Why we left CapsuleCRM ? Not personal just business !
Six months ago we decided to move one of our business units ( that deals with e-Learning ) from ZohoCRM to CapsuleCRM. We were excited about this move since at the time we believed CapsuleCRM was the answer to a more efficient CRM process.
Main reasons for the move (no particular order):
- ZohoCRM's UI was looking a bit dated and cluttered ( even more so that Salesforce.com )
- CapsuleCRM has a very clean UI with some useful social interactions ( important for e-Learning )
- CapsuleCRM has a useful tagging feature; important, in our case, for opportunity segregation
- CapsuleCRM has a strong (and easy to use) import facility; this meant that we could migrate data quickly.
- CapsuleCRM has Mailchimp integration. Since Mailchimp is what we use for all our marketing campaigns we thought that it would be useful.
- CapsuleCRM has a nice mobile app for the iPhone.
- Our original requirements (b2c sales) has a simple selling cycle.
But as with everything, the devil is in the detail. After about two months we discovered some serious issues that were heightened as the volume increased and our business changed to b2b sales with a more complex selling cycle.
Some issues we ran in to:
- We were very surprised that there was NO REPORTING. At first this was not really an issue but as we progressed into b2b sales it became one rapidly. You can generate lists of your data and export these lists and/or manipulate in Excel or some other reporting tool. But really ?. We do not want to have to do that for generating basic analytics; its like a step back in to the 1980's.
- The integration to Mailchimp, in our opinion, should not be classed as an integration. It is not in real-time and relies on you to manually create a list and send to Mailchimp from within CapsuleCRM. If that list is large, the API aborts (we found this to be true on other integrations they have ).
- There is no way ( other than by programming ) to generate a web to lead or a web to case form for your web site. This is table stakes in our opinion and we were not prepared to invest the time and effort messing around with this. This also became more of an issue as we transitioned from "just buy a course" to "inquire about our private labels" (for b2b).
- We are a US company and CapsuleCRM are in the UK. Even though their support was helpful; the time zone differences certainly did not help.
- Not very good role/user access control.
So what did we do ?
A month ago we migrated back to ZohoCRM. During our "flirtation" with CapsuleCRM, ironically Zoho had revamped their UI. This was a nice surprise.
Fortunately for Skyytek, this process was simple since we kept our original ZohoCRM subscription open and the transition back only took a few few hours.
Motto of the story
- Directly comparing CRM systems IS NOT THE WAY TO GO. Select based on your requirements (both now and to some extent in the future). If we had not caught this early, it could have been a costly move back.
- Be weary of systems that "integrate" with the world !. Rarely do integrations work as well as you think.
- Do not be scared to try SaaS systems. Fortunately with subscription software (and especially CRM ), the risks are minimal since you just cancel your subscription if things do not work out.
- We would recommend CapsuleCRM for the right company. The right company must be small, have a simple sales cycle and not too much volume. If you do not need analytics and can rely on "lists"; then indeed CapsuleCRM would be highly recommended.
Footnote
We do have a e-Learning course available that documents a live implementation of CapsuleCRM for those that want to go it alone and save consulting $'s. It is a popular course and illustrates a step by step process (which you can run along side your own deployment ) that will make sure you follow best practices for CRM deployment.
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