Zoho CRM review by Inspector Jones

Zoho CRM is a great choice for small businesses that want CRM software at a very affordable price. Even though Zoho is very affordable, it doesn’t skimp on key features that businesses need to automate their sales, marketing and customer service tasks.

Zoho features include:

Easy to use design

The Zoho CRM system is designed to limit the amount of necessary clicks to perform any given task in a module. Once you are finished, easily creating a workflow customization and setup is extremely simple.

Reporting that is both dynamic and efficient

There is a variety of prebuilt reports in the reports module that can be run in either real-time or scheduled for a later time. Additionally, you are able to create your own customized reports, and then export them in Excel, CSV, or PDF.The ability to create different types of charts, including bar, pie, funnel, or line, is just another useful feature of Zoho’s reporting application.

Impressive inventory management features

Zoho CRM comes with everything you need to manage your products, price books, vendors, sales quotes, orders, and invoices to handle all of the tasks related to sales and inventory management. With this powerful application you can create and send quotes to accounts, contacts, or opportunities directly from the CRM, or you can create and print a PDF file.

Mobile access

Zoho CRM gives you the ability to access your account from any mobile device with an internet connection. You also have the ability to access all of your data offline, and then synchronize with your CRM, later, when an internet connection is available. The key features include being able to log inbound and outbound calls, send emails, and view, add, or delete records.

Social CRM built in

Zoho CRM allows you the ability to engage with your contacts through Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn from one account. You get real-time insight into updates, activities, and interests of both current and potential customers.

Support and resources

Zoho’s CRM support includes live chat and email support for all customers, while paid customers receive phone support, remote assistance, and customer portal access. The response time for email inquiries is two days for free edition users, while paid customers receive a response within 24 hours, Monday thru Friday. You can also access CRM Resources, which contains a user guide, an API guide, videos, a knowledge base, FAQs, and a blog that covers a wide range of helpful topics from the CRM team to Zoho, its partners, and the user community.

Problems

It’s difficult to find another CRM that has more functionality to offer at a lower cost, making Zoho CRM the best value for the money. However, this isn’t to say that Zoho is perfect. Some of the drawbacks include:

• While security is good, at levels well beyond the reach of most small and medium businesses, we would like to see Zoho start publishing information about independent security certification (such as ISO27001) like some of their larger competitors do.
• When you first login you will find a confusing clutter of user options. However, this will become easier to get used to over a short period of time.

Zoho is still one of the lowest-priced, full-featured CRM applications on the market. This makes it an especially great value for small businesses, while offering them a whole host of helpful tools and resources.