"BigContacts is a simple, easy-to-use, and immediately understandable..."
My partners and I are in the publishing business. Our target clients are advertisers and radio sponsors. Our vendors include service providers, joint venture partners, affiliates and more. In addition to clients and vendors, we also include key media resources and viable foundation opportunities in our BigContacts database.
As Managing Member, I knew from the get-go that we needed an online database for several reasons. Our company operations needed to be fluid, efficient and seamless in execution, and yet our personnel structure needed to be extremely flexible. Sales reps could be located throughout the country, perhaps even internationally. They needed to have access to the database "on the road." When I traveled, I needed quick access to the database as well. It was also essential we each stayed aware of what the others were doing so that we did not overlap efforts and we could instead support one another's efforts as needed.
Prior to discovering BigContacts, we had tried several other online database options. First, I tried salesforce. That's an awesome system, but way too complicated for me to figure out. Even after attending a training and breakout session, it was overwhelming. After several months of utter frustration and trying to keep track of sales temporarily using Excel, I finally admitted defeat and moved on, seeking the advice of a sales trainer colleague. He recommended that I either pour some money into having an IT programmer customize salesforce, or take a look at NetSuite.
Investing programming dollars into salesforce was not an option. It was too complicated. But NetSuite looked good, at first blush. I thought that NetSuite's optional integration with accounting could be helpful as we grew. I liked the description of their customer relationship management system and their ability to track sales funnels to some extent. After researching their videos and testing it, I signed up at the monthly Silver Level, which was no small investment each month! What a nightmare! Nothing was as it had been represented. I could write a small book on the problems I experienced with NetSuite.
At that point, two sales reps came on board. It had taken me a full month of agonizing experimentation and trying to follow videos to get some semblance of usability to the product. Corporate help was non-existent unless, they assured me, I paid significant more money to get to a higher subscription level. My sales reps HATED NetSuite! I tried to get them to figure it out, although I had only barely figured out enough to do basic functions and still I experienced major problems. To their credit, the sales reps really tried to work with it, especially one rep. We limped along for about 4 months or so, until I couldn't stand it anymore—there were just too many ongoing problems. Simple things required all kinds of gerry-rigging, it seemed.
The last straw for me was—literally—a FIVE hour conversation with customer service based in the Philippines. Do you know how frustrated and determined a super-busy person with a business on the line has to be in order to stay on the phone with customer service for FIVE solid hours? You know how it is... One person can't tell you more than what their script says. It is an agonizing feat of will to get that person to finally advance you to a supervisor. Same problem. One more supervisor, after more agony. Now that supervisor admits they don't know the answer, it's a question for the technicians who are back in the States. I assure the supervisor #3 that I won't hang up until the issue is resolved and then I have to wait until the person in the Philippines communicates with the tech in the U.S.... and so it went.
The next day, the problem wasn't even resolved. I quit. I called my sales reps and told them that we were no longer using NetSuite and were looking for something else. We all liked Act!, but Act! did not have a good internet option. We needed something that would be completely web-based and accessible from anywhere, anytime. It needed to be indifferent whether we individually used a Mac or PC platform. At the time, the Act! online version required a PC and was not a web-based system.
I decided to see what was free. Sugar was recommended to me, but it did not have the capacity I wanted and seemed clunky and awkward to use. I finally found a free database that did everything we needed, but was filled with ads. I could pay money and have the ads removed, but after the agony of NetSuite, I did not want to pay for anything until it delivered in spades for us! My reps liked the free web-based option, but the constant ads really slowed us all down. These ads were mostly hyperlinks.
About a month later my top rep discovered BigContacts. I loved its simple, clean design. It offered a generous free trial. It was easy to use from the first moment each of us tried it. No question. This was it. I've been a loyal client ever since, recommending it to many others!
BigContacts is a simple, easy to use, immediately understandable Database and Customer Relationship Management, web-based software. There are no distracting ads, anywhere. Even impatient sales reps like it. Both sales reps and management can immediately access pipelines and adjust strategies and efforts accordingly. Even the administration section is very easy to figure out and implement. The clean design is absolutely efficient. The upgrades of Big Contacts that have come along since we've been using it have all been helpful. The upgrades are done automatically on the server, I don't have to worry about it. Also, whether or not we use the upgrades doesn't affect speed or functionality of its core system. Even better, the very very very few times I've had to call Customer service, I've received a call back either within an hour or early the next day. The person was direct and friendly. He was in the U.S. and intimately knowledgeable about the system. He solved any problem kindly, quickly and without hassle. I can't say enough good things about Big Contacts.
Having the peace of mind that you are using the exact tool you need for a fundamental aspect of your business is extremely satisfying. It's one huge thing about which I don't have to waste precious time or be anxious, waiting for the proverbial next shoe to drop! In terms of quantity, I'd estimate that BigContacts has helped triple our growth in terms of advertising sponsorships during the first two years of use. Additionally, it has allowed me to accommodate new sales reps easily and to track total and individual sales pipelines as often as I like. I am able to give an immediate and realistic sales forecast if an investor wants an off-time update. The value-for-investment ratio is superb. In sum, we could not succeed and grow without BigContacts; it has become an integral foundation tool of our business.
I appreciate your product, your price, and your customer service. I look forward to a long relationship!
Karen W.