboard for CRM helps Sales Managers & Sales Leaders to accomplish their goal with complete control.

CRM offers Sales Dashboard for Sales Executives as well as Sales Leaders. Most important of the Sales Metrics which need to be measured in real time are shown on the CRM Sales Dashboard.

What is Sales Dashboard?

Sales Dashboard is a screen which shows all sales data like leads, opportunities, product-wise, user-wise, Stage-wise. It shows all ongoing records as well as period-wise records for further analysis and action.

Using CRM Dashboard for Sales Team Performance Tracking

Most of the Sales Strategies generally get wasted because the implementation of those Sales Strategies is not done properly. Further, Sales Managers also don’t have the right tools to analyse their Team’s Performance. Sales Dashboard provides the following details:

1. Enquiries / Deals user-wise, product-wise.
2. Calls, Meetings, Visits, done by Team members during a particular period.
3. Log (and attachments of MOM) of activities done by the members.
4. Geographical tracking of team members.

Sales Dashboard for Sales Leaders

As discussed above, the Sales Dashboard is used to monitor sales performance of Individual Sales Reps and the entire Sales Team. The sales Dashboard UI is specifically designed to enable Sales Reps and Sales leaders do stay updated regarding their tasks.

1. Sales Funnel & Sales Cycle
   1. Enquiries, Deals in hand, Stage-wise and user-wise
2. Sales Team Performance Dashboard
   1. Whether the team is following up properly or not?
3. Sales Activities.
   1. How many Calls, SMS, Meetings, Visits, Demos were done during the period.
4. Sales Opportunities
   1. Analyse Sales Opportunity based on Product, User, Geography or amount wise.

Sales Dashboard & Sales Process

CRM Dashboard is probably the best possible place to monitor whether Sales process is being followed or not. Since it shows Enquiries and Deals Stagewise and due date-wise.

Executive Sales Dashboard

Executive Dashboards are designed keeping in mind that the users should be able to refer to CRM for planning their daily activities. How many meetings, visits need to be made.

That is. the reason, we recommend starting the day with CRM Dashboard.

Helpdesk Dashboard

Helpdesk or Service Desk is used to manage Tickets and Customer Support. The response time and resolution time are the most important metrics to be measured to remain in the Game. Helpdesk Dashboard will help you to know:

1. The number of tickets created, due and overdue.
2. User-wise, product-wise and stage-wise tickets.
3. Customer side pending tickets.
4. Closed tickets for a particular period, with all possible classifications.
5. Escalated Tickets.

Best Practices for CRM Dashboard

Any dashboard software is as useful as the actions taken after getting information from it. Here are some of the best practices for CRM Dashboard. These are applicable to Marketing Sales as helpdesk.

1. Every Executive should configure Dashboard according to his or her KPI.
2. Admins and Team leaders for Sales and Helpdesk team should use KPI of their team members who are managed by them, to configure their Dashboard.
3. It should be default KRA and duty of everybody to check out their Dashboards.
4. Make it a daily routine to check out Dashboard twice a day.
   1. First, before starting the day.
   2. Second, 2 hours before ending the day.
5. Viewing Dashboard regularly is always a better idea than getting email/SMS alerts. It helps you to stay ahead of things and plan them properly.
6. The colours of the dashboard might have a different meaning at different times of the day. E.g.: if there is a Green colour which shows activities due today is Ok, but the same Green colours in the evenings are not OK. Because it means that those activities are now going to become over-due.

We would love to hear comments and suggestions on CRM dashboard in the Comments section below. Please do rate the article and share your comments.