BEST SALESFORCE CRM ALTERNATIVE

1. Complex Interface

“Salesforce is not an intuitive Software. it’s not easy to go from one place to another, it’s not so clear all the paths, it’s a very complex tool.”

A big concern for most of the Salesforce users is a complex and confusing interface. The primary quality of the best CRM Software is to be flexible and user-friendly. As a matter of being user-friendly, Salesforce is by no means a perfect one. Unless and until you are an expert in the business features and settings, it is really a pain to get around the Software, fully understand it, and use it to your advantage.

Even with years of experience, Salesforce has failed to understand that complexity can make or break the customer relationship. It becomes harder and tedious when you are running hundreds of business processes and customizations. You get barred with various limitations that make it harder for you to proceed with your business process.

Regarding the complexity of the interface, a review of a customer goes by:

“Setup and administration are extremely complex – and not just for complex customizations and custom integrations – but even to configure the software for day to day use for most companies that want to take advantage of the platform. It’s likely that small and mid-size businesses will need to hire a consultant/firm to complete their setup.”

Besides having a complex user interface, Salesforce also lacks in the process of updating the UI. Many of the users have directly reported and requested Salesforce to change or update the UI. But, still in vain!

Another user reviewed:

“The interface has barely been updated in the 6 years that I was a customer. Each year I wanted to change CRM but just didn’t have the time to explore my options as the renewal came in my peak period. There is no ability to change to monthly billing OR downgrade. So you are either a customer for a full year each time or you are forced to leave – so choose wisely.”

With complex problems with UI, small businesses feel that it is not the best-fit CRM for them, which should have been the first objective for Salesforce. You can find many small business people, showing their frustration:

“The UI definitely needs a revisit! Limited training available. Seems clunky for a small shop, almost too much there to comprehend. Not extremely user-friendly.”

The platform gets extremely complicated, and figuring out the process without expensive training will leave you desperate. Apptivo is known for its easy maneuverability and clean UI. In addition to this, you can also customize the dashboard and some modules of the app to suit your needs.

2. Ridiculously Expensive

With so many other cheaper and better options in the market, Salesforce pricing doesn’t justify anymore.

“The biggest downside to Salesforce is the pricing. It is on the pricey side. It may not fit small businesses on a tight budget.”

A big concern for the mid-sized business owners is the additional and extra costs linked with the Salesforce, in addition to the initial pricing cost. Almost all the customers have been accused of Salesforce’s higher price. Though there are many features in Salesforce, the cost of acquiring them becomes a very big problem for all the users!

9 out of 10 people feel frustrated with its price being rated too high. When it is about CRM for small businesses, having only a handful of employees, Salesforce has become a nightmare. With their requirements being only a handful of lead management, customization, emails, etc., Salesforce has become a distant want. Given below is one of the reviews shared by a customer:

“Salesforce is expensive and convoluted. Whilst its core features are very functional, there are lots of other features that are irrelevant for different people and types of businesses, which makes the experience hard to get your head around, to begin with.”

Providing a vast set of unwanted features and also being difficult to learn, users feel dejected, eventually paying for tools and services they do not use.

“It was hard to use. If you want email marketing, you have to add an additional module. This made it hard to justify the cost.”

This pricing has become the most primary unfortunate flaw for Salesforce. Even if people ignore the pricing and go ahead with Salesforce, sooner or later they’re gonna realize that it isn’t worth the risk or the money they’re pouring into it. Especially for a Software that has a decade-old complex UI and unreliable support.

Whereas Apptivo’s pricing starts at $8/month/user and also encourages businesses to pay for licenses solely for employees who will be using the system. Apptivo also provides flexibility in pricing based on user volume. In addition to all this, to help small businesses and startups stand on their feet, Apptivo CRM also has a FREE $0 Starter Plan for up to 3 Users.

3. Problematic Technical Support

If you’re expecting great customer service after all the money you poured in, you'd be disappointed. If you need quick and decent support, then you’re going to have to pay more for premium support.

“Extremely poor after sales care. Very robotic customer service with no integrity and a lack of transparency for the terms provided.”

The most common and consistent problem faced by Salesforce users is the inadequate or unavailability of customer support. Though there are tons of other problems, the lack of technical support, stands the first on the list. Almost all customers have given negative feedback and comments on their frustration faced with the support of Salesforce.

Their communication system needs to be improved. Even large businesses, who afford this pricey CRM, have eventually started experiencing the worst customer support.

A customer review goes by, saying:

“I dislike customer service. It is nearly impossible to reach a human being and instead one needs to rely on community forums or hire an outside consultant (which is what we did at my organization). I suppose at a larger organization there may be dedicated on-site support, but that is not the case here and may not be the case at other small organizations.”

This proves the inefficiency of support in solving customer queries. For a company like Salesforce, with experience, it is a horrible fact of having very poor customer support. Promising all kinds of support to customers, before buying the product, and deceiving after-sales, is not really appreciated and not an ethical one too.

Some users have reported that even when they get connected to support, their salespeople have very little or no knowledge of the CRM system.

“Salesforce support is probably the worst I have ever experienced. Their support personnel have very limited knowledge of the CRM. I even had a support agent Google my question and start sending me links from the search results page. Their account executives are very pushy at trying to get you to buy more user licenses and upgrading your Salesforce version.”

Giving no response at times of need for customers is not a proper thing for a company like this. They are not always quick to respond. And one other major hindrance to the support is that you need to pay additionally for dedicated support.

“The standard support takes 2 days to respond. You will need to pay for extra if you need immediate support – premiere. Support can be a bit of a challenge. Unless your paying for Premier Support there isn’t any hand-holding.”

Being not user-friendly and also cornered to pay for dedicated support, Salesforce has proven to give a bad impression, which has led to the reason for the failure of customers trust.

However, the alternative to Salesforce CRM, Apptivo Customer Support operates 24/7 throughout the year and supports Live Chat, Email, Call, FAQs, and User Guides.

4. Tricky Reporting

“I usually say I dislike reports and Dashboards. Reports and dashboards have limited features.”

Salesforce lacks intuitive filters, which are the base for any reporting. Unlike its competitors, the Salesforce reports are too robust and will lack much in many of the intuitive features.

Especially, when it comes to filters. It is a very intimidating reporting platform for most of the new users. It is not at all effective and to just generate a single report, you will definitely require some intense training and help. Otherwise, you are just lost in it.

Given below is a customer review of the reporting on the dashboard:

“Reporting can become complex but the output is standard spreadsheet presentation unless you receive training for creating dynamic charts and more robust content. The basic user can enter data but an admin can create some exciting analysis of information, what I don’t like is that mostly only an admin can do this.”

This proves the inefficiency of the Salesforce reporting. Another acquisition is that the report is not always accurate. They are also not very easy to generate. And there is very little way, where you can customize it.

“Could use more freedom when it comes to reports. As all businesses are different, we sometimes track different ways.”

Unlike Salesforce, Apptivo CRM helps in generating a clear picture of your sales performance, revenue-generating areas, and other stats. With this information available in a single click, you can start focusing on the area where your business needs the most attention and make smart decisions to take your business to the next level.

5. No SLA

“Salesforce generally doesn’t even provide an SLA unless the customer requests or negotiates it.”

One other surprising, yet the annoying drawback is that – unless you negotiate or ask for an SLA, you will not be provided a Service Level Agreement. When asked for SLA, it is not always a “Yes” you get. It is sometimes a yes and many times a no.

In fact, even after you get one, the SLAs are not efficient and strong as their uptime thresholds fall below competitors and their maintenance windows are always in large numbers.

Not just support their services are also inconsistent and unreliable.

Getting issues even when trying to submit a sale, is not an upright thing for a big company like this. There are also some questions or requests raised by customers and users, which are clearly documented, but yet are a failure, as it has been untouched for years. This also proves the lack of implementing a requested service.

6. Intermittent Service

“I will never recommend their product to a client again and in fact, I will make an effort to stare them clear of the salesforce.”

Very often, Salesforce customers experience inconsistent services. As a result of this, they are thrown into frustration, not getting what they want uninterrupted. In the case of updating a record or doing some changes, you can experience a painful process.

A customer’s review of the inconsistent service goes by: “Updates/changes are pretty painful. If we need to collect a new data point or have access to a new field, it often takes weeks or months to get that update live. In addition, our support portal is hosted through salesforce, and we have the same experience: slow and clunky to make updates or changes.”

Above all, they make promises which they cannot keep or provide! Overall, if you are a mid-sized business looking for an automated effective CRM, Salesforce is not the right place for you.