Great start but falls away as you want more
Updated July 29, 2024

Great start but falls away as you want more

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Enterprise

Overall Satisfaction with Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM is currently used to help coordinate our service sales processes, from marketing through deal creation and onto the eventual sale. It is also planned to incorporate our accounting processes to give a "cradle to grave" service for our sales and finance teams. We also run a small e-retail store that uses the CRM add-on Zoho Inventory for its own product sales and inventory management.

Pros

  • Basic Sales Process
  • Regular updates
  • It's relatively open to user suggestions
  • Generally customisable

Cons

  • Better communication for updates
  • Published roadmaps for updates
  • Less reliance on script writing for some relatively simple customisations
  • Better customer relationship management
  • Online Forms
  • Easier on the eye for Sales Teams
We are currently evaluating the possibility of moving from Zoho to MS to see if this is a better fit for our business without increasing costs too heavily

Do you think Zoho CRM delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Zoho CRM's feature set?

No

Did Zoho CRM live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Zoho CRM go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Zoho CRM again?

No

For a small to medium enterprise business, Zoho works pretty well out of the box without the need for much customization. As you expand your usage of Zoho, it becomes a little more difficult to customize to fit your business but the team at Zoho is generally welcoming of ideas for improvements.

Zoho CRM Feature Ratings

5.9
Customer data management / contact management
7
Workflow management
6
Territory management
Not Rated
Opportunity management
7
Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)
6
Contract management
6
Quote & order management
5
Interaction tracking
5
Channel / partner relationship management
5
6.0
Case management
6
Call center management
6
Help desk management
6
5.5
Lead management
6
Email marketing
5
5.7
Task management
5
Billing and invoicing management
6
Reporting
6
6.7
Forecasting
6
Pipeline visualization
7
Customizable reports
7
3.8
Custom fields
4
Custom objects
4
Scripting environment
3
API for custom integration
4
6.5
Role-based user permissions
6
Single sign-on capability
7
4.5
Social data
5
Social engagement
4
3.0
Marketing automation
3
Compensation management
3
5.0
Mobile access
5

Using Zoho CRM

60 - Sales, Admin, IT, Finance
1 - Patience, a lot of patience. CRM can become quite emotive especially when you have users that like to do things a certain way but CRM says no.
  • Sales Management
  • Forecasting
  • Data handling
  • Integration with Forms for better data capture
  • Contract Lifecycle Management
In hindsight, we would have set it up a little differently but some of the implementations we have made are difficult to rollback without cost and business impact.

Evaluating Zoho CRM and Competitors

  • Integration with Other Systems
  • Ease of Use
Ease of use was the most important factor in our decision making process. Simplicity is the key with a CRM, the need to engage users is always better with a simple interface that they can interact with quickly and easily. Also having useful output methods so that users can see the end benefit through reporting and analysis without unnecessary coding.
We would look longer and harder to ensure integrations with internal and third party platforms was more easily achieved without the need for development. Several of the "connections" that were available within the Zoho system were not fit for purpose and required additional external development before they could be suitably integrated. Some could not, despite the "option" being available.

Zoho CRM Implementation

Plan twice, at least. As an SME, it is always to sign up for the nicest, shiniest new thing and add as you slowly build it. Unfortunately, you need better planning to make sure you don't go too far off track and delay final implementation. Zoho's modular build enables you to plan and build in instalments so that you can get parts of the business online in a measure fashion.
  • Implemented in-house
Change management was a minor issue with the implementation - As a SME it required us to think more towards the end goal rather than adding bits together to make something grow. Although we do not have all the technical expertise required, better planning was used to ensure we could get what we needed and from where at the correct stage of implementation. Zoho were a very helpful part of this process.
  • Skills (particulary scripting)
  • Employee participation
  • Time management
  • Service response times

Zoho CRM Training

  • No Training
If you use the barebones of CRM, Zoho is nice and simple with a good user interface. Unfortunately, once you wish to expand the use into the Zohoverse, you are more reliant on community forums and YouTub because Zoho official training is very expensive.

Configuring Zoho CRM

The basics are easily customizable but, there is very little documentation on the impact of how the incorrect customization can affect other modules and their contained fields. The regular need for scripting custom fields and mapping these from one module to another is difficult and time-consuming. Not all companies have developers/programmers and rely on someone savvy enough to make these things work. Zoho is mostly happy to help with these customizations but better instruction on writing these customizations without YouTubing would be great.
Although it may sound a bit archaic, map your process on paper first. It may not be as linear as you think. The inability to incorporate your own sales language and rename the various modules within the sales process makes it very difficult to encourage buy-in with users. Opportunity or Potential? Both the same but, if you've been using one for 20 years and Zoho doesn't like it, users will bolt.
Some - we have done small customizations to the interface - Canvas is a useful tool to allow you to define what information you need to see at what times in your pipeline. The drag and drop nature of the design is quite clumsy to get used to and snap-to-grid is not very useful but, on the whole it is simple to use.
No - we have not done any custom code

Zoho CRM Support

Prior to the opening of the EU support team, it could take quite some time for a response and, when it did come it was out of our office hours. Things are slightly faster now but it could be better.
ProsCons
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Kept well informed
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Slow Resolution
Problems left unsolved
Difficult to get immediate help
Slow Initial Response
Cost.
Yes - Yes, we have had good results with the Support team. Unfortunately it is usually the time taken that causes issues.

Using Zoho CRM

The user interface is OK but it is not easy to customize meaning there is a lot of irrelevant information (menus, filters, modules) that takes up valuable space on a screen. Customization of Modules and Fields can be a little bit fiddly as this will regularly involve the requirement for scripting.

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