Zoho CRM Software: Review

There are several small-sized businesses looking for affordable and effective CRM solutions. I had already reviewed the Salesfore.com and SugarCRM for the small and mid sized business and now I decided to go with an lowly priced CRM software for business with limited budget. I came up with Zoho CRM that seems an effective Customer Relationship Management solution for companies on budget. It is on the cheaper end when compared to most other CRM solutions. It offers end-to-end solutions from marketing activities to post-sales customer support and more.  Zoho CRM helps in managing sales leads, accounts, campaign, forecasts and business activities. Zoho is features all basic CRM functions including campaigns, leads, reports and dashboards and manage inventory. The most convenient thing about Zoho CRM is that you create an account with email address and password and get started. Let’s take a look into Zoho CRM’s features. 

Feature

Interface

This can be the best CRM for first time users. The interface is quite simple and intuitive. Further, there’s a Getting Started video to help out. The tabs at the top of the screen and the links offers access to different parts of the program.

Set up

The set up is hassle free. To begin with you need to import the contacts. It’s easy to import contracts from different application like value (.csv), Excel (.xls) or vCard (.vcf) format.

Fields

There are few required fields and several non-required fields to keep track of as many details as possible. The unimportant fields can be disabled from the settings.

Tracking the leads

One of the core activities of a CRM software is tracking and managing the sales leads. the Zoho CRM offers a leads tab that makes it easy to review and update active leads. Even after creating a new lead you may return to that particular lead and update the pages information such as attachments, products and activity tracking. The user can also send mail directly from the application. Record of the sent email is automatically added to the lead page.

This CRM software can also handle multiple leads by aggregating the information in one place for easy management. When the lead turns to sale it is automatically removed from the leads list and an account detail is created.

Reports and Dashboard

Most of the reports and the dashboard can be customized and settings for the tabs can be easily changed.

Web features

Most of the CRM contains lots of irrelevant features that the web workers don’t use. Zoho seems to be a good option with web workers. It’s simple to learn and use, and is available for free for up to three users.

Facilities

Out of the box sfa, campaign management, lead generation, pipeline analysis, sales forecasting, sales quotas, help desk, customer support, etc

Customer support

Zoho CRm offers tools to manage customer trouble tickets. The wiki-based Help section includes several common questions concerning the customers.

Pros

The flexibility is always an added advantage for Zoho, especially the tab, field and customizations are pretty cool.

• It’s integration with web forms is always a plus

• It offers effective workflows with instant alerts and messages

• The management of lead assignments is admirable

• The price is always affordable

Cons

• It encloses a large number of unimportant fields.

• There is no explanation of the security features.

Competitors

Salesforce.com without the large price tag can be a rival.

Conclusion

Overall Zoho CRM  can be a solid package for the small sized companies. If you have something more exciting that lacking in my review, let me know.