In last week's blog, First Impressions of Redtail's CRM Offering, we began a discussion on Redtail, a cloud-based contact management (CRM) system that I'm considering buying to replace ACT. This week we'll continue, plus I'll add a few new observations about eMoney.
As previously mentioned, Redtail is a good bargain for the price. There is, however, room for improvement. For example, when you schedule a task, a call or an appointment, and would like to set a reminder (i.e. alarm), this can only be set for 30 minutes. In my current CMS, ACT, the reminder can be set for 5, 10, 30, 45 minutes, or any period of time prior to the event. Hence, if your appointment required a 30 minute drive, you could set an alarm for 45 minutes in advance. This would give you 15 minutes to gather your materials and 30 minutes to drive to the meeting. To me, this seems like a very basic function.
One additional issue with Redtail involves creating templates for a mailing or an email. For example, in ACT, I can create a custom email template and use it repeatedly for individual or group emails. Moreover, the template would become the body of the email. It could also contain client-specific information such as name, address, and any other information I included. In Redtail (as I understand it) it's not possible to create a custom template. Yes, there are existing templates, but if you want to build a custom template, you would have to create it in another program such as Microsoft Word, then copy and paste it into your email. The end result would be the same, but it would require a few additional steps. All things considered, Redtail is a good program which is priced competitively. I plan to subscribe very soon.
