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| Customer Relationship Management Software? | Views: 1090 |
| Jan 19, 2009 6:57 pm | | Customer Relationship Management Software? | # |
Kurt Schweitzer | | As part of this year's marketing changes I'm trying to stay in closer touch with my customers, and I'm trying to find a good software package to manage that activity.
Some background: I currently have something like 600 people for whom I have contact info. Roughly half of those have email addresses, the other half has snail mail addresses. Only about 10% have both.
I expect my contacts to double this year.
I'd like to track "touches", i.e. whenever someone calls me, or sends me email, or I send them a postcard, newsletter, or email. Of special importance are whenever the customer places an order for something not currently in stock, or whenever vehicle repair is done.
Likewise I'd like to track whenever someone comes into the store and DOESN'T buy something, but does express an interest for a particular scooter model or other item. (This may be a bit of a stretch since it means I need a mechanism for capturing that information.) I'm more interested in tracking visits to the store than to the website.
I have an old version of ACT 6.0 (current version is 11.0). I recently installed it on my store computer, but discovered that the reason why I didn't use it years ago is because it's search functions suck. I find it very hard to use to look up a single customer, especially in the time it takes to answer the phone.
Ideally I'd be able to access the CRM database from several computers in the shop, but I have no desire for it to be accessible from the Internet.
I'd also like it to interface easily with QuickBooks, and able to import and export Excel spreadsheets for other applications.
Anybody got any recommendations?
Kurt Schweitzer
Urban Village ScootersPrivate Reply to Kurt Schweitzer |
| Jan 19, 2009 9:38 pm | | re: Customer Relationship Management Software? | # |
Scott Wolpow | | I am working on something, but look at the many Open Source systems or Joomal with this extention.
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/4071/detailsPrivate Reply to Scott Wolpow |
| Jan 20, 2009 6:57 am | | re: re: Customer Relationship Management Software? | # |
Ashish Belagali | | SugarCRM is supposed to be what you want, as it can be hosted on an intranet with a standard PHP/MySql configuration. We had briefly evaluated it, but were put off by some of the rigidities. However, you should see if it suits you.
We decided to continue with spreadsheet, at least for now. It's a two dimentional data that we look at, and a spreadsheet does a good job of maintaining it for us.
Thanks,
/Ashish
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Web applications/ Software solutions http://www.acism.com
Private Reply to Ashish Belagali |
| Jan 20, 2009 2:32 pm | | re: re: re: Customer Relationship Management Software? | # |
Scott Wolpow | | Surgar needs ro be modified to do that. It really is designed for other purposes like fundraising. Private Reply to Scott Wolpow |
| Jan 20, 2009 4:12 pm | | re: re: re: Customer Relationship Management Software? | # |
Kurt Schweitzer | | I've used SugarCRM in the past, and I'm not really fond of it. It seems to be good for connecting widely dispersed sales people, but not all that great for interfacing with other applications like QuickBooks.
Kurt Schweitzer
Urban Village ScootersPrivate Reply to Kurt Schweitzer |
| Jan 21, 2009 3:53 am | | re: re: re: re: Customer Relationship Management Software? | # |
Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 | | Kurt,
I use a CRM program called Intellect. I can manage my entire desktop through Intellect. It is truly amazing. Does my email marketing for me, too. Ryzer David Norcross actually makes the training videos for Intellect. So, you can not only view the training videos when you download the program for a FREE 15-day trial, but contact David Norcross with any question you have about the program.
Now, I have never used ACT or any other CRM program but FreeCRM. But, David was actually a beta-tester for ACT. And, I believe he likes Intellect better than any CRM program he has ever used. But, don't take my word for it. Ask David Norcross. Just look him up here on Ryze and send him a private message.
Lamar Morgan
CDMM - Synergistic Business Marketing
707-709-8605
Attract more customers! Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 |
| Jan 21, 2009 4:14 am | | re: re: re: re: re: Customer Relationship Management Software? | # |
Reg Charie | | http://java-source.net/open-source/erp-crm lists a lot of CRM open source programs for many different applications.
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CRELoaded websites http://RegCharie.com - SBTT http://thinktank-network.ryze.comPrivate Reply to Reg Charie |
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