CRM and recording email conversations with clients

[jnogoods]

Hi,

Im looking at a CRM solution for my business which is just starting up. I will need to email potential clients and keep track of conversations and make notes about them etc.

I want a CRM that will record all emails sent and received from my website domain email address so that I can keep track of converstions between me and the clients.

I looked at salesforce, but am I right in thinking that it will not do this automatically? I think with salesforce you have to use you existing email client for emailing and you can enter a special email address in the BCC field if you want to send it to salesforce so that it records the email....seems like effort to me.

Whereas it seems SugarCRM can do this....you can inter POP3 and IMAP information so that it acts like an email client and all your sending and receiving of emails is done throught that.

Surely this is a much better way of doing things that salesforce?

Does anyone know of any other CRM solutions that do the same thing?

Thanks
jonny

 

[amphis software]

with Amphis Customer CRM, you can send and reply to emails within the CRM and the emails are automatically logged in the customer history.

you can set up email templates and use those for standard emails and replies

we have a short, rather old video showing that here

http://www.amphis-software.com/crm-outlook-email-integration.wmv

regards

Tom

 

[Brightpearl]

Hi Jonny

The email capturing solution we use at Brightpearl is to add an email forward on each company email address to a dropbox address for the CRM system (this is usually done with your ISP or mail provider settings). The CRM dropbox then matches sender email addresses to email addresses in the contacts database. As for outgoing emails, you can either send messages directly from within the CRM system and they are logged or BCC them to the dropbox address from your preferred email client and again they are automatically connected to the contact(s) being addressed.

You don't say what sort of business you are running and what sort of sales volumes you are looking at but you should also consider close integration between your CRM, sales invoices and accounts which can also be quite a burden if it is not automatic.

Have a look at our site and feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

 

[Doug]

Johnny,

One thing to bear in mind is that CRM isn't designed to manage documents. It always starts out well, but once you get loads of emails in they can become difficult to find. In my experience, CRM systems dont have very good searching functionlality so finding information can become difficult.

If you need something to track all emails, be able to find them easily, make sure they are audited etc, then you are looking at document management.

I say this as I supply both and in the past have seen clients who have taken a CRM package to track emails and other correspondence with only to find that it isn't up to it.
I can't speak for salesforce and SugarCRM so they might handle this well, I work with one of their competitors, Microsoft CRM and the email functionality is really good, however, even with outlook integration and the ability to easily track emails in CRM (it involves 2 clicks), once you get loads of documents in then managing them can create some headaches.

Just my £0.02

 

[RedEvo]

Check out capsule CRM. Intergrates with lots of useful tools like Kashflow and MailChimp.

d

 

[jnogoods]

You don't say what sort of business you are running and what sort of sales volumes you are looking at

Well basically its a directory which needs about 50 companies in it. My mentor said for me to get a notebook with all the information for each business in it, and a diary for all the times that I need to phone the companies.

But won't CRM be better for this? I can set up reminders, write the information and notes on each company and send invoices etc. plus I can use it on my mobile so I dont have to carry a notebook around the whole time. Am I right in thinking this?

Thanks
Jonny

 

[Doug]

What you say is correct Johnny, a CRM system will be much easier to use and manage than a spreadsheet.

Most solutions will have smartphone apps so you wont need a notepad and will get access whilst on the move, which is always useful!

 

[ecenica]

If like us your office uses Apple Macs then take a look at DayLite. A really neat CRM.

Using their Apple Mail addon you can make it automatically save email to any related Project, Opportunity, Task, or Contact.

Of course, Mac only so no good if you're on Windows/Linux.

^RM.

 

[blloyd]

As you are probably gathering from this thread, there are dozens of CRM solutions available each of which have strengths and weaknesses which you will unfortunately have to discover for yourself. For that reason, I strongly recommend that you decide what it is that you want from a system and then arrange some demonstrations from vendors. Make sure that you have the sales rep demonstrate the functions you require though

Have a look at the article here which gives an idea of the decision process we recommend to all our clients.