Can anyone recommend CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software?

[kris-london]

Hi all.
I need to develop a customers database for construction company.
Can anyone recommend any CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software that improve relation with new and existing customers?
I know there is something to manage newsletters, few mail accounts, social media etc.
It has to be cloud based. Please help.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Paul_Rosser]

Asking for advice on what CRM to use is a bit like asking what car to buy as there are lots of cloud based systems available and which one would be the best fit for you really depends on the features you need and your level of comfort with IT as some can be complex to configure.

SugarCRM is very good but may be overkill if you just need something simple.

http://www.reallysimplesystems.com/ do a CRM which is very easy to setup and start using, comes with a free trial so you can give it a go and see how you get on before subscribing.

 

[flomigo]

Hi

We started off using sales force we found it was really helpful for when we were starting off as it does everything you need , the only downside was the expense with using it. It does come with a free trial which is great.

What we are using now is a self programmed one which one of our programming team developed over a week which we are finding very very useful , and best of all was nearly free.

But in the end its all down to preference a lot of them do nearly the same job with slight tweaks in how the User interface works so best bet is to download a few free trials and see what works for you.

 

[edmondscommerce]

currently using insightly - integrates nicely with gmail

 

[Uzair Kharawala]

We use Capsule CRM. Love it. Integrates with Mailchimp, Xero, Google Apps for Work and much more. Highly recommend it.

 

[Alan]

We use Capsule too. Very easy to use.

 

[Cameron Ziafat]

Have a look at Base CRM. It's the best cloud based software I use (and I use about 15).

 

[patientlady]

Hi Cameron
I downloaded Base a while ago and it seems to be set up for sales lead through to sale? I have been looking for a CRM that I can use for ongoing account management or have I misunderstood Base?
Thanks p/l

 

[kris-london]

........ Thanks

 

[kris-london]

Have a look at Base CRM. It's the best cloud based software I use (and I use about 15).

Hi Cameron. Can you help me:
I need to set automatic reminders for contacts with no activity over 30 days, do you know how to do it?

 

[reynoldsdigital]

Hi, have you tried Zoho? We use this and find it excellent for our needs. Not as complicated as Salesforce but more sophisticated than Capsule, and well priced.

Thanks, Barry

 

[Paul Featherstone]

Sounds like your remit is IT based but the key to successfully implementing crm is getting people on board with buying into and using crm.

There are various solutions if you want to go and buy an off the shelf crm - sales force.com, ms dynamics, Siegel crm or sugar crm if you want something a bit more open source.

You can self host on cloud so all possible options I think.

 

[abellina]

Hi
You can try open source CRM solutions like Sugar , vtiger and others.They are definitely good platforms to enhance customer relation

 

[kris-london]

Can anyone help me with BASE CRM:
I need to set automatic reminders for contacts with no activity over 30 days, do you know how to do it?

 

[Clive.Hornsby]

I would ask the question on somewhere like stackoverflow . com or the Base CRM Forum

I would paste the links but need a few more posts first

 

[Abe Choi]

We use pipedrive and its visually simple, reminds you of your daily actions and at a very reasonable price. They actually won best B2B startup this year if that means anything.

 

[rhys_td]

We use Zurmo - although a fair amount of it was coded in-house by our developer. I've heard nothing but good things about Salesforce (except the price of course!).

 

[Abe Choi]

Salesforce would most likely be overkill and is quite an enterprise level tool, hence the price.

 

[RedEvo]

Insightly looks very good.

d

 

[HazelC]

The ones I hear recommended the most are capsule and zoho

 

[patientlady]

Our company has just introduced Salesforce1 (forsmallbusiness) I am finding it rather complicated and seem to be adding information without really any benefit! Or is it just me? I had recommended Capsule after reading reviews and recommendations on here as it seemed simple.
Does anyone else use Salesforce1 at all, as I would be grateful for your feedback
Thank you

 

[Chris Elwood]

This was a problem for us as well. We have an IT Recruitment Team in house and we also run a traditional IT Consultancy/Web Development team. Our CRM needs were very simple and in the end we built our own to our needs. We have also tailored this for a few of our customers who pay a one off fee rather than a monthly subscription. Send me a quick message if that is of any interest and I will set you up with a demo version.

 

[garyk]

Our company has just introduced Salesforce1 (forsmallbusiness) I am finding it rather complicated and seem to be adding information without really any benefit! Or is it just me? I had recommended Capsule after reading reviews and recommendations on here as it seemed simple.
Does anyone else use Salesforce1 at all, as I would be grateful for your feedback
Thank you

That is the problem with Salesforce (and the often quoted vtiger and sugar) they are just too feature laden for small businesses. I've said it a million times before (no exaggeration) more features DOES NOT EQUAL BETTER!

Find what is right for your workflow and business. Too many features = no good, too few features=no good.

 

[patientlady]

Thanks Chris and Gary, unfortunately the company will plunder on with this system because the individual that introduced it would be too stubborn to change it. They are just sat in the office not having to use it.

 

[ldjames]

Not used it but it looks good: https://www.salesseek.net/

 

[Richard White]

"I need to set automatic reminders for contacts with no activity over 30 days, do you know how to do it?"

You mention BASE CRM. I googled it and found this
http://blog.getbase.com/new-feature-automated-actions

 

[EddyP]

Maybe have a look at Intervals and So ho? I have seen these on several blogs about business and how it is adapting and what companies need in order to be equipped.

Worth a try?

 

[John Geater]

My advice would be that every one of them has a free trial so set aside a weekend and test them all to death.

I've spent years not deciding on one to use as they never offer everything we needed. In the end I employed developers and built our own - expensive but well worth it.

 

[Alan]

Hi John, did you know this thread has been inactive for a month?

Anyway, a weekend isn't really enough time to test them all. At last count there were some 45 viable CRMs on our list, and with approx 100 'questions' that should be 'asked' of each, that makes a pretty busy weekend

Out of interest, what was missing from the third party options that made your custom development necessary?

 

[John Geater]

Hi @llocally yes I did notice. I'm not put off by old threads as I know people still read them when looking for advice.

As for the time limit on a weekend, I too often assume people work like I would. I'd make my list of must haves and as each one didn't hit one of those I would bin it. I spent a lot of time trying to make a CRM fit my businesses opposed to ensuring it did what my business wanted.

The key feature missing from most and not perfect in each is the ability to run projects that may or may not have an end date. For example, with Dev projects you start and end, easy. With marketing projects you hope they'll never end. We wanted one project with tasks that recurred on different time periods. The best ones preloaded all your tasks but limited how long they would go on for. i.e. Update Facebook could be daily but the system would recur them for everyday up to a max of 6 months. There were some exceptions to this but our system you enter a task and as it's closed it replicates itself for the chosen time period.

On top of this, some projects bill one-off and some monthly, some even quarterly and so our system uses the same process as the tasks to recur the billing and give us a monthly workbook of our income. A little beyond CRM exactly but it's what our business needed.

I'm not suggesting everyone can afford to build their own CRM, from memory ZOHO was pretty good at allowing you to customise but my main point is not changing your business process to suit a system, make the systems do what you want.

 

[Alan]

Not being picky but your post did say

and test them all to death

Your revised process make more sense.

Our process summarised, would be we start with a very long list and then quickly eliminate all but a few on 'major fails' based on the high level business requirements. After that the short list of a few (e.g. 3) can be evaluated. If the client has internal development capability or the appetite to build, then a 'build' option can be compared too.

Obviously this in reality is the approach you probably took.

Of course what you have described is possibly beyond the scope of a CRM, as you say, but it is what you needed.

And as you say there is always a balance between cost and benefit.

 

[SerDim]

If you provide services, try Autotask

 

[Alan]

Do you use & recommend Autotask? There are some pretty bad reviews out there about it.

 

[Vincentas]

How would you describe your business? Big, small, medium? As for small to medium size business I would suggest Zoho and let me give you a few reasons why.
There is a multiuser capability which is important if it's not only you who will work with the program.
Also, it has features for analysing the data - you will be able to track sales and your employee workflow.
Mobile access support - check it whenever you need and whatever you are.

 

[Alan]

The key thing to do is to evaluate the CRM against your business requirements. Amazingly, all businesses are not the same.

There are over 30 'viable' cloud based CRMs (I'm not counting self hosted / self installed CRMs - why would any small business be thinking of that in 2015, you'd have to have some pretty secifuc requirements not to go cloud? )

Each CRM has a different slant, and a different level of 'out the box' functionality, and configurability.

Some examples - Zoho you can't change the built in terminolgy - but you can add custom fields. So not a problem if you are happy with 'Vendor', but a big problem if the staff using the system always talk about 'Supplier'. Some have powerful integrations & APIs others don't. Some are supplied by companies that have a weak financial position and may not exist in 2 years etc etc.

It is a mine field. And it is easy to make the wrong decision, not so bad if you are a sole trader, you just start again,but if you have 4 or 5 users of a CRM you can waste a lot of time and energy going down the wrong route.

Always start with detailed requirements, before selecting any system. All CRMs are not the same.