The Complete CRM Migration Checklist for Property Agencies
By Gemma Nettle
11 November 2024
Moving systems is like moving houses—you want all your furniture to move with you. As a letting agent or property agent, all your data accumulates in your core CRM system over time. Thousands of records on property owners, occupiers and historical job details are stored, and without technical know-how, migrating CRM systems can seem incredibly daunting. Even if your new CRM system does everything you want, without this dataset, it will not work for you. However, with the right help, careful planning, and effective execution, migrating from your old CRM to a new one can be seamless and worry-free.
Discover a step-by-step approach to system migration with Fixflo. Following these tips can help a property agency minimise risks and optimise current tools to ensure a seamless transition to a new system.
Outline what needs to be migrated
Once a new tool has been chosen, a decision must be made about what needs to be migrated. There will be outdated information that doesn't need to be moved to the new system. This means time will be spent filtering through everything stored in the current system to decide what needs to be moved and what can be removed before migration.
This could include the personal details of the property owner, occupier or tenant, addresses, and last completed compliance check due dates. Once the CRM data is migrated across, the Fixflo system needs to know where the new mapping destinations are. This is done via an external reference, which means the old CRM references would need to switch to the new CRM on Fixflo for seamless continuity. In some cases, Fixflo could manually import compliance events' due dates if they aren't already mapped to a CRM-Fixflo integration.
It's worth noting that the migration of any canned responses or email template content is a good idea to avoid doing these from scratch once in the new system.
Avoid the most common pitfalls in migrating your data with our blog.
Communication
Without effective communication, the whole migration process is put at risk. When migrating to a new system, while it should be checked thoroughly, it won't be of any use if the team isn't all on the same page. The team must communicate to ensure they are all using the technology in the correct way and in the same manner as each other—otherwise, there is no alignment and tasks will be delayed or even forgotten.
If the entire team is on the same wavelength, it will reduce anxiety and alleviate concerns about the process. It also prevents too much disruption to workflow and productivity and facilitates a smooth transition.
External communication is just as important. To avoid confusion, stakeholders should be kept in the loop about the upcoming system changes. Multiple notices will prevent worry when they see new URLs on the agency's pages and emails, especially when they are demanding payments.
If there is no alignment in practices, the efficiency savings agents could get from their technology is massively discounted. However, if they communicate with each other or enlist in a training programme, they can learn how their new technology could work together.
Allow for more time
It's a common misconception that the subscription for the old system being migrated from should be cancelled immediately after the new tool goes live. Before the subscription is finished, all critical data needs to be checked to ensure it has been successfully migrated with no errors. Thoroughly verify the accuracy of this migrated data and maintain a backup of the old system's data as another safety measure. In this case, more caution and time should be allowed to avoid the risk of data loss.
Some CRM providers may provide a sandbox system to test drive the migration before its launch. This means the new CRM can be checked, as well as new integrations such as inventory apps and Fixflo.
Enlist help
There's no shame in asking for help—in fact, it's better! Leave the technical headache to Fixflo and your new CRM provider's team so you can focus on internal and external change management.
Once your new CRM is identified, to ensure your Fixflo integration works continuously, our Professional Services team can help straight away. Getting help from Fixflo means that an agency's property management processes and data will transition smoothly during the migration, and with our early involvement, surprises and blockers can be identified sooner to avoid delays to your new CRM's rollout.
When our customer is considering switching CRMs, our team will:
- Set up a consulting call to find out the agency's end goal.
- Provide guidance on what core data from your CRM systems are required for import into Fixflo.
- Ensure system references are swapped over from the old CRM to the new CRM. This means we will ensure all the connections between your old and new CRMs are correctly linked.
- Work with you to review the imported data before sign-off to ensure all data has been seamlessly synced with Fixflo before and after the migration.
- The new tech stack will automatically push relevant data across systems so the team can collaborate seamlessly in day-to-day operation.
Integrations
These are our most popular integrations:
If you're interested in integrating with any of these systems, fill in the forms provided on respective pages.
Final thoughts
Following this checklist is the key to a flawless transition into a new system. Expert guidance is a sure-fire way of making certain there will be no disruption to workflows within an agency.
Want to know more about our migration services? Consult with us.
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