Less Annoying CRM

Avantages

Great customer support, quick response to emails, even on the weekends sometimes, that I never got from big CRMs. Integrates well w/ Mail Chimp, unbeatable price, easy to upload docs, set reminders, and integrate w/ google calendar. Super easy to customize and create drop downs. The downside w/ most CRM's is the learning curve and the commitment one must give to understand and make the software usable. LACRM is the first I have used (Properworks, SalesForce, Zoho, Insightly, Podio, Infusionsoft) where a knuckle head luddite can make it work w/o taking all my time away from the revenue producing activity time. There other softwares clearly have value, but for the solopreneur with an established book business trying to squeeze new revenue, you can be up and running much more quickly. I have hired a VA to set up my drip campaigns and and to push out my newsletter via Mailchimp. I know there is more value to be gained from using the software, but most of us will over invest energy instead of focusing on revenue producing activity (talking to clients, asking for referrals, prospecting). This is a great piece of software for the average Mo Insurance Broker, and that's me.

Inconvénients

You get what you pay for so you have to customize it yourself and you will make mistakes, nothing irreversible. I'd like the software to be in app form for IOS, not log in. Would be nice if it would do auto birthday reminders, for customer/prospect and for their spouses.

Avantages

LACRM is simple and easy to use. I love that it doesn't have many required fields for entering a new contact, so you can take notes on what you do know about an account without being forced to fill in fields you don't have information for yet. I'm using it for my inside and outside sales teams and we're easily able to track separate pipelines and lead sources. When a call comes in, it's easy to look up the prospect by almost any field of information to see if they've already spoken to a rep and get them to the right person. We even created "groups" to track things like new businesses, vendor currently in place at a prospect, and those without a program so that we can easily generate a list of those groups when new information becomes available they might like to receive. Example- A buyout of a competitor.

To put it into bullet points:
-Simple
-Trackable
-Customizable
-Great for multiple users and teams
-Most cost effective software I found
-We get all the features at the lowest paywall, because there's only one plan and it's affordable as any other there
-Always free always available customer service

Inconvénients

I can only think of one but boy would this make a difference for my outside sales team. There is no mobile app associated with the software. I assume there's one on the way. They recently updated the calendar portion of the software and made it much better, so I know they're improving the software regularly. They do walk you through how to set up a shortcut on your device to open their page in your browser, but it is not the same. My browser takes longer, I can't just click on a number to call it, it's harder to navigate on a small device like a phone.

That said, the lack of the mobile app is literally my only complaint. This is by far the best CRM I've used, and the pros well outweigh the cons. I will bet they won't go too much longer without a mobile app, anyway.

Avantages

I've been using LACRM for over 2 years now. My company is just me...no employees...just me. So I was looking for a simple method to keep track of client data and a calendar that syncs with Google. LACRM checked most of my boxes and for the price per month I could live without certain features. Once I subscribed and began using the CRM I wanted to be able to color code events. I brought this to their attention and I was met with immediate response. At first, it was 'it won't do that' and maybe we could add that in the future. After a few follow-up emails with LACRM Customer Service (who are UH-MAY-ZING, BTW) they finally added the feature I wanted. However, they actually kicked it up several notches by also adding the ability to set up reoccuring events and also duplicate events. Plus, I can also quickly 'Sync' with Google and go to calendar settings directly from the calendar. Really great for me.

Inconvénients

Now the CRM is almost perfect. Once thing I would love to see now is a search feature. For example, some Events (appointments) don't necessarily relate to a Contact in the CRM. I may have an appointment (Event), entered it into the CRM but the client was not interested, therefore no need to enter them into the CRM. But in a year or future date I may want to search for an Event (Appointment) I had previously. So if there was a calendar search feature I could locate the event when I enter a key word within any of the fields.

Also, it would be nice to have the LACRM set up with a Mobile App.
The LACRM is perfectly named. It is simple to use, robust enough for my use and certainly NOT Annoying. :)

Avantages

The price per month is incredible. I'm a one-man shop and that's the deal of the century for everything you get. The interface is easy to use, clear with great features, like totally customizable pipelines, robust calendar, groups, search, import and export, adding users and assigning permissions are both easy. I absolutely love the event setting where you can have a reminder text sent, customizable by you with minutes, hours, or days prior to the event. I put all appointments in there and I am ALWAYS reminded of my commitments. I never miss anything! BCC'ing LACRM on emails is so simple and therefore all communication is logged with that particular client. If I ever wind up with duplicate contacts, merging them into one is also very easy. In addition to contacts, I also use LACRM to track all kinds of things, like movies, books, and other lists that I need to manage. I used another CRM for a couple of years, and I only wish I had found LACRM sooner the difference is night and day from the other CRM, and I feel that I wasted two years with them, not being happy. I could not be more pleased with LACRM highly recommended. Finally, just so you know, I have no affiliation with LACRM. I am simply a very, very satisfied customer!

Inconvénients

Only two things: 1) Calendar doesn't sync with iCal. 2) I wish the 'Find a Contact' field was accessible through command F from my keyboard. But those are relatively minor concerns, and I believe are on the wish list for future integration.

Avantages

It's crazy how many apps there are that do the same thing, and I've tried about 20 in this category. I LOVE this CRM!

LACRM BEST PRACTICES:
1. Intuitive & Ease of Use = NO, I mean NO learning curve!

2. Exciting to use b/c I don't feel bogged down with 100 features to stare at that I don't need.

3. Free 30 Days. The least expensive app on the market.

GREAT for individual entrepreneurs, small biz to med biz that aren't looking for a million features.

If you are the kind of biz or management that wants your ppl to spend 60 days learning, then 2 hours a day using instead of doing their job b/c you're so tied up in being a manager -- go to something else, you won't like this. And tell your co-workers I feel sorry for them!

Personally, we love it that this is mastered under 20 minutes, and we keep it up on the destops all day -- avail when we need it --but not a slave to it (looking at you Infusionsoft and Sales Force!)

Inconvénients

Their strength is the only reason to go 4 stars here.
But let's be clear -- it's all about perspective.

There are a couple things I wish the task list would do, but in speaking with LACRM, they said they are rolling them out soon. (Can't beat the customer service - damn these people are friendly! I wish my family were this nice, LOL.)

I'm begging them to white label the product -- my sales reps could sell it like crazy!