Doing Words: Can’t afford a CRM? Address Book may be all you need
David Glover
· 5 months ago
Good tip Alan. I think you've had the same problem with full-fledged CRM apps that I have. A complicated solution in search of a problem. I note that in spite of elaborate and expensive corporate CRM solutions, companies like Telstra and Optus can't seem to present the phone number you entered at the beginning of their call to the person who can actually deal with your "issue".
Just thought I'd add a favourite memory-problem-solving app of mine to the mix: MacJournal (and its companion WinJournal) from www.marinersoftware.com. While it's promoted mainly as a journal/blogging package, it's a great place to scribble those jotted notes and drop the photos etc we all collect every day. I use it to keep my diary notes of conversations with the aforementioned telcos, among many, many other things. It can all live in one file which saves itself and backs itself up (and has never lost a byte of data in the 4+ years I've been using it.
alan jones
· 5 months ago
Cool, I'll go check it out. Thanks for the tip David!
Michael Air
· 5 months ago
Free HighRise account is a good option as well.
alan jones
· 5 months ago
Sadly 37Signals no longer offer the free version of Highrise (http://www.highrisehq.com/signup ) and pricing starts at USD29. Unfortunately the USD/AUD exchange rate adds to that and makes it way too expensive for your average Aussie solo operator.
Thanks for stopping by Michael, see ya on Twitter.
Michael Air
· 5 months ago
There is still a free plan, you just need keen eyesight :)
The sanctimonious bastards! They make such a big song and dance about not selling things for free, charging what they're worth, etc, and now I find they do this! Still, 250 contact limit might work for a per- project thing but probably not for someone's main CRM.
Robert
· 2 months ago
Hi there, I've been trying to add a custom field but have been unsuccessful. All I can do is rename existing fields. This is not very useful as I need to modify what the the field content is. I only have options of names or dates.
Am I missing something?
bigyahu
· 2 months ago
Re: Can’t afford a CRM? Address Book may be all you need http://ff.im/-8×1nf
I suppose Address Book is ok... but it's an address book.
Sugar CRM is free. Single User of SalesForce is free. FreeCRM is Free. Zoho CRM for 1 user is free. These are good free options that are affordable and many more function points than an address book. If Address books could be CRM systems, there would not be a multi-billion dollar CRM industry or the common function points that sales, service and marketing. If I was starting a small business on the cheap - I'd look at one of these.
One of the other bonuses, as you get more successful, you can transition easily to the paid versions. Just Sayin.
alan jones
· 2 months ago
Thanks for the input Rob, you're right, it's just an address book. If you actually need a CRM there are better solutions.
I think some people are talked into CRM platforms when they don't really need them. And Salesforce is powerful but it's hard to find a more difficult web platform to learn. It's the MYOB of CRM.
If you're a Mac user your Address Book is really closely integrated with everything else on your Mac (and iPhone) and it can be really handy to have info like when/where you met this contact, who their colleagues are, etc. And you don't really need a CRM platform for that.
Cheers!
bigyahu
· 2 months ago
Re: Can’t afford a CRM? Address Book may be all you need http://ff.im/-8ymU0
All Comments
Just thought I'd add a favourite memory-problem-solving app of mine to the mix: MacJournal (and its companion WinJournal) from www.marinersoftware.com. While it's promoted mainly as a journal/blogging package, it's a great place to scribble those jotted notes and drop the photos etc we all collect every day. I use it to keep my diary notes of conversations with the aforementioned telcos, among many, many other things. It can all live in one file which saves itself and backs itself up (and has never lost a byte of data in the 4+ years I've been using it.
) and pricing starts at USD29. Unfortunately the USD/AUD exchange rate
adds to that and makes it way too expensive for your average Aussie
solo operator.
Thanks for stopping by Michael, see ya on Twitter.
http://skitch.com/airhead/bsy9k/sign-up-for-a-h...
not selling things for free, charging what they're worth, etc, and now
I find they do this! Still, 250 contact limit might work for a per-
project thing but probably not for someone's main CRM.
Am I missing something?
Re: Can’t afford a CRM? Address Book may be all you need http://ff.im/-8×1nf
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Sugar CRM is free. Single User of SalesForce is free. FreeCRM is Free. Zoho CRM for 1 user is free. These are good free options that are affordable and many more function points than an address book. If Address books could be CRM systems, there would not be a multi-billion dollar CRM industry or the common function points that sales, service and marketing. If I was starting a small business on the cheap - I'd look at one of these.
One of the other bonuses, as you get more successful, you can transition easily to the paid versions. Just Sayin.
you actually need a CRM there are better solutions.
I think some people are talked into CRM platforms when they don't
really need them. And Salesforce is powerful but it's hard to find a
more difficult web platform to learn. It's the MYOB of CRM.
If you're a Mac user your Address Book is really closely integrated
with everything else on your Mac (and iPhone) and it can be really
handy to have info like when/where you met this contact, who their
colleagues are, etc. And you don't really need a CRM platform for that.
Cheers!
Re: Can’t afford a CRM? Address Book may be all you need http://ff.im/-8ymU0
This comment was originally posted on Twitter