#1 most frequent
United States of America
66.7%423 installations of 634
What is Act! CRM?
Act! CRM (formerly Swiftpage) aims to empower small businesses to build and manage client relationships and leads, so the user always has a pipeline of new, repeat, and referral business under control. Users can manage their businesses with Act! CRM every day, since it’s more than a CRM – it’s designed to present everything needed to stay on top of relationships, see what’s most important and actionable, and run sales and marketing in one place.
Categories & Use Cases
Product Demos
Top Performing Features
Call center management
This includes features such as call routing, recording and monitoring; call list management; autodialing; and scripting.
Category average: 7.8
Help desk management
This includes trouble ticketing, knowledge base, self-service, and service level agreement (SLA) management.
Category average: 8.1
Workflow management
The software helps automate parts of the sales process, such as sending emails, updating contact records, and following approval processes.
Category average: 8.3
Areas for Improvement
Mobile access
Users can access the CRM system via mobile or tablet device, and potentially leverage the unique capabilities of mobile devices, such as GPS and voice.
Category average: 7.8
Quote & order management
Users can create, process and fulfill price quotations and sales transactions.
Category average: 8
Contract management
Users can manage contracts, with features such as digital signatures, automated alerts, invoicing, and automated workflow for contract review and approvals.
Category average: 7.9
Who Buys & Uses Act! CRM
#2 most frequent
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
10.6%67 installations of 634
#3 most frequent
Canada
6.2%39 installations of 634
Is Act! CRM Software Worth the Price for Your Business?
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We use Act! CRM for several of our business functions. Not only is it a traditional contact CRM, we also utilize the Opportunities module to track new and potential business opportunities. Additionally, we use Act! CRM to generate our proposal documents utilizing Word templates. Finally, as a separate database, we use Act! CRM to track and record our current and closed projects.
Pros
- Provides plenty of storage to add nearly an infinite number of contacts and information.
- Makes it easy to see new added information.
- Let's you customize the field names and add new ones to fit your business.
Cons
- The auto saving function is not great. It means a simple slip or mistype can change an entire record easily.
- The reports are clunky and if you've changed the field names, that doesn't get reflected in the reports.
- The interface is still clunky. It is hard to see all the information for a contact all in one place. It gets broken up too much.
Return on Investment
- The product makes it possible to generate our proposals and thus get new business.
- The annual subscription is very expensive, as is any support.
- There is not much information available online about Act! CRM and how to use it.
Usability
Alternatives Considered
Salesforce Desk
Other Software Used
Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Windows, Email to PDF for Outlook
Act! CRM - for prospecting and nurturing
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We needed a CRM for our prospecting and account management within the business and selected to use Act! CRM as an option for this, we also wanted to use the email marketing tools as extra to communicate with our customers on a regular basis and ensure we were monitoring emails sent and other communications we've logged such as calls, history notes etc.
Pros
- Email marketing
- CRM management
- Group creation
- Email sequencing
Cons
- Better incorporation of email marketing into the contacts, currently works as a email tab which doesn't always work
- Technical issues where databases break or go down/can't be accessed happened a few times over the year during working days which stops our prospecting activities
Return on Investment
- Increased our conversion rate on prospects by 10% more
- Allowed us to provide email marketing with the option of sequencing
- Increased our direct sales through creating groups to nurture to our existing customers by 7% sales growth
Usability
Alternatives Considered
HubSpot CRM
Other Software Used
Sage 50cloud Accounting, LinkedIn Sales Navigator
I just wish this worked as described!
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
I use it to manage all day-to-day activities within the business. It keeps track of all my enquiries, opportunities as well as clients. I use Act! to schedule all of the work for all of my clients and team members. It is an integral part of the business that I couldn't live without.
Pros
- Opportunity management.
- Client history.
Cons
- Google synchronisation.
- Software development response time.
Return on Investment
- Since I've had a problem with Google synchronisation, new enquiries have virtually stopped! This is now a serious issue which still hasn't been fixed!
Usability
ACT! the best CRM for marketing companies
Pros
- Keeps prospect contact info
- Documents history
- Calendar features
Cons
- Connection with a VOIP type system
- Integration with other email applications
- Analytics
Return on Investment
- The computer based application is cost effective
- Reporting is minimal for client purposes
- maintenance is minimal
Alternatives Considered
Salesforce CMS
Other Software Used
TeamViewer, Dialpad Talk, Zoom
Usability
RUN, Do not walk away from Swiftpage ACT!
Pros
- Swiftpage ACT! unilaterally and retroactively changed the terms of all clients previously with ACT! Premium. We renewed September 2019 but they essentially cancelled this contract two months into the 12 month period. The really know how to increase revenue with nearly a 50% price increase. If you are a Swiftpage stockholder you are pretty happy about all of this. We clients are not.
- No known strengths.
Cons
- Many of us need to send a lot more emails than our standard email accounts will allow. We all also need to conform to federal laws about sending emails. So working with reputable firms that do bulk emails is essential. So we have to use third party services. EMarketing was awful. We would revise a template, dutifully save it multiple times, confirm our changes had been captured, and then send out an email campaign we were comfortable was going to work. Well, despite having done QC and being diligent about saving our work, Swiftpage sent out a version that reflected few if any of our changes. We totally lost confidence with EMarketing.
- So Swiftpage's answer to the bulk email problem they created with EMarketing was to tell all their clients if they did not immediately move to version 21 they were going to lose all email capability. EMarketing was being shut down and all of us would have no capability to send emails. So let's do a little extortion and say with a nearly 50% increase in price we can help you.
- Best of luck getting ACT! Marketing Automation to actually work! We have already wasted a lot of hours and have nothing to show for the lost time. The reason we are so convinced no one should have to endure the loss we have already suffered.
- The software is so badly written customers are either forced to pay technical support to solve problems their software coders created or look to replace ACT.
Return on Investment
- Total waste! We have lost vastly more time than is reasonable for any client to absorb.
- The subscription fee increase is outrageous but your total loss is vastly higher with all the wasted time trying to get defective software to work.