Claritysoft CRM-A Very Good CRM System

Claritysoft CRM has most all of the features of much more well known and pricier CRM products at a much lower price point. We tried out about 7 different CRM systems during our evaluation period and found that Claritysoft had by far the best bang for the buck. We took advantage of each product's free 14-30 day trial and put each product through some fairly rigorous testing. We attempted to develop a standardized trial process that gave us an idea of ease of use and functionality of each product that we tested. We tried to gauge how difficult it was to import account and contact data, how their activity tracking worked (including email interface and inbound/outbound phone calls) and how to set up alarms for future activities. We also manually entered contacts, accounts, opportunities and quotes. Any questions that we had were very quickly addressed by our Account Manager, Matt Welch, and their Technical Support Team. We are a fairly small company and as such, only have a need for a few licenses. I have never gotten the feeling that our account was not worth as much as much larger organizations with many more users. I have dealt the Founder, our Account Manager, Accounting and all of their Technical Support Engineers and in each and every case have been made to feel like I am their most important customer.

Pros

The system is very intuitive and was very easy to learn. It has all of the features of the most popular CRM systems and the ability to customize almost every module to fit your business needs. There are both cloud (Online) and desktop (Offline) versions available. Each system type has certain advantages so I actually use both in my office. There is also a mobile version available which is excellent when out in the field. I don't use this much since I have a smaller smart phone and don't have access to a tablet.

Claritysoft's email capabilities are outstanding. It can be configured so that interfacing with Outlook is almost seamless and it is very easy to develop templates for mass mailings.

The Technical Support team is outstanding. If we have any issues I am almost always able to talk to a live person when I call their 800 number. The few times that I have had to leave a message I have received a call back within 15 minutes. Most of my challenges have been trying to figure out how to do something out-of-the-ordinary in the system and they are very willing to show me how to perform my desired function or give me a very viable "work around".

As with any software, their system occasionally has a few minor "bugs". These have always been fixed in a very timely manner (and I am always alerted to the fact that there is a fix in place). They frequently upgrade the product and are very open to suggestions on new features to incorporate or how to improve functionality.

Cons

We don't use the quotation module much due to the fact that it doesn't lend itself to our type of business or provide the image that we are looking to project in our industry (Litigation Services to attorneys and insurance companies).

Although we don't normally have the need to do many mass mailings (USPS, not email), the ability to generate letter templates is not available. In the instances when we do have need to do a mass mailing we have exported the contact data out of Claritysoft to an Excel spreadsheet (which is a very simple task) and performed a mail merge in MS Word.

Developed for high frequency calls - Outstanding customer service.

This has massively improved our sales.

Pros

We moved over from Saleforce where we were able to average 75 calls per day per person - Claritysoft has enabled us to increase the number of calls per sales person per day to 120 whilst capturing all of the relevant data and ensuring that all sales opportunities are followed up until completion.

We tested four other CRMs including using Salesforce, which we used for a year - financially it was a black hole and the service was beyond horrendous. It was a joke. So we were very focused on customer service when moving to a new CRM and we have had a very good experience with Claritysoft. Their support team have ensured that we have a customed CRM designed for our needs. There were one or two delays in setting up our reporting, but the team at Claritysoft just used this as an opportunity to further prove their commitment to our company by going above and beyond to create an accurate and detailed reporting system.

One thing that I will say is that we are based in London, we are not a US Firm and we are not use to having a tech company so focused on the client experience. They offer time and support in a very understanding manner and the fact that they are based in the US means that we can communicate with them daily until around 11pm every day.

I do not believe I have ever reviewed another company before however, the product is excellent and allows you to speed dial and the service is the best we have come across.

Cons

I would like to add further lead status updates to the Log Activity menu because when we want to change the lead status we have to go to one additional page.

Easy to use CRM software making reporting and follow-up seamless

Claritysoft has been a great platform to use. The customer service is A1 and the product is really easy to use.

Pros

The reporting functions and dashboard are extremely easy to build and use. The customer service is extremely helpful in adapting the product for an organization's needs and has the ability to continue to make changes over time, unlike some other CRM softwares. Inputting data is also very intuitive.

Cons

The software lakes a project management component which would maximize the usefulness of this product. If we could manage and prioritize tasks within the platform, it would make our work processes a lot more efficient.

Served its purpose but could use some work

I think it could be improved, but is a good tool for smaller businesses to use. We had to do a lot of customization which can be frustrating when you want to be able to use the software for varying purposes. It didn't quite fit the needs of our organization, but I think it could be good for organizations that are starting up.

Pros

The user interface was relatively easy to use and resembled Microsoft products in the way it was setup. It offers an online version that allows you to access the software regardless of where you are.

Cons

The online version and desktop version are different. Our organization had individuals that interacted with the software differently and some people used the online version more than the desktop. At times there was confusion regarding where certain items were listed or if they were under different modules. Although this wasn't a huge ordeal it did pose some inconveniences at times when trying to locate information or when people had access to different modules.

Most EXCELLENT customer service

We didn't need a CRM that did lots of tricks. To start we just needed a way to keep notes on customers and provide accessibility for management review. We also needed a bulk email program for promos. Claritysoft provides a very intuitive platform. We use the offline and mobile versions the most. On the live version, we send bulk emails and generate automatic reports. With a little instruction, everyone took to the common tasks right away. Like any computer program that holds large quantities of information, we've experienced a few glitches and things that required a bit of a workaround until they helped to smooth things out. There are a few minor things we'd like changed to suit our special needs, but they are working on them. I can not say enough good things about their customer service. They really attend to our needs and call back when they say they will. That means a lot. Revisions are happening all the time so the product just keeps getting better. Later we may choose to incorporate more features.

Pros

Their customer service.

Cons

A little glitchy sometimes, but it could be on our end some of the time.

Clarity Soft Review

Overall this software is very easy to use, has a simple menu bar and a good layout. It was not difficult to learn and the implementation process was faster than other programs I have used in the past. This software definitely will work for the right company, but has a very specific sales process that must be followed in order to get results. It is best used for company's that need a separate opportunity field from a quotation field. There are some options in the opportunities section that are not in the quotations field and vice versa, which makes entering in customer projects difficult. One thing that was beneficial was the custom options field that allows the administrator to create custom fields without the assistance of Clarity Soft. I wish they would allow more fields and menu bars to be custom, but for the price, it is pretty versatile. Some of the best features of this program include the advanced search and offline program. The advanced search allows you to sort, export and run custom reports to help track ROI and manage customer projects. The offline version of Clarity Soft is also extremely helpful when our sales team is on the road traveling. This allows them to continue working when on a plane or in a car without the use of the internet. A negative feature of the program is the lack of customization to the overall layout. Most features are set in place and you must work with that setup. Also, the program has a lot of glitches that need to be worked out internally. For example, we could enter in a field and it won't show up until a later time or an email didn't attach itself to the correct account. Most of the time we have to either hit the refresh button multiple times or even sign out of the program and sign back in for entries to show up. Also, it is confusing when you are working with the email part of the software because you must have the offline version open on your computer in order for it to save emails to Clarity Soft. One thing that I would like to warn people when choosing this software is working with the Clarity Soft sales team. When we were first looking into the software they gave us a free trial to see how it would fit with our sales process and sales team. Once the trial ended they charged us for a year contract and the sales person said that she had no recollection of ever starting a trial with us. The sales person was extremely manipulative and very rude during the entire process. In the end, higher management apologized and fixed the issue for our company and since then there have not been any further issues. With that being said the technical support team has been very helpful answering any questions and assisting us with our training.

Pros

- Administrator able to change some custom fields
- Easy to use and easy to learn
- Advanced search is great for tracking ROI
- Good value for the price
- Good technical support

Cons

- Simple but limiting layout
- Glitches in software
- Difficult email integration
- Poor sales management

Great CRM! Glad we found it so we could leave Salesforce.com.

We just started the implementation process and have a fabulous experience. Everyone at Claritysoft is helpful and responsive. In fact, I found a couple of tiny bugs but they were fixed within 24 hours of my reporting them. I've learned a lot from watching the recorded training videos and attending the live training sessions.

Pros

It's combined the best features of Salesforce.com and ACT! to create an easy-to-use and fairly intuitive CRM experience. Customization is easy and straightforward. (In the interest of full disclosure, I have about 20 years of experience administering various CRM environments - starting with Goldmine in the early 90s, moving to ACT! in the late 90s, then Salesforce.com in 2005 - so I know what I'm looking at and know what I'm looking for.)

Cons

Currently, custom objects can be related to only Contacts and Accounts. It would be great if we could create relationships between custom objects and other standard objects.

I saw a demo that showed a revised organization of the Settings commands. This will be very helpful; the new design is much more intuitive (based on my experience using other CRM software). Please implement this as soon as you can.
The documentation could be more complete. What's there is great (like the instructions for setting up Outlook Sync with Live), but more information (like setting up custom objects) would be helpful.

We are a non-profit organization with a sizeable database. Clarity Soft stepped up to help.

Pros

We were able to customize it to fit our needs and the Clarity Soft team was extremely helpful. I was the point person and I am not technologically savvy, so I was heavily reliant on the team. They gave us far more support than we ever could have paid for.

Cons

The only challenge is that it's really designed for business accounts with multiple contacts. Our accounts are mostly individual donors. Some of the essential information fields are unique to either accounts or contacts which creates some challenges that are no fault of Clarity Soft.

I love this software, and I use it every day to manage our customers, accounts, and leads!!!

If I had to use pen and paper to keep track of what ClaritySoft does, it would take me an eternity to do what I have done with this software.

Pros

The thing that I like most about this software is that it is user-friendly and has a memory that I could never dream of! It keeps up with every call, email, fax, meeting, follow up, and everything else that I do for every person I contact! It is a beast of a software, and I would recommend it to anyone!

Cons

The only thing that I do not like about it is that I wish they had an app, but they do have a mobile website which you can create an app from a website (Google it, I did it for my fiance's bank).