Customer relationship management software (CRM for short) seems to be a dime a dozen these days. Companies have all sorts of software options for managing their contacts — from desktop applications to web applications, free software to pay software. Choosing among these many alternatives is sometimes difficult.
Most CRMs are too Bloated
Screenshot of Sugar CRM
The first CRM software we used here at Simpleslice was Sugar CRM. Sugar is a free, web-based program that you can install on on your own web server with almost no effort at all. Sounds pretty good, right?
Well, like most other CRM software, Sugar is clunky to use and too bloated with features. Getting multiple users set up is difficult, and navigating through the mounds of buttons on the menu is nearly impossible for the uninitiated.
We left Sugar as fast as we could. It was just too much for a small business like us! We then started on a journey to find an easy, inexpensive web-based CRM to help manage our contacts.
Doorbell CRM: Sales Software for Non-Sales People
That’s when we found Doorbell CRM. Doorbell, the brainchild of Smibs, sets itself apart from the rest of the CRM world by being, “sales software for non-sales people.” Intrigued by this distinction, we decided to give it a try.
Doorbell was just released from private beta on July 7, 2009. Despite many cosmetic enhancements in this new release, however, Doorbell still isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing product. We’re confident that the user interface will continue to improve over time, however, and recognize that this software is still relatively new.
Even with its user interface shortcomings, however, Doorbell does pack some powerful features.
The Big Four: Contacts, Tasks, Opportunities, Groups
Whereas other CRM systems try to cram hundreds of features into every single window, the entire Doorbell software only really works with four major areas: contacts, tasks, opportunities, and groups.
- Contacts: an address book-style listing of the contacts for your company. Within this section you can add notes and to-do items for people and companies in your contact list.
- Tasks: an aggregation of all the to-do items that you’ve recorded for your contacts. You can also add new tasks here.
- Opportunities: a simple listing of potential or upcoming ventures for your company. In the words of Doorbell: “An opportunity doesn’t have to be about a business deal, it can also be about finding new office space or hiring a talented contractor.”
- Groups: a listing of contact groups for your company. This is a good spot to organize your contacts into groups other than by company; a good example might be people to whom you’d like to send a Christmas card this year.
Doorbell does a great job at keeping things simple and organized. We were very impressed with the overall structure and simplicity of the program.
Overall Pro’s and Con’s of Doorbell
As we were using the system, we found many good (and bad) points that are worth mentioning.
| Pro’s | Con’s |
|---|---|
| Doorbell is relatively inexpensive. The cheapest pay plan is $19/month. | Signup process was somewhat confusing. I still don’t know why it required me to create a separate company account. |
| User interface is simple and uncluttered. | User interface is not visually pleasing. |
| Finding contacts is easy and intuitive. | By default, people and companies are both listed in your contacts. This should be a preference, not a requirement, since it creates some redundant entries. |
| Adding and editing contacts, tasks, etc. is easy and intuitive. | The tabbed interface on the right side is confusing. Closing one tab closes all tabs unexpectedly. |
| Good access controls restrict visibility of contacts among colleagues. | Inviting additional users to your company on Doorbell is hidden — it took a few minutes to find. |
| The application uses AJAX and other modern programming techniques throughout. | The Smibs dashboard is confusing. Having signed up for Doorbell, I wondered why I was thrown into some strange dashboard. |
Final Thoughts
It’s evident whom Doorbell is trying to compete with: Highrise from 37signals. The Doorbell frontend website is suspiciously similar to Highrise, and the features that Doorbell promotes seem to be subtly attacking Smibs’s perceived shortcomings of Highrise.
Highrise is a much more mature product when compared to Doorbell. However, if Doorbell can manage to hire a few more talented graphic designers and continue to expand on its features (while remaining true to its simplicity), it may have a fighting chance at overtaking a portion Highrise’s market share.
If you’re willing to overlook the bland design of Doorbell, then we’d more than recommend giving it a go for your company. Doorbell really is a good piece of software.
Photo by magnetbox.
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