Take a survey of companies using CRM software and you will hear the same complaints. It is too hard to use, too many mandatory fields to fill in and too many clicks to access the right customer data.  After testing several CRM systems it’s hard to argue their point. Of course, products designed for enterprise level companies are by design harder to use. They offer more advanced features that can make the product difficult to navigate and utilize. However, it is not just enterprise products that people complain about. Many products marketed to small and mid-size businesses are so limited that these can be difficult to use as well.

One company whose product gets high marks for usability is Commence CRM. Commence starts with customer profile management. It has a very intuitive user interface and allows you to enter or access data with a single click.  Clicking on the Accounts tab for example allows you to view your list of accounts.

Once you select an Account, a detail form displays just about everything you want to know quickly about the account such as: the company name, billing address and how to reach them by phone/email; employees or contacts;  notes entered; activities scheduled – past, present and future; what the customer purchased, when they purchased, what they paid (sales history); new opportunities (future and recurring business); service history; and any projects they are engaged with.

Clicking “More…” expands the form even further to display e-mail history, e-mail marketing results, associated documents, and more as part of the customer profile. The differentiator here is that every bit of customer information is on one screen, and you can simply click on the area you wish to access or simply scroll down the screen.

Commence is not as powerful as enterprise players like Salesforce.com or Microsoft CRM but using Commence is easy and fun.  It is an “All-in-One” solution covering all aspects of Customer Profile Management. It is ideal for businesses that have 10 to 100 users.  For more information or a free test drive visit commence.com.