Close.io for therapists, tutors and coaches

I have been looking at various CRM's for my private practice. I provide online therapy for speech, language and learning. Close.io impressed me with its rich features and customizations. I loved the fact that Close.io works perfectly for one person. So many of the other CRMs are for sales teams.

Pros

Everything functioned flawlessly on the first try. I was able to set it up to use my domain name email. I imported all my contacts from Gmail. I could add customizations that would make it easy to keep track of my clients. The search function knocked my socks off! I couldn't remember the name of a certain funding agency. Just by entering the client's name, it gave me the funding agency. Close.io was created for people trying to make an initial sale. I keep my clients three or four years and they often need a break from therapy for a few months. It was easy for me to give clients a status, such as "paused" or "completed goals". I was able to collect leads from my Wordpress website using Planso Forms. These create a new lead in Close.io. The options to add a phone line and bulk email surprised me. I haven't seen this in any other CRMs. I can create email templates and send out messages to groups of people using my domain name email. The messages are plain text, which is just right for smart phones. I tried out the phone function on my computer. I have been using Magic Jack, and getting complaints from clients about MJ. The Close.io phone line is from Twilio and is much clearer. By installing the app on my phone, I can have a second phone number on my cell and I don't have to give clients my personal number.

Cons

I'm in Canada. I wish the price wasn't so high, especially with the exchange rate. As an online therapy provider, I also have to pay for a telepractice platform and an online scheduler. If Close.io offered integration with Verishow and Accuity Scheduling, they would be able to offer a complete virtual office for online therapists, tutors, and coaches.

Close is great for startup sales but lacks some simple features

Overall it's been a good but not great experience. The basics are covered for a CRM but some what seems like basic features are still missing.

Pros

I love the automated email sequences to help with my outbound prospecting efforts. This enables me to 'set it and forget it" to ensure proper follow up is happening with prospects.

Cons

I don't like that you can't map specific email chains to specific opportunities. Furthermore, you can't upload files which is a real drawback and support suggested I just link to google shared drives.

Great CRM

Overall my experience with Close has been a positive one. Customer service is responsive.

Pros

The pros are that is a pretty straight forward CRM to use. It integrates well with many other applications.

Cons

Overall, I cannot really think of any cons. It gets the job done as a reasonably priced CRM. It does not have as many features as salesforce but for the price its great.

Most your organization will ask, "why aren't we using Salesforce?"

Skip it.

Pros

Great if you have the patience and developments resources to help you customize everything. API is good, but for most non-enterprise organizations, who has time to be messing with APIs? Built in VoIP is a nice feature, but do your math and make sure the price is worth it.

Cons

- Searching for data is near impossible. Can't filter for anything logically without getting into "raw queries," so you better be half an engineer if you want to search for anything. - Reporting is a joke. The reporting tools might as well not exist. Be prepared to ask developers to leverage the API and sync into some other tool. - No matter what they may sell you, it's a CRM best used with small sales teams. It's not for account management or companies that expect anyone without an engineering degree to figure out how to analyze the data inside of it.

Great Beginner CRM Tool

Great tool overall to get started for a founder with little sales experience

Pros

- Very easy to get started / intuitive interface - Enables you to send emails straight from tool and manage inbox - Ability to set reminders and follow ups - pipeline UI, similar to salesforce or hubspot

Cons

- analytics on emails (open rates, campaigns) hard to understand. Ended up using persistIQ for this - hard to tell when prospect opened email