Expensive Service
Updated April 08, 2014
Expensive Service
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction
CheetahMail is used across most departments within our organization. We use their self-service option and to do so requires tech support and your own design team.
- Has many refinements for segmentation such as location, transaction data, opens...
- Tracks many metrics for reporting such as transaction data, open data, click data...
- Much flexibility for design
- Navigation is not intuitive.
- Tech support is lacking. An account representative with no technical knowledge is your main contact and there is a long lag when technical issues arise because the account representative has to wait on their tech team. There also often is a communication gap as to what the technical issues are as you are not allowed to talk directly to tech support and the account representative must mediate.
- Most innovative solutions require much more money and are not included in the basic (self-service) CheetahMail package. For example, integrating with other data sources and having advanced segmentation require you to purchase an outside service that is compatible with CheetahMail but not included in the CheetahMail package. CheetahMail is drastically behind in terms of technology. So much so that we had an experience where we've tried to integrate with certain third parties but were unable to because CheetahMail was not as advanced as the other email providers.
- Extremely manual process for setup and reporting. There is no automation or anything easily accessible to the marketers without tech support. They are significantly worse than any other competitor.
- Faster lead conversion
We've evaluated 6 other email service providers and have come to the conclusion that CheetahMail is extremely lacking and consistently on the decline. They lack in innovation, in having the option to integrate data from other sources, in functionality when it comes to automating the email process. If you are going for their self-service option, stay away! I doubt they will still be in business give or take 5 years.
Evaluation and Selection
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
When it came time to renew our contract with CheetahMail, it really came down to timing and cost. CheetahMail gave us a huge price break to stay on their service and so we decided to do so rather than seek out another email service provider and go through the trouble of switching. It was a big mistake, we definitely should have switched as we've seen a huge decline in service in the past year and just a lack of innovation and capabilities that other platforms provided.
I would go for functionality over price because at the end of the day, we would be saving money since we had to integrate with a number of third parties to get CheetahMail into a place where it would work for us. We wouldn't have to do so with a different platform.
Training
- Self-taught
Extremely chaotic and hard to learn. We asked for training materials from Experian but didn't receive them so it was all self taught. I would not recommend this way of learning but also find that there isn't necessarily a better way as you need to have a lot of time familiarizing yourself with the program (because it's not intuitive) to use it.
Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Kept well informed Quick Initial Response | Slow Resolution Less knowledgeable Problems left unsolved Escalation required Difficult to get immediate help Need to explain problems multiple times |
Yes - Because we use the self-service option, it is imperative that you have access to account reps as it is a very manual program and requires many hours of tech support to get things moving.
Yes - Bugs take months to get fixed and oftentimes they come back and tell you there's just nothing they can do about it...
I think the one area where Experian really did rise above and beyond is in new campaign planning and brainstorming ideas.
Usability
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
None | Do not like to use Difficult to use Requires technical support Not well integrated Inconsistent Slow to learn Cumbersome Feel nervous using Lots to learn |
- Email creation
- Segmentation
- Navigation
- Integration with Demandware and Omniture
Vendor Relationship
If you are already in a contract and looking to renew, threaten to go with a competitor and they will give you a price break.