Enterprise CRM Adoption Barriers Research

Unlock the full potential of your CRM with targeted user research

Implementing a new enterprise CRM system is a significant investment, but adoption challenges can prevent your organization from realizing its full value. This Enterprise CRM Adoption Barriers Research template helps you identify exactly what's holding your teams back—whether it's unclear workflows, insufficient training, missing features, or resistance to change.

Why CRM adoption research matters for enterprise teams

Research shows that up to 63% of CRM implementations fail to deliver expected ROI, often due to poor user adoption rather than technical issues. By conducting structured user research with this template, you can:

• Identify role-specific pain points that prevent different teams from using the CRM effectively
• Understand task-level friction that slows down daily workflows
• Prioritize training resources based on actual knowledge gaps, not assumptions
• Make data-driven decisions about feature rollouts, customizations, and change management strategies

This template is designed for UX researchers, product managers, IT leaders, and change management teams working to improve CRM adoption across sales, marketing, customer success, and service departments.

What makes this research template effective

Unlike generic feedback forms, this template takes a structured, research-first approach that captures both quantitative metrics and qualitative insights:

Role-based segmentation ensures you understand how adoption challenges differ across departments, seniority levels, and use cases. Sales reps face different barriers than marketing managers or customer service agents, and this template captures those nuances.

Task analysis questions dig into specific workflows and activities, helping you identify exactly where users get stuck, frustrated, or resort to workarounds outside the CRM.

Training and skill assessment reveals knowledge gaps and preferred learning styles, so you can design effective enablement programs rather than one-size-fits-all training sessions.

Feature prioritization exercises let users vote on what matters most, giving product and IT teams clear direction for customization and configuration efforts.

Open-ended feedback complements structured questions, capturing unexpected insights and user suggestions that quantitative data alone might miss.

How Paperform enhances your research workflow

This template takes advantage of Paperform's research-friendly features to create a professional, engaging experience that encourages thoughtful responses:

• Conditional logic tailors questions based on role, experience level, and previous answers, keeping the form relevant without overwhelming participants
• Clean, branded design that looks professional and encourages completion—essential for busy enterprise users
• Mobile-friendly interface so team members can respond from anywhere, increasing participation rates
• Built-in analytics and reporting to quickly identify patterns and themes across departments

Automate follow-up and analysis with Stepper

Once you've collected responses, Stepper (stepper.io) can help you act on the insights faster:

• Automatically route high-priority concerns to the right stakeholders based on severity or department
• Trigger follow-up interviews with users who indicate specific pain points you want to explore further
• Aggregate responses into dashboards or update project management tools with key findings
• Send personalized thank-you messages and keep participants engaged throughout the improvement process

Who this template is for

This research template is ideal for:

• UX researchers and product managers conducting CRM usability studies and adoption research
• IT leaders and CRM administrators trying to understand why adoption metrics are lagging
• Change management teams developing targeted training and communication strategies
• Sales operations and revenue operations teams optimizing CRM workflows for go-to-market teams
• Consulting firms helping clients with CRM implementation and optimization projects

Best practices for running CRM adoption research

Timing matters: Run this research during initial rollout, after major updates, or when adoption metrics plateau. Quarterly pulse checks can help you track improvement over time.

Encourage honest feedback: Emphasize that responses are confidential and used to improve tools and training, not to evaluate individual performance.

Follow up on insights: Share key findings with participants and communicate what actions you're taking based on their feedback. This builds trust and encourages future participation.

Combine with usage analytics: Pair survey insights with actual CRM usage data to validate findings and identify discrepancies between perceived and actual behavior.

Start improving CRM adoption today

Whether you're implementing a new CRM platform, struggling with low adoption rates, or planning your next phase of optimization, this template gives you the structured research foundation you need. Customize it to match your specific CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, or any other platform), add your branding, and start gathering actionable insights that drive real improvement.

With Paperform's intuitive editor, you can launch your research study in minutes—no developer required. SOC 2 Type II compliance and enterprise-grade security mean you can confidently collect sensitive feedback from users across your organization.