Today’s customer is far more demanding than ever before. And rightfully so. Competition for their patronage and loyalty is at an all-time high. Today’s customers are no longer content with being sold a good product at a good price. They want to be engaged and listened to. They want a relationship with the brands they choose to identify with.
At first glance, this might seem like a lot to ask of a brand. However, there are many tools (software packages) on the market that helps businesses do exactly that.
CRM software helps businesses nurture relationships with their customers. Great! But which one among the many on the market? Choosing the right CRM software for your team could go a long way toward engaging and motivating your team to do their best.
In this short article, we’ll take a look at 2 of the more popular CRM software solutions meant to engage customers and drive leads – User.com and Pipedrive.
The Origins – Perspectives Point to Priorities
Pipedrive boasts being “designed by salespeople, for salespeople”. Therefore, it is of no surprise that the software aims to be quick to set up, easy to use, and geared toward increasing sales.
On the other hand, User.com was designed by AI enthusiasts. They have placed an emphasis on automation in an attempt to design software that is intuitive and self-acting.
While the end goals are the same, when we look at the origins of both platforms we can get a better idea of how these goals are meant to be met and on which features or qualities they choose to emphasize.
Both software packages have the same essential features:
- Tracked communications
- Analytics
- Generating reminders, alerts, and reports
- Automated email and phone campaigns
- Integration with mobile phones and other software or platforms
In simplistic terms:
With Pipedrive, the focus is on offering a tool where the sales team can plan and track the progress of customers through the sales pipeline.
With User.com, the focus is on creating automation that helps the sales team to lead the customer through the sales pipeline.
With Pipedrive, the sales team is presented with procedures they can do to increase customer engagement. With User.com, the sales team is presented with procedures they can have the software do to increase customer engagement.
The same tools with the same goals but with a different emphasis on how to use those tools and how to achieve those goals.
What is Pipedrive?
Pipedrive is designed to be intuitive and easy to use. While this will help many members of a sales team get off and running with the software, this design feature does come with its drawbacks. It lacks the sophistication and customization power of User.com’s software.
Pipedrive is best suited for a user with limited tech know-how or for someone who only plans on using the CRM software sparingly.
What is User.com?
User.com is designed to be fully automated and customizable. While this will help larger companies with a customer database of a considerable size, this design emphasis does come with its drawbacks. Onboarding is not as simple as it is with Pipedrive.
And the automations that are possible with this software can become so complex that you may find yourself quickly down a rabbit hole or two.
User.com is best suited for large-scale marketing campaigns or for more tech-savvy users who will be able to use the numerous automation features to their fullest extent.
Why Use a CRM Software at All?
In the early stages of using CRM software, you may find yourself spending hours integrating, loading, configuring, setting reminders, and programming automation. That’s a lot of time on the software, and no time engaging with your customers.
At first, it may appear counter-productive. You’re ignoring your customers or, at the very least, treating them as data points and engaging with them in terms of algorithms.
Then comes the next stage. You have so many customers or visitors to your website that engaging with even a small percentage of them would be impossible. This is the stage where all the preliminary work you’ve put in on the software starts to pay off.
The truth is, CRM software will not help you to engage with a customer. It will help you engage with thousands of customers – including prospective customers, visitors to your website, or those who have responded to one of your campaigns.
CRM software becomes indispensable when you are attempting to engage with customers on a large scale, especially for small-scale startups. It becomes indispensable when you are using digital campaigns – websites, email campaigns, etc. – and you want to make sure that every user that comes along receives the appropriate amount of attention and guidance through the sales pipeline.
Final Remarks
It’s not necessarily about your career goals and how you define them. It’s more about what kind of user you are, your level of expertise in tech, and how much you value customization over ease of use – and vice versa.
Both Pipedrive and user.com offer free trials so you can test out their software. And should you decide to stay with one software, both options have different plans that give you the option of only paying for what you need.
However, be mindful that onboarding – integrating the software with your sites and campaigns and uploading your customer database – does take a bit of time.
Not to mention the time you will spend learning how to use the software. So, it is advisable to have an idea of the kind of user you are and what you expect from your CRM software before opting for a trial. Even if the trial is free, your time and effort are not.
