Businesses go by the guiding principle that the customer is KING. Hence, customer service and management is one of the most important strategies that any business needs to focus on. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has undergone many changes over the years with new technologies and aspects getting added to it. Today, CRM is a very crucial tool for any business to ensure enhanced customer experience.
According to statistics, CRM is the fastest growing software industry which is expected to reach around $80 billion by 2025. CRM systems not only help businesses to manage its customers, but also to get a competitive edge over their competitors. The below graph shows how CRM can impact businesses. 91% of companies with 10 and more employees are already suing CRM systems and number is rising. The image below shows how CRM impacts.
According to data, for every dollar spent, you can expect an average ROI of $8.71 on CRM. CRM applications helps to increase sales by up to 29%, sales productivity by 34% and sales forecast accuracy by 42%. Hence, it is crucial for revenue generation and growth. There are numerous such pointers that indicate the important of CRM tools for any business.
There are several CRM application providers in the market offering an array of features for different types of businesses. Many of them have customizable features to suit your business needs. Also, these softwares come in various price brackets. Among the notable names in the market for CRM application, Agile CRM is known for its unified approach and advanced features.
What is Agile CRM?
Agile CRM is a cloud-based CRM platform for small and medium businesses that integrate functions of marketing, sales, customer engagement and web management. Their contact management, customer service, scheduling, email tracking, project management, landing pages, sales and marketing automation, social media marketing are some of the key and popular tool.
Agile CRM helps to streamline tasks, increase productivity and enhance communication as all the information can be viewed on a single page. One of the most important benefits of Agile CRM is that it consolidates sales and marketing processes to give a single view which can utilized to strategize and assess.
Agile CRM lets it users to easily keep track of the sales process. On the platform, it is easy to create projects, assign tasks and track the progress with their drop-down menu. Their online calendar functionality is apt for scheduling and managing workflows. It is an all-in-one solution suitable and affordable from different types of organization. The cloud-based SaaS service is mobile-ready, fast, and simple to use.
Common Problems of Agile CRM
Though Agile CRM is one of the best CRM solutions in the market, it has certain drawbacks which make marketers consider Agile CRM alternatives which suits their business.
Time consuming to set up: It is time consuming to set up a funnel and often integration with other platforms is not good. Sometimes disabled campaigns keep sending emails and it tedious to add/remove contacts to campaigns. It is not quite recommended for a busy marketer as it takes time to set up the program.
Minimal support: The support team is not too responsive. The customer service is often unreachable and sometimes difficult to understand as well.
Problem in marketing automation: Many have faced problems with the marketing automation module, where some of the features tend to be half-baked. One needs to spend a lot of time on the setup as well. Sometimes emails sent are marked as junk or spam.
Now let us take a quick look at some of the Agile CRM alternatives that are both affordable and comes with relevant features.
5 Best Alternatives to Agile CRM
EngageBay: The first and foremost Agile CRM alternative is EngageBay. It is an affordable, end-to-end all-in-one marketing, sales and support software with an award-winning customer service team. Compared to Agile CRM, their email sequencing and live chat features work uniformly. Moreover, the modules can be purchased separately or all-together. Their smart lists also help to organize and manage teams better. Proposal analytics and Account-based marketing also helps to enhance productivity, unlike Agile CRM.
Hatchbuck: Hatchbuck is one more CRM solution which helps to streamline processes and help your small business grow by nurturing prospects and driving more sales. Compared to Agile CRM, they are also great with customer support and it is much easier to admin. Their tools are also easier to use.
Ontraport: Ontraport, all-in-one integrated platform has a powerful CRM system, one-click WordPress hosting, affiliate management and many other tools in their innovative business suite. They also have a good support team and it is easier to do business with them.
Infusionsoft: Infusionsoft, now known as Keap is also an all-in one CRM solution for small businesses with email and social media marketing. Compared to Agile CRM, they have a better customer support team who will help you with any issues, anytime.
Pipedrive: This is one more Agile CRM alternative which has several features in sales tracking and role-based permission. It also has better integration with other platforms compared to Agile CRM. Their customer support is also better.
If you run a small business and looking for the right CRM system with most features yet not very expensive, you can consider the above alternatives Agile CRM. While tools such as EngageBay offer the best bang for the buck, with a loaded feature-set at an incredibly low price point, others such as Infusionsoft (Keap), though good, can get extremely heavy on the pocket, especially if you are a small business or startup.
No matter which you pick, you can’t go wrong. Good luck!
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