CRM Michael TaylorAugust 21, 2014

3 Best CRM Customer Service Software to Consider

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3 Best CRM Customer Service Software  to Consider

The need for a reliable CRM customer service software is invaluable in today’s business world. With a CRM solution, you can track clients, employees, investors and other stakeholders. This information is central to most business processes and as such CRMs makes a business more efficient. With so many CRMs on the market it may be a challenge choosing one especially with each touting to be the best and flouting a plethora of features.

3 Best CRM Customer Service Software  to Consider

1. Salesforce – is a cloud based CRM with lots of features yet has a neat user interface.

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2. NetSuite – it can be obtained as part of NetSuite’s ERP or a standalone CRM.

3. OnContact – offered as both an on-site solution and a cloud based CRM.

The CRM software reviews were thorough inspecting the installation requirements and procedures, ability to capture client information, usability, accessibility to multiple users and other factors. To understand why these 3 CRM software top the list we measured them against each other using specific criterion to see how they stack up against each other.

1. Contact Management

This has to be the central role of a CRM and customer service software. The ability of a CRM to capture, store and track contacts information is critical to its efficiency.

NetSuite ranked first among the three in this aspect. Impressive about the NetSuite contact management tool is the feature to track interactions. This feature neatly displays the interaction in an orderly timeline highlighting the topic(s) that prompted the communication. You can shoot emails to individual or multiple contacts straight from NetSuite. In addition NetSuite has the feature to import contact from other sources including legacy sources such as spreadsheets.

Salesforce came a second close in this aspect. With a neat tool, Salesforce offers you the ability not only to add contact basic information but also categorize them effectively and designate accessibility to such information. Salesforce also offers the functionality to import contacts from other sources including other CRMs.

OnContact beat a host of other CRMs but fell below NetSuite and Salesforce. That said, it still offers an impressive contact management that features centralized storage and access to contact information with real-time sharing. Email marketing integration and dialing capabilities are pretty neat features of OnContact’s contact management tool. The limited storage capacity larger storage attracts extra fees – is it downside and the main reason why it fell behind the other two which do not cap the storage for contact.

2. Sales and Marketing Integration

CRM and customer service software do not necessarily have to include Sales and Marketing features. However, a CRM that offers the same is more valuable than one that does not as it caters for a vital business process. All three CRMs featured Sales and Marketing tools with varied capabilities.

Salesforce came out shinning with its Sales and Marketing tool. This tool works seamlessly with the contact management feature to offer lead generation capabilities. As you capture contact information there is a provision to categorize them and also capture additional data such as first point of contact. This makes it easy when you want to do targeted marketing campaigns. It easily filters and groups contacts according to interests. Furthermore, the tool can generate insightful reports that capture a range of information.

NetSuite in its bare structure does not offer Sales and Marketing features. This feature is achieved by including the eCommerce add-on. Even so it is an effective tool that connects to your website and track clicks and web pages visited – including in which order. Forms within your website can populate the CRM automatically. This is tool is invaluable when you are designing marketing campaigns.

OnContact has an in-built Sales and Marketing tool that makes it possible to do email marketing and track the sales funnel. The data captured by this tool is critical for doing business forecasts as well as qualification leads. Lead qualification is essential for pushing clients through the sales funnel. Warm leads can be quickly converted while the cold leads can be carefully nurtured.

3. Employee Tracking

As a business owner or manager it is important to know your employees strengths and weakness. This enables you to assign jobs effectively and identify personnel who need to improve. Salesforce, NetSuite and OnContact all offer employee tracking tools.

Salesforce again came out tops with it employee tracking tool. This tool features a group calendar which indicates what each employee is working on at any given moment. It also tracks client-employee interactions – you are able to determine if a client was efficiently served and which employees were in contact. An impressive inclusion is an internal hangout called Chatter which offers the employees a channel to interact and assist each other.

NetSuite came in second this time but that is not to say its employee tracking tool is not worthwhile. It features a similar group calendar as Salesforce where employees can track what duties they are assigned to. To promote employee efficiency NetSuite’s employee tracking tool has numerous tutorials and walkthroughs. In addition, it allows inclusion of a customized knowledge base that has article specific to your business.

OnContact came in third with an equally impressive employee tracking tool. It features a real-time feature for monitoring client-employee interaction. Similar to Salesforce and NetSuite it has a group calendar and a task scheduler which enables manager assign tasks to employees on merit – based on previous performance. It also allows for creation of shareable files that can be compiled to form an in-house knowledge base.

4. Ease of Use

CRM and customer service software being at the core of business process contain lots of information. This information can be overwhelming if not presented well to the end user. Salesforce, NetSuite and OnContact rose above other CRMs because they have neat interfaces including grouping using tabs, field tips and other featured that makes them easy to get used to. In addition all three CRMs offer accessibility from different platforms – you can access the CRMs from your office or through an app on your smartphone when on the go.

Conclusion

These are the highlights of the 3 best CRM Customer Service Software- Salesforce, NetSuite and OnContact, in that particular order, scored well.

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