CRM Best Practice: Why There Is No Single Right Way6 min read
When people talk about “best practice” in CRM, they usually expect a clear set of rules. They want to know what to do, what not to do, and how to avoid getting it wrong. CRM systems are complex, expensive, and highly visible when they fail.
The uncomfortable truth is that CRM best practice isn’t a checklist. It isn’t a fixed recipe you can follow step by step and guarantee success. In fact, one of the biggest mistakes organisations make is assuming that best practice is something static that can be written once and applied forever.
CRM best practice is contextual. It depends on your people, your processes, your goals, and how willing you are to adapt as both your business and the technology evolve.
Best Practice is not a Rulebook
Microsoft Dynamics 365, like most modern CRM platforms, changes constantly. Features are introduced, enhanced, and sometimes depreciated deprecated. Guidance that made perfect sense a year ago may no longer apply today.
Microsoft provides a strong starting point in the form of out-of-the-box functionality and recommended patterns. These are valuable because they are designed to be stable, upgrade-safe, and widely supported. Ignoring them altogether is rarely wise.
However, following them without question can be just as risky. Best practice does not mean doing something simply because a vendor once recommended it. It means understanding why an approach exists and deciding whether it still makes sense for your organisation at this moment in time.
The most successful CRM teams treat vendor guidance as informed advice, not absolute law.
Keeping it Simple
One principle that consistently stands the test of time is simplicity. CRM systems that rely heavily on configuration tend to age far better than those built on extensive custom code.
Configuration is easier to maintain, easier to explain, and easier to change. It allows systems to evolve without constant rework. Customisation, particularly when it involves complex logic, should be used carefully and intentionally. It can add value, but it also adds responsibility.
The goal of best practice is not to eliminate code entirely. It is to ensure that anything built into the system earns its place and does not become a future burden.
Ask Before You Build
A common challenge in CRM delivery is that people are often taught how to implement changes without being taught how to evaluate them.
A solution might work perfectly and still be the wrong choice in the long term. It might be difficult to support, hard to upgrade, or confusing for users who weren’t involved in building it. These problems rarely appear immediately, which is why they are so easy to miss.
Strong CRM teams build a culture of reflection. They ask whether a solution is appropriate, not just whether it is possible. They seek second opinions, share approaches, and challenge each other constructively. Over time, this collective thinking becomes far more valuable than any written standard.
Best Practice Starts With Mindset
Many organisations assume CRM success is a technical problem. In reality, it is usually a behavioural one.
CRM best practice lives in attitudes: being curious rather than defensive, collaborative rather than siloed, and transparent rather than protective. People need to feel safe asking questions, admitting uncertainty, and suggesting alternative approaches.
When that mindset exists, systems improve naturally. When it doesn’t, even the best-designed CRM can struggle to gain adoption.
Start With Process
If there is one area where CRM best practice truly begins, it is in understanding how work actually happens.
When asked to describe their processes, people tend to skip steps without realising it. Tasks become automatic over time, and important details disappear from explanations. A process that starts with “we fill out a form” often begins much earlier, with phone calls, emails, handwritten notes, or informal conversations.
CRM design fails when it is based on assumptions instead of reality. Successful implementations take the time to uncover the full picture, even at a high level. They identify where work starts, how information flows, and where friction occurs.
This understanding allows CRM to support people rather than forcing them to adapt to the system.
Turning Daily Frustration into Opportunity
Every organisation has workarounds. People find ways to get their jobs done despite clunky tools, duplicated effort, or manual steps. These workarounds are often accepted as “just the way things are,” even when they add significant time and frustration.
CRM best practice involves surfacing these pain points and treating them as opportunities for improvement. By understanding what slows people down and why, CRM can be used to remove unnecessary effort rather than simply digitising it.
At the same time, good CRM design looks beyond today. It considers where the business wants to be in the future and how systems can grow to support that journey without needing to be rebuilt from scratch.
One Source of Truth
One of the most powerful roles CRM can play is acting as a single, shared source of truth. When information is spread across inboxes, personal drives, paper notes, and disconnected systems, collaboration becomes difficult and risk increases.
Centralising information in CRM allows teams to see the same data, track the same history, and work from the same understanding. It removes dependency on individuals and ensures that work can continue even when someone is unavailable.
This shift often changes how people work. Tasks become visible, ownership becomes clearer, and accountability improves. These are cultural changes as much as technical ones.
Accepting That Best Practice Will Change
Two organisations can use the same CRM platform in completely different ways and both be successful. What matters is not conformity, but alignment with how the business operates.
CRM best practice is not about perfection on day one. It is about building a solid foundation, delivering value early, and allowing the system to evolve. Phased delivery, incremental improvement, and continuous learning are all signs of a healthy CRM approach.
Rigid systems break under change. Flexible systems grow with it.
Final Thoughts
If there is a single lesson to take from this chapter, it is this: CRM best practice is not something you install. It is something you cultivate.
It emerges when people are willing to listen, question, collaborate, and adapt. When processes are understood before systems are designed. When technology is treated as a tool to support work, not dictate it.
Get the mindset right, and the CRM will follow.