Zoho Reviews

Zoho has received a lot of praise for the ease at which it can be set up and its straightforward implementation. That said, implementation is only one part of the equation. A number of Zoho reviews have cited shortcomings feature-wise, driving home the point that fast configuring and implementation won’t amount to much if the system can’t handle what you need it to do.

Integration with other apps

Zoho’s CRM solution is just one tool in Zoho’s broad suite of business management products. For full control over all of your business management processes, it is expected that you either spring for a separate Zoho or third-party app. Surprisingly enough, however, there are reviews critical of how the CRM’s integrates with the other tools in the Zoho suite itself.

“They seem to have an app for anything you could want to do,” said G2Crowd reviewer Cole M. “It seems they fall victim to “Jack of all Trades, Master of none. It was often hard to get their other apps to integrate with one another.”¹

Another reviewer, this time on TrustRadius, calls the poor integration “a major disappointment”, noting that “integration with bug tracking was not really possible and integration with the help desk system was just a simple logging of help desk tickets. The various modules are still disparate tool sets.”²

It’s not just with first-party apps, either. The same TrustRadius reviewer also noted similar integration troubles with their external tools, something that a few other reviews — both good and bad — mentioned.

Ease of use and customer support

Reviews that tackled ease of use are a bit divided. As we’ve mentioned before, some reviewers say the app is straightforward and easy to learn. Others, meanwhile decry its complexity and the little kinks and eccentricities that have to be pinpointed and overcome in order to get the most out of the system.

One review that stood out mentioned the limitations of the search function, where you have to type in the exact spelling of a lead, contact, or account name.

“If you are unsure of the spelling of a lead, contact, or account you will not be able to access that file until you first find the exact spelling,” the reviewer, Carol M., writes. “If you have one name correct, but the other name is misspelled you will not find your file.”³

Customer support is another divisive issue, although a good number of the more critical reviews mention it one way or another. One TrustRadius review by Ajay Gupta, in particular, called Zoho’s customer support “awful” and “embarrassing”.⁴

Zoho Pricing

Zoho is one of the least expensive CRMs around. That low financial barrier to entry is one of the system’s biggest selling points, although reviewers are quick to point out that you really do get what you pay for.

The free version of Zoho, for example, is often praised by reviewers and users as a viable short-term solution for startups and small businesses. G2Crowd reviewer Erich R. notes, however, that “it’s not a scalable solution long term for many companies looking to expand.”⁵

Another G2Crowd reviewer, Jeff L., echoes this assessment. Although he found that Zoho was easy to use and configure, the reviewer emphasizes that it’s “really only an applicable solution for very small organizations.”⁶

Why you need more than just a CRM

It’s no surprise that startups and SMBs go through growing pains more often any other businesses. An entry-level CRM will likely be very useful in the company’s first few years, but once all that growth hacking comes to fruition and expansion kicks in, there’s no guarantee that such a system will be able to keep pace with the needs and requirements of a fast-growing company.

While just a bit more expensive, an all-in-one online CRM can prove to be much more scalable. Through a variety of customization tools and features such as custom fields, custom sales processes, and custom projects, the system can scale according to your exact needs, whether you’re still a three-man team waiting for your startup to become the next big thing or an established small or medium business that wants to leverage the advantages offered by a cloud-based platform.

An all-in-one CRM is built for more than just keeping track of potential customers and clients. It gives full control of the whole customer management life cycle without the need for additional apps and expenses. With it, you can turn emails into leads and contacts, create, modify, and deploy projects quickly, send out invoices and bill your customers, and accept, track, and resolve support tickets through the web or over the phone.

Sign up for your free 14-day WORK[etc] trial today.

References:

1. “Review by Cole M.”. G2Crowd.com. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
2. “Review by a consultant at an internet company.”. TrustRadius.com. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
3. “Review by Carol M.”. G2Crowd.com. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
4. “Review by Ajay Gupta.”. TrustRadius.com. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
5. “Review by Erich R.”. G2Crowd.com. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
6. “Review by Jeff L.”. G2Crowd.com. Retrieved August 29, 2014.

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