If you found a great way to do something or maybe found a feature that you didn’t know existed, share it!

CRM Best Practices – The “Name” field

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It may sound trivial but it is absolutely not. You should always, without exception, have both a first name and last name in every contact. When you have it, use a middle initial too, to distinguish between two people with the same name.

If all you have is the first name of John, and you have no last name, you should just put John, or maybe TBD (To Be Determined) in the last name field too.  This enables you to order your contacts by last name, and see for whom you need a last name.

Why? If you do not, you will eventually end up with a long string of contacts in your database with only first names when you order your database by last name. If you ever transfer your database to another one, it ends up being a mess. If you ever do a mailing or e-mailing which requires both the first and the last name it looks very unprofessional and “canned”.

Many people have a company as a contact and only have a first name. Again, put something in the last name field too, even if it is just repeating the first name field. Best practice – First Name = ABC, Last Name = Title Company.

Need help setting up your CRM/Contact Manager?

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A question I get every day is, “After I buy this CRM, how do I get started?” If you have had a Contact Manager or CRM before, and the one you just got is relatively intuitive (easy to learn), then you may be fine. However, if you have never had one before, you may find yourself spending too long just sitting and staring at it. Also, just because you have had one before, does not mean you did not get into many bad habits.

With regards to learning how to use a CRM, many people are fine if they have training videos to watch. Others prefer reading through the documentation. Most hate them both. They want to have someone walk them through it and answer questions as they come to mind. Most people do learn much faster that way, which actually makes it more cost effective in the long run. If your time is worth $100/hr. or more, and you pay someone $50/hr. to learn it, it makes fiscal sense. It is no different than paying a high school kid $5/hr. to stuff envelopes for you.

When you first get a CRM there are certain basics that you want to learn quickly. Some things seem to be obviously easy, but it is even easier to get into bad habits in how you enter information into your contact screen. One very basic lesson is that you should never have a contact without both a first and last name. if all is have is “Bob”, then use that in both the last and first name fields unti you get the last name. If it is a company with one name like COMCAST, put COMCAST in both the first and last name field, or maybe COMCAST in the first name, and CABLE in the last. Another is to never use all caps! Yet another is to never put a contact into your database without putting it into at least one category. Speaking of categories, what is the best way to categorize people? Another question I am commonly asked is who should be in the database.

Then there are good, better, and best, ways to enter property data into that area of the CRM.

There are good, better, and best ways to build activity plans.

Just because you figured out how to do something, does not mean you figured out the best way to do something.

You may also be in a position where you are going to be switching from one to another, and need help exporting and importing.

I have been doing that for years as well. So if you need help, here it is. I have spent the last 22 years using and learning many different CRM’s. Even if I have never seen the one you are using, which is unlikely, I will still be able to teach it to you faster than you could learn it yourself, and I can teach you how to do it the best way to begin with, so you don’t get yourself in trouble for future needs. For more information – https://garydavidhall.com/Coaching.htm

What could I be doing with my CRM/Contact Manager?

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The following is a list of functions that a good CRM enables you to do. Many people buy a CRM because they are told they need one, or because they want to get more organized. Often while evaluating a CRM or after purchasing one, they then end up saying that it cost too much for what they need, because it does so much that they do not need. The reality is that the CRM does so much because it is what you need, IF you want to grow your business significantly, while at the same time; having more of a personal life; with less stress for you and your clients; with less mistakes; with better service to your clients; with less staff; with more compliments from everyone you work with; with more referrals. If you want those things, then the CRM does not do too much. It has the features it does in order to accomplish those things.

Note that the title uses both of the terms CRM and Contact Manager. The fact is that the following bullet points can not all be accomplished with a contact manager. The reason for the title is that a significant percentage of agents have either never heard the term CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) at all, or they have heard it but do not know what it means, or they do not understand the difference between a Contact Manager and a CRM. Therefore, if the words Contact Manager are not in the title, they may never find this post!

An example of a Contact Manager is Outlook. Examples of CRM’s are Top Producer, Agent Office, AdvantageXi, Active Agent for Outlook, etc.

It comes down to recognizing what you want to accomplish with a CRM , and then purchasing according to your needs. Following is a list of what you can accomplish with a good CRM. The more of these things you do within your CRM, the more efficient you will be. If you want to do all or much of what is on the list, then you need a CRM as opposed to a Contact Manager.

  • Prospecting – Get suspects, turn them into prospects, and turn them into sales, by knowing who they are, what they want, and when they want it, all in significant detail, and by being reminded to capitalize on that information automatically.
  • Lead distribution and tracking – The ability to give out a lead to a team member, and then follow-up to see if that member is doing what you want them to do to capitalize on that lead.
  • Lead source tracking – Knowing where your business is coming from and spending your marketing time and money accordingly/wisely.
  • Referral tracking – Knowing who is referring you the most business, so you know who to do more for in return.
  • Contact management – That means everyone! Suspects; prospects; clients; vendors; friends; relatives; neighbors. Knowing how to find any information on anyone, even from many years ago, with a few clicks virtually instantly.
  • Mail merge­ – Do all print or e-mail merging from within the CRM eliminating redundant external databases.
  • E-mail management – How many e-mails are in your inbox? They should be with your contacts, or with the property, where you can find them, quickly, not in your inbox.
  • Document management – Store all documents and photographs relevant to a transaction with the transaction record and/or the contact record. Having a complete paper trail all in one location is invaluable if you are challenged.
  • Appointment management – The ability to not only track when and where you had an appointment with someone, but also the ability to note the substance of that appointment.
  • Listing coordination – The biggest complaint lodged against Real Estate agents has always been poor communication. A comprehensive, automatically executed listing plan enables you to turn those complaints into praise effortlessly, automatically.
  • Closing coordination – Too many details can fall through the cracks. The busier you get, the more details you have swimming around in your head. And each day you have to make many decisions regarding what actions you need to take for which transactions. Even the best paper list and file methods are rife with bottlenecks and inconsistencies. Having all the information you need in one place and a to-do list automatically posted on your calendar makes your job far easier and more stress free.
  • Communications documentation – Also known as History, there is a place where it all comes together. Tasks, phone calls, e-mails, letters, post cards, fliers, and appointments. A contiguous record of everything that has happened with that contact or transaction.
  • Time management – Having automated to-do lists, and organized methods of consistent follow-up. Decide what you want to do, once, and automatically follow up that way every time from then on.
  • Risk reduction – Knowledge is power. If you use a CRM properly and consistently, you will automatically gravitate towards centralizing the huge volume of detail with which you work every day. It can not be overemphasized how important it is to have a contiguous chronological accounting of any contact you have with clients and even prospects. You can be challenged at any point about a myriad of issues from Fair Housing Violations to Mortgage Fraud, Procuring Cause, and any number of other things. A CRM can easily and automatically organize you. Having complete records of; phone calls, letters, e-mails, appointments, etc., insures that you will enjoy a much better position from which to defend yourself if need be.
  • Post closing follow-up/client retention – Not staying in touch with past clients is one of the single biggest causes of loss of income in the Real Estate sales industry. Never lose another referral due to your failure to stay in touch.
  • Staff training and accountability – Personnel retention is a problem that never goes away. Having a system in place with notes built into the CRM task lists significantly diminishes the impact of a lost staff person. It enables you to have the new person step right into a tried and true system, and none of the details are lost in the transition. Additionally, it provides a clear picture of exactly who is doing what each day with regards to each individuals responsibilities.

If this list has you interested, it is likely that you are ready for a comprehensive CRM solution. Just realize that the dollar investment in the CRM is the easy part. The time investment is the tough part. But the rewards are more than you can appreciate until you get there.

What do Top Producer, Agent Office, Active Agent, AdvantageXi, IXACTContact & WiseAgent have in common?

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If you have one of these programs, are you using the Activity Plans capability? Most people are familiar with using plans to automatically follow up with prospects, or to follow up with clients after closing, but what about in between?

What will Real Estate Transaction Management Trans-Plans do for you?

  • Reduce your overall stress level more than ANY other single action you can take
  • Stop the details from “falling through the cracks”
  • Save you approximately 150 – 200 hours by not having to create and key in the plans yourself
  • Keep you in touch with automated letters or e-mails, for your buyers and sellers throughout the listing and closing process
  • Give you a comprehensive “Action List” to present to buyers and sellers in your initial presentations with them
  • Significantly reduce the learning curve for new agents
  • Significantly reduce the time necessary to train a new assistant, or give your assistant a comprehensive list of their responsibilities. One that you can track!
  • Give you new ideas to differentiate you from your competition
  • Enable you to create and maintain a detailed history of your transaction for future reference
  • Provide an instant to-do list for someone helping you out while you’re on vacation
  • Enable you to provide detailed “Client Reports” for your buyers and sellers
  • Get FAR more paperless
  • If you have a team, everyone is assigned their individual tasks, which appear on their calendar – not yours!
  • If you have a team – you will stop playing “Who has the file?”

“I would like to offer a non-solicited plug for Gary’s ‘Real Estate Transaction Management Trans Plans’ action plans that he sells on his web site. I purchased them several months ago, and have modified them to my way of doing business. I feel without his plans, I would not have been able to keep up my current production of 40+ transaction sides with no assistant.

To take your business to the next level, or just simplify your existing business, take a close look at what he has to offer. Thanks! “

Been planning to implement workflows, but just can’t get the time?

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Get up to “Tech-Speed”

You can finally implement the plans and e-mails/letters that keep you on track during listings and closings, instead of just wishing you could get to it.

If you have Top Producer, Agent Office, Active Agent for Outlook, or AdvantageXi, Trans-Plans are included and will be installed as a starting point, saving time. If not, we simply start from scratch with whatever CRM you use, using the plans as a written template. I will consult free online to see what can be done to organize you with your CRM if it is other than the above listed ones.

This is not a class you attend to learn how to implement activity plans.

This is 100% live one-on-one implementation on-line or on-site!

“If you’re like most agents I’ve worked with, you have a very difficult time making the time to implement the technology you want.  In this program, we finally sit down and organize your operation!  The more times I do this, the more it becomes obvious that the thing agents most value about this program is that it forces you to sit down with me and literally put into effect a plan to organize your listings and transactions from start to finish.  Not just talk about it, but literally put it into effect. When we are done, you will have put the task of getting organized for listings and closings behind you.”

Do you write letters?

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This may sound like a stupid question, but it’s not the first time it has come up.

On 4 separate occassions I have been consulting with someone who is creating a new RE CRM, and they did not provide the ability to create a one-off original letter. In other words, you are in a contact’s record, and you want to write a quick “paper” letter to them such that their name and address etc. will be automatically merged into the letter. That letter would then be able to be seen later in that contact’s file if necessary.

My question is this. Do you write one-off (as opposed to form) letters? I realize it is done relatively rarely any more due to e-mail, but if you could chime in to answer whether or not you have that need, I would appreciate it.

via Do you write letters?.

What does a CRM do anyway?

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If you don’t know what a Customer Relationship Manager does, how can you know if you need one?

Do you run your business like a business? You’re probably tired of hearing that old question, but it’s one of the many things a CRM helps you do better. So what doe s a CRM do? If you want to do the following things, or do them better or faster, then you should be looking at CRM solutions.

  • Prospecting – get suspects, turn them into prospects, and turn them into sales, by knowing who they are, what they want, and when they want it, all in significant detail, and being reminded to capitalize on that information automatically
  • Lead source tracking – knowing where your business is coming from and spending your marketing time and money accordingly/wisely
  • Referral tracking – knowing who is referring you the most business, so you know who to do more for in return
  • Contact management – That means everyone! Suspects; prospects; clients; vendors; friends; relatives; neighbors. Knowing how to find any information on anyone, even from many years ago, with a few clicks virtually instantly
  • Time management – having automated to-do lists, and organized methods of consistent follow-up. Decide what you want to do, once, and automatically follow up that way every time from then on
  • E-mail management – how many e-mails are in your inbox? They should be with your contacts, or with the property, where you can find them, quickly, not in your inbox or in a folder somewhere
  • Listing coordination – the biggest complaint lodged against Real Estate agents is poor communication. A comprehensive, automatically executed listing plan enables you to turn those complaints into praise effortlessly, automatically
  • Closing coordination – too many details can fall through the cracks. The busier you get, the more details you have swimming around in your head. And each day you have to make many decisions regarding what actions you need to take for which transactions. Even the best paper list and file methods are rife with bottlenecks and inconsistencies. Having all the information you need in one place and an automated to-do list posted on your calendar makes your job far easier and more stress free.
  • Document management – store all the documents relevant to a transaction right with the record of that transaction and/or with the client
  • Word processing and desktop publishing- enjoy being able to easily do any kind of mailing you want to, right from the database itself rather than farming it out to third party if that is your preference. OR maintain your mailing list and easily send it out to third parties with a few clicks when needed.
  • Post closing follow-up/client retention – not staying in touch with past clients is one of the single biggest causes of loss of income in the Real Estate sales industry. Never lose another referral due to your failure to stay in touch.
  • Risk reduction – knowledge is power. Having an automatically generated centralized easy to reference complete record of phone calls, letters, e-mails, appointments, etc., insures that you will enjoy a much better position from which to defend yourself if need be.
  • Staff training and accountability – personnel retention is a problem that never goes away. Having a system in place with notes built into the CRM task lists significantly diminishes the impact of a lost staff person. It enables you to have the new person step right into a tried and true system, and none of the details are lost in the transition. Additionally, it provides a clear picture of exactly who is doing what each day in the daily tasks.

CRM is the software you need to do these things for you. Therefore, if you need to do these things, you need a CRM solution.

You cannot really grasp how much it will help you.

Occasionally when you are working with a buyer or a seller, do you find yourself thinking, “They have absolutely no clue how incredibly complex this whole transaction is from start to finish. They can read all they want about it, feel they have become quite expert on the subject, and still have no real appreciation for it all.”

Until you use a CRM to the point where you can no longer see yourself getting along without it – you too, cannot appreciate how much of an impact it will have on your business, and even on your life.

If you invest the necessary time to truly use and develop a good CRM as more than just a glorified Rolodex, it is an absolute fact that you will look back some day and wonder how you ever grew your business, stayed in business, and kept your sanity without it. It will be the single most all-pervasive choice you will make in your entire Real Estate career concerning the day-to-day administration of your business. It will become a growing thing and believe it or not, you will actually come to like it a great deal.

DO NOT BUY A CRM…

…unless you are committed to:

  • making the time to learn it – note the use of the word making as opposed to gettingthe time. It’s so very important to understand that this one point makes all the difference in the world between someone who implements the CRM and reaps the benefits, and someone who eventually simply regrets spending the money, and blames it on the CRM. Maybe you have heard the time management axiom that a project or meeting takes as long as the time you allot to it. The same goes for your Real Estate day. You cannot keep putting off learning your CRM until the time that you need to spend with it presents itself. For many of us, that time just does not come. When you put one hour into learning your new CRM first thing in the morning, before you answer any calls or e-mails, you get it done, and then you somehow miraculously manage to get everything else you need to get done that day, done!
  • learning to use it as more than just a glorified Rolodex. If that is all you are going to use it for, stick with Outlook or something like that.

As a Real Estate licensee, we wear many hats. No one likes all of them. There are those who will tell you that the reason most agents do not use a CRM is because they are too complex, and they need to be easier. Maybe they do, but selling Real Estate needs to be easier too, but it is what it is. You learned how to use Outlook, MS Word, and maybe MS Publisher too. You spent hour after hour playing with them until you got a handle on them and never complained because you had no choice. What is so different about learning a CRM?

You do not have to like the time you invest into becoming proficient with a good CRM. But if you want to grow your business, while having more of a life, with less stress, with less mistakes, with better service, with less staff, with more compliments, with more referrals – then you need it.

Make that determination right here and now. In order to accomplish the above, you must make a commitment to investing the time to learn how to use a CRM. You then must either create, or purchase and tweak, pre-written e-mails and letters; fliers; post cards; prospect follow-up campaigns, etc. This does not have to be done all at once! It’s an elephant. Eat it one bite at a time! If you are not yet an organized professional business person in Real Estate sales, and want to become one, what are you waiting for?

Are you using your CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) to follow-up?

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My timing in my career in Real Estate sales was impeccable – not!

I started in 1987, when the market was starting its decline, and I got out in 1994 when the market was turning to the good once again. In my first year, I sat new construction for my broker, and that community’s sales were virtually nil for everyone sitting them. When I wasn’t sitting the samples, I was sitting “on floor/opportunity time” for that same broker. Well no one was getting many opportunities in that market either. I was doing BAD!

Finally after the better part of a year, I stopped doing both, and started doing my own prospecting. Once someone’s name got into my database (I used one called Real Estate Specialist in those days – a DOS program) they got followed up with until they would either, as Steve Stewart would say, “Buy or Die”!

So over the next 5 years, with no pre-existing sphere of influence to speak of, I went from 0 sides in 1988, to 43 sides in 1993, in a very slow, buyers market. How? By mailing or calling everyone who had the misfortune, I mean good fortune, of finding themselves in my database.

I ended up going from a non-producer in a mom and pop shop to the number two agent in transactions in a 100% RE/MAX office simply because I followed up consistently. The other agents in the office called me the ‘King of follow-up’ because they knew I consistently did business with people months and years after I first met/spoke with them at an open house, ad call, sign call, door knocking, local pub, golfing, or whatever. I never let them forget me. And I was able to do that easily and efficiently by using my CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software.

So are you, you know, using yours?

If you own a CRM, and you ever have that phone conversation that contains the words – “Oh thanks for calling, but we already bought a house”, then you are not using follow-up plans with your prospects!

Any time you speak with someone, and they said something like “Oh we’re not doing anything until Bobby graduates in June, always made sure you get something personal out of them like that he liked to golf, or that Bobby was going to major in photography. That goes into that prospect’s notes. You then continue to mail/e-mail them – consistently – until it gets closer, and then you call.

You have a pre-arranged follow-up “Plan or Campaign”. As soon as you get that lead, you click a couple buttons, and select the plan you have specifically created for that kind of lead. It would be a Hot, Medium, or Cold plan, and when the plan called for that phone call somewhere down the road, it will come up on your to-do list.

When I called him back many months and sometimes years later and asked if Bobby was still interested in photography, you could hear a pin drop on the other end of the phone. There was always one of two reactions. He either marveled at my memory, or he said something like, “You use follow-up software don’t you?” Either way I had them, especially if he said the latter, because he knew I was organized. Buyers and sellers like organized!

Now, I teach people to track those things in the right manner. So let’s say you find out about a special golf outing in your market area. You can do a quick search, find the golfers, and shoot an e-mail out to them to let them know.

Or maybe Doylestown Borough just announced a tax break in the local paper. How many people read the paper any more? Before they find out by word of mouth, you can do a quick search on your past buyers who bought in Doylestown Borough, and let them know about it. Are you not just the best darn Real Estate person they have ever known!

And what are you doing each time you send out these notes? You’re staying “top of mind” with them, and of course, you are asking for referrals.

DO NOT neglect your past clients with regards to follow-up. Are you proud of the job you did for them? Did they like the job you did for them? Then capitalize on it! Make absolutely sure you ‘touch’ them atleast once each month by mail or e-mail, and annually or semi-annually by phone. And again, alwaysask for a referral.

If you are not consistently in your past client’s face, guess who will be? Right! The neighbor or the brother-in-law who just got in the business. They are hungry and prospecting. If you are not top-of-mind with your past clients, you will lose money.

If your CRM does not have its own “Content”, that is, pre-written e-mails/letters, then write your own. Just make sure to use spell check, and have someone else critique and edit them.

If the thought of writing scares the Dickens out of you, buy some like “Dave Beson’s LetterWriter“. And remember what I said in a prior post about pre-written content., the value is in the concepts, not the wording. Or do a search on “Real Estate Prospecting Letters”. Be careful though. Some of them are reallydated.

A contact manager is a glorified RolodexTM. Outlook is a good example of a contact manager. What you have, or should have, is a CRM, which stands for Customer Relationship Manager. Operative word beingRelationship. Its job is to help you maintain a relationship with your suspects, prospects, and clients, by targeting specific groups of people, with customized plans for follow-up.

You customize by categorizing them, such as hot buyer, past seller, etc., or by keeping certain information on them such as that they like golf, or are a graduate of Penn State, or that they like wine, etc. All of this information enables you to target market to them, as opposed to doing what all the other agents who do not know them do, which is generalized non-targeted marketing. Which do you think works better?

The point is, you have a tool to make you more money already. Start using it! Do not let your CRM solution suffer the same fate as that poor Nordic Track® you have, sitting in the corner being used as a lingerie rack!

Contact Management & CRM’s – A healhty dose of patience can be required

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Based on many conversations I continue to have where certain issues keep coming up, I think it is time to re-visit a few points about trying to find, and learning how to use, Contact Management and CRM Solutions.

1) Do not judge a CRM by its graphics alone. There are several products available that may not appeal to the eye aesthetically, but if you look past the graphical appearance, you might be surprised. There is one product I have in mind in particular that definitely looks dated, but in actuality it has been improved more frequently based on user suggestions, and for a longer time, than any other product of which I am aware. They have a Catch 22 going on. This particular product puts user suggestions higher in priority than the appearance of the product, and they end up with people passing their product by based only on its dated look. I keep encouraging them to put a higher priority on giving it an updated look, but it is still on the list. Be aware of the ‘Shallow Hal’ tendency in yourself with CRM’s if you have it.

2) Do not spend too little time evaluating a product. Do not rush through 10 of them. You need to narrow it down to 2 or 3, and then spend the time necessary to evaluate them well. On a regular basis I see people discount a product because they think it does not do what they want. That is because they have not taken enough time to properly evaluate it. The interesting thing is that even after I point out that itdoes do that function; ofttimes they have already talked themselves out of the product due to those falsely inferred negative feelings! So do not let yourself count out a product for lack of doing something you want it to, until you confirm with the company or myself, that it does not do it.

3) Stay with a technical problem until it is solved, rather than a few minutes here and there when it is convenient, frustrating yourself and the support people. Sometimes support is bad and non-responsive, but other times it is the user’s fault for only being available during a small window of time once every few days. Recognize if you are the cause of the problem, because blaming the vendor may make you feel absolved, but it does not get the problem solved. Sometimes you may have to wait for hours or even until the next day for a response from a support person. What I see very often is that someone will have a problem but not make the time to deal with it. Rather they will wait until they getthe time to deal with it. They then make a call or submit a support ticket, and then wait for a response. If the response does not come in fifteen minutes or an hour, and they have moved onto something else, they then miss the phone call, or do not answer support’s e-mail for days. They then get time to deal with it again, respond to the call or the ticket, move on to something else, and get back into the same vicious cycle. That happens 3 or 4 times, and then they say “I’ve had this problem for 8 days and it’s unresolved! The reality of it is that they’ve only actually been working on it for a matter of minutes! Their next step is to berate the support team and flee that product, blaming the support. Now you are into the cost of a new product, and worse, a whole new learning curve. Talk to me before you throw the baby out with the bathwater. I will be honest and tell you whether or not you should try to stick it out with your current product, or move on to another. It depends upon many factors. What is best in the long run; a product that does most everything you want, but can sometimes be tough to get support from; or a product that does less of what you want, but has great support? The obvious answer is – I want both! Well again – your needs determine if you can have both.

4) Do not let the normal initial frustration of getting your old database into your new database, and getting used to the software, get you to the point of dumping it for something else, assuming the next product will not have the same issues. Starting something new, or changing to something new, is very likely to be painful for any number of reasons. Deal with it. Certain things are going to require your time no matter which one you choose. Then again, maybe this product that you chose is having problems it should not have right up front. Does that mean you have made the wrong choice? Not necessarily. None of these products is perfect. Maybe this particular product’s imperfections are right up front. After that maybe it will be great most of the time. All these factors are just that. They are factors. Each product has a very long list of pros and cons. The one with the most pros, and the least cons, foryour needs, is the one for you.

All in all – if you spent a fair amount of time determining that this one does more of what you want it to do than all the others you looked at, give it time. Give it a chance. Do not be so quick to jump the gun. You may be glad you did.

It is hard to know when you are right to be upset with a product/company, if you have little or no experience with which to form a perspective, compared to similar products. What is normal? What is fair to expect? Are you even interpreting the problem correctly? Again – call me, and I’ll tell you what I think.

Contact Management Tech Support – How much should you expect?

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Different vendors have different ideas of what Tech-Support means. What I call Tech-Support, as defined in my Matrix, is “If it is broke, we will help you fix it”. In other words, if their software is not working; it is not doing something it is supposed to do; or it is doing something it is not supposed to do, they will help you fix it. A different kind of support would be if you call and ask how to do a mail merge. Tech-Supportwill USUALLY refer you to a user’s manual or training videos. What I call Help-Desk is a policy whereby they will help you fix problems, but will also walk you through how to do something, as a normal part of their service.

Why the two different policies? Revenue streams. Income. Tech-Support/Help-Desk is one of, if not the biggest expense software vendors have. Web based products have an ongoing stream of income. They get paid thousands of dollars by thousands of people every month. That is many thousands of dollars every month, whether they get any new customers/users or not. That pays for a larger support staff. If they are big enough, they can answer the phone directly, much if not most of the time.

Desktop solutions on the other hand are paid only once, up front, when you purchase the product. They will then provide you with Tech-Support and with some products Help-Desk support for anywhere from 30 days to one year. After that you must pay for it, with some exceptions. What percentage of people pay for it after the 30 days or one year? Very few. which makes for a much smaller support staff, longer response times, and a narrower scope of what they will help with. If they have a large user base, and were to attempt to provide significantly more, most would simply end up going out of business. Typical response times for desktop software varies, but can be as much as 24 hours. Longer than that should be unacceptable.

Am I saying that desktop solutions are a bad idea? Absolutely not! I use one myself. The point is that I wanted to speak up for desktop solutions that are getting a bad rap about tech support. Too many people expect too much for too little.

Another tendency (not a hard and fast rule) I’ve seen with desktop solutions is that the more users there are, the more questions there are, and the more of a demand that is placed on support. As the company sells more product, it is a cart and horse thing dealing with increased sales, generating more of a demand on support, and being able to grow the support staff commensurately. Obviously, the better the product, the less of a need for support. But there are still a good percentage of users that want hand holding, so again the more users, the more demand for support.

Be aware that NO RE CRM company TRULY offers 24/7 support, by phone or by e-mail that they will commit to. Some do go the extra mile when they can, and some offer extended hours via e-mail, but virtually none work on weekends, again, that they will commit to.

So income is the primary reason for the two different policies. It makes sense, and if you are objective about it, it is also quite fair.

What I hear very often is that people do not want to pay for a Web based product, because they want to own the software, and not pay for it monthly. BUT – they then want to have Tech-Support, and many expect Help-Desk support as well. Sorry to disappoint, but an old adage come to mind. “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” You can say “I paid for the software and I should get support for that money too”, and you do, to a point. But again, that one time fee just doesn’t last very long. If you want ongoing quickly answered phone support, more often than not, you have to pay an ongoing fee.

The questions then become; if the product is stable, and they have a good training tutorial library available, how much do you need in the way of support after the initial setup? Do they have a “per incident” fee for support? Might that be sufficient for relatively rare future needs?