Low adoption = high failure rates: Between 20% and 70% of CRM projects fail to meet expectations, with poor user adoption cited as the leading cause¹.  In practice, this means many SME CRM rollouts never gain full traction with staff. 

Underused features: Only 37% of sales reps feel their organisation makes full use of their CRM’s capabilities² – a sign that most companies use only a fraction of the tools they’re paying for.  Lack of training, complicated interfaces, or misalignment with workflows often lead employees to revert to old habits, leaving the CRM underutilised and hindering its value. 

Usability drives switching: A significant 20% of CRM users have switched systems because their previous CRM was not user-friendly³.  This underscores how critical an intuitive, easy-to-learn interface is to driving adoption among teams.  When employees resist using a complex CRM, data never gets logged and the system’s benefits never fully materialise. 

Disparate tools = incomplete data: Many UK SMEs still manage customer information in piecemeal ways.  About 32% use spreadsheets and 20% rely on email platforms to track customer data instead of a unified CRM⁴.  This fragmented approach leads to inconsistency and errors – in fact, 25% of SMEs cite poor data accuracy as their biggest customer management challenge⁴.  When data lives in separate silos (Excel files, email folders, etc.), no single source of truth exists, making it hard to get a full customer picture. 

Lack of integration: Even when a CRM is in place, it often doesn’t play well with other business tools.  Nearly 23% of small businesses say a lack of app integrations is a major CRM pain point5.  If your CRM isn’t seamlessly connected with email, marketing, finance, or support systems, employees must do duplicate data entry or work across multiple apps.  These integration gaps lead to siloed information that can’t be easily aggregated, resulting in missed opportunities and a higher risk of data errors. 

Too much manual data entry: Legacy or less capable CRMs often require a lot of manual updating.  17% of businesses report manual data entry as their biggest CRM-related headache, and about one-third of account managers spend over an hour each day on data entry tasks⁵.  This not only frustrates users but also eats into time that could be spent on selling or customer service.  High-effort systems drive low adoption – a vicious cycle where the CRM contains incomplete data because staff avoid the tedium of updating it. 

Account Managers spending time on admin, not selling: Sales teams are losing productive hours to CRM admin work.  According to Salesforce research, salespeople spend only 28% of their week actively selling – the rest is consumed by non-selling tasks like data administration, quote generation, and logging activities².  A poorly optimised CRM contributes to this, as account managers wrestle with clunky processes or resort to manual work outside the system.  The result is lower productivity and a longer sales cycle, negating the very efficiency a CRM is supposed to bring. 

Limited customer insights: A CRM’s promise is a 360° view of the customer, but many SMEs aren’t getting that.  In one survey, 45% of businesses (a majority of them SMBs) said their priority is to achieve a complete view of customer interactions to maximise CRM value² – implying their current tools don’t yet provide it.  Incomplete data and separate systems make it hard to glean actionable insights, like which leads are hot or which customers are at risk.  This leads to generic marketing and missed personalisation opportunities. 

Analytics gaps: SMEs also struggle to turn CRM data into meaningful analysis.  37% of small businesses reported that reporting and analytics tools are the most beneficial CRM features for achieving their goals², yet many CRMs used by SMEs offer only basic reporting or hard-to-use analytics.  Without easy dashboards or AI-driven insights, teams can’t fully leverage customer data.  They may find it challenging to segment customers, forecast sales, or measure campaign effectiveness – all of which diminishes the CRM’s strategic value. 

Wasted investments from CRM failure: The combination of low adoption, siloed data, and manual work means many CRM initiatives fail to deliver a positive financial return.  Industry studies show anywhere from 20% to as high as 70% of CRM implementations end up failing or falling short of expectations¹.  For a small business, a failed CRM project isn’t just an IT issue – it’s money down the drain.  The primary reasons, as noted, are people and process-related (not technology alone): if the system isn’t widely used or properly integrated, the benefits never accrue. 

Missed potential value: What’s alarming is how much value is left on the table. When effectively adopted, a CRM offers an average return of about 8x ROI¹.  Top-performing organisations leverage CRMs to boost sales, improve customer retention, and cut costs – gains that could translate to significant growth for SMEs.  Unfortunately, many UK SMEs aren’t seeing this payoff because their current CRM setups suffer from the issues above.  In some cases, organisations even experience negative ROI on CRM investments, essentially paying for software that isn’t delivering results.  This poor ROI is a clear indicator that the CRM is failing to drive the improvements in productivity, decision-making, and sales effectiveness that justify its cost.