Posted by Bob Walton on Tue, Feb 23, 2010 @ 04:06 PM
Our subscribers frequently ask us about what they can do to further increase the speed of BigContacts and other web based applications they use on a regular basis.
Based on these inquiries we put together a Web Performance Page on our website. This page will give you tips for tuning your browser to deliver a better experience for you while in BigContacts or surfing some other area of the web.
There are a variety of situations that can exist to create a slower web connection.
- The web browser you are using is slow and/or may have plug-ins that are causing issues.
- Your modem or router is experiencing trouble and may need to be reset.
- Your local internet connection can intermittently run slow.
- There could be an internet connection issue somewhere between you and our servers.
- Our application/ server could be temporarily experiencing unusually heavy loads.
One or more of these tips can improve your web experience:
- Upgrade your Browser
We support 4 major browsers, including: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome. You can decide how fast you would like to surf the web by reviewing the browser performance comparisons on this new web page.
- Reset your router and modem
A browser is the engine that drives your performance on the web. We encourage you to take a moment to make sure it is tuned so that it will perform better for you.
You won't believe the extra "mileage" you can get out of a day with a properly tuned browser.
Posted by Bob Walton on Sun, Dec 27, 2009 @ 12:07 PM
Before investing in Contact Management Software or Small Business CRM, you need to have all the facts. Most systems today come full of "bells and whistles" that are touted as essential to helping you in your business.
The reality is that many of these features may rarely get used if at all. On the other hand there may be certain features that are critical to your business. This investment requires a methodical approach to ensure that you make the right choice. Don't make your decision based solely on price or on features.
Consider what's important to you before making a quick decision.
- What are the minimum requirements for you business today?
- What are your growth plans and will this system allow you to grow without a significant $ investment?
- Is it easy-to-use; allowing you to get off to a quick start with all of your employees using it?
If you experience any trouble viewing this example of research, Click Here for a full size image of these tables. 
If you would like a comparison to any other Small Business CRM or Contact Management Software, Contact Us at 1-888-286-6578. We will do the detailed research and provide you with an objective and detailed report.
Posted by Bob Walton on Fri, Sep 18, 2009 @ 09:18 AM
At Big Contacts we offer a number of options for sending emails to your clients and prospects.
1) You can send and receive emails directly from our system without changing email providers.
2) You can easily filter a list of your contacts to send a group email.
3) You can create email templates complete with standard AND custom merge fields.
4) You can create automated email campaigns to deliver a message to clients and prospects.
Our system will store all of these methods/ modes of email directly in each contact record to make it very easy to track the entire history for each client or prospect.
That's the good news. The challenge, in the past, has been that (being a web based application) it was difficult for our users to simply copy and paste text into an email or email template and properly format all the text to the same font, etc. With this new text editor, you now have the option of pasting in plain text or pasting directly from a Word document.
We have just released one of the latest Email Text Editors on the market today and we hope you will like it.
Here is a preview of that the new toolbar looks like and how you can use it. We encourage you to get in there and click around to discover all of its great new functionality. The editor is so new, that we have yet to create the user guide. This will be coming in the near future, but we hope you will find this new toolbar and its functionality so intuitive that the user guide is not needed.
The Toolbar is the area in email editor where you can activate most of the editor features. Each button in the toolbar access a different function. There are simple functions for basic text formatting and more advanced features like creation of links and tables.
To use the buttons in the toolbar you must move your mouse pointer over the button. The button will highlight and a message with the information about the button function will appear. Click on the button to execute its function. With more experience you will have full control over all email editor features and you won't have to read the description of the buttons. You will just use them intuitively.
Besides the toolbars buttons there are also toolbar combos (drop down boxes). The combos are the white areas with a little arrow on its side. They can be easily accessed by clicking on the white area or the little arrow. Once clicked the menu will expand so you can choose from one of its available options. To execute one of them, simply click on it.
Special Note: We have had many requests from our users to improve the spell checking capability for emails. You asked for it, so here it is. Note above in the toolbar we have highlighted two functions.
The spell check button highlighted in green will allow you to spell check on your command.
The spell check button highlighted in light blue will allow you to enable "SCAYT" (Spell Check As You Type). This is a great feature as you will get instant feedback as you are creating your email document.
There are so many new features available to you now. We encourage you to look around, try it out, and send us emails with any questions or feedback you might have to support@bigcontacts.com
Posted by Bob Walton on Fri, Sep 18, 2009 @ 09:01 AM
One our primary goals as a software service provider is deliver a very intuitive, easy-to-use application for our subscribers. One way we accomplish this is through the concept of our "Contact Dashboard" .
We are one of the few Contact Management (CRM) companies that presents all of your contact history in a very organized manner on a single screen. Putting all of this information on a single screen makes it that much easier to manage your client and prospect relationships as you have everything you need at your fingertips.
Having said that, we realize that all of this information on a single screen can create limitations in other areas. You have told us that you would like a larger, more detailed view of the calendar. The calendar view has been limited to a width of about one-third of the right hand side of your screen. This was done in order to accommodate all the other information we are presenting to you on this dashboard.
We are at the very beginning stages of designing/developing our next generation platform - "Big Contacts 2.0". In the process of this development, we will begin to present you with new and improved designs within the system. This Friday we will release a few small, but helpful enhancements to the calendar.
Expandable Calendar View
From the Contact Dashboard, you will click to expand the calendar folder as you have always done, but you will now notice a new link in the upper left hand corner called (full screen calendar). This link will allow you to expand the calendar to a full screen view.
One of the biggest benefits to this expanded view is that you will now be able to see details of your meetings and your team members' meetings when in the "31" of "31 Group" views.
After you are finished working in your calendar, simply click on the same link in the upper left hand corner (restore calendar) and you are now back to the normal dashboard view to continue working on your clients and prospects.
Meeting Reminders
Another requested enhancement to our calendar is meeting reminders. With this release you will now have meeting reminders available to you.
Each user on the system will determine whether or not they want the meeting reminder activated - based on how they personally prefer to handle their meetings. The user will determine three things in their setup:
* Do they want the meeting reminder feature on or off?
* How far in advance do they wish to have the system begin reminding them?
* Do they want the reminders to repeat?
(The system can be set to as little as 5 minutes to as long as 120 minutes in advance.)
After these settings are determined, the calendar will "default" to this configuration for every meeting that is scheduled, UNLESS you choose otherwise. When scheduling a meeting you will have the option to adjust any of these three settings.
For example, you may NOT want a reminder for certain meetings. Or you may want to be reminded further in advance for one meeting or another. And finally, you may not want to get a repeating reminder for a certain meeting.
(Please note: repeating reminders can be stopped at any time by clicking on "dismiss" in the upper right hand corner of the reminder itself.)
PLEASE NOTE: As we design the 2.0 platform, we want your continued feedback. On the "Contacts" tab in the left hand column under the tools section, we have a "Send Feedback" link. We need constructive insights from subscribers like yourself in order to make this the best Contact Management (CRM) platform in the industry! Please send your suggestions and ideas and we will work hard to implement ideas all that appear to add value to our broader subscriber base.
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Stay tuned for more great things to come!
Posted by Bob Walton on Mon, Aug 17, 2009 @ 01:39 PM
Over the past few months our clients have asked for more security features within our system. The primary concerns were centered around the fact that anyone in their company could go in and make changes to contacts without management knowing or approving this.
We're listening and have recently implemented some additional security measures for your account with BigContacts-Web Based CRM Software.
You now must now be and "Admin" on the system to perform a number of functions that were previously open to anyone. Following is a list of what we have enhanced for security purposes.
1) The Marketing Tab - only Admin users will be able to access this tab. A note will pop-up letting the user know that they must get with the admin of the system to make changes to this area.
2) The Contact Tab - the following links, are only available to an "Admin" user. These links are no longer visible to the non-admin user.
- Export Contacts
- Import Contacts
- View Task Manager
- Contact Table
- View Reports
- View Sales Manager - any non-admin person will ONLY see their sales opportunities when they select this. An admin will see the sales pipeline for the entire company/ team.
- Recent Activity - any non-admin person will ONLY see their activity when they select this. An admin will see activity for the entire company/ team.
3) The Reports Tab - the following links, are only available to an "Admin" user. These links are no longer visible to the non-admin user.
- All Sales Reports
- All Outstanding Tasks
- All Outstanding ToDos
- All Completed Tasks
- All Completed To-Dos
- All Data Export Reports
Posted by Bob Walton on Wed, Jan 21, 2009 @ 10:59 AM
We've all heard the expression "work smarter - not harder". This could not be more important than during an economic slowdown like the one we're currently experiencing. With the proper application of it's resources, your business can be more strategic in enhancing your client experience and deepening relationships with existing customers.
According to a study released by Forrester Research, an increased emphasis on business value will see companies focusing on customer retention and creating better solutions to support customer facing processes.
It is not enough to ensure business value in the new projects, enterprises will begin focusing on customer retention instead of customer acquisition to stay afloat Forrester predicts. "During an economic recession, sustaining revenue growth - or forestalling revenue erosion - becomes even more critical," the company wrote.
But customers are getting harder to win and keep, Forrester said, and the solution is improved customer experience. "Good customer experience is highly correlated to customer loyalty," Forrester said.
During these tough times, businesses usually look at how they can reduce operational costs. There are many approaches that businesses take, but one of the first ways businesses try to cut spending is through their IT budget. This makes companies less likely to spend money on new software or make needed upgrades to their current software. This can save money today, but could cause problems in how they manage their business and their customers.
CRM Software can provide companies with the tools needed to effectively manage the client experience and deepen relationships with existing customers. While cutting or postponing in some areas of IT may make sense, it would be wise to re-visit your existing CRM strategy. Does your company consistently deliver the client experience they are looking for? How are customers reacting to this experience? What do you feel you could better in order to deepen relationships and retain clients?
Investing in the right CRM can mean the difference between retaining or losing clients. There are many tangible benefits that the right CRM can deliver in your business.
- Provide more efficient work-flow or Business Process Management (BPM)
- Improve the customer experience through better organization of key client data
- Improve the accuracy of work from employees to ensure nothing falls through the cracks
- Improved reporting to track company performance and ensure service standards are being met
Traditionally, some software solutions have proven to be a very expensive undertaking that can require alot of time to implement. Time and money are two commodities that most businesses lack in times like these, so how can you accomplish all this with less money and implement these tools very quickly?
A solution to these challenges that many businesses are finding is software-as-a-service (SaaS). This form of software allows businesses to take advantage of the tools they need today without large investments of time or money. SaaS CRM can be very inexpensive, very fast to implement, and very effective in helping you better manage your business.
Finally, another aspect of SaaS CRM that can be so appealing in a down economy is the ability to add new functionality to the system WITHOUT capital expenditures. Your business can remain current with the latest software and hopefully ahead of your competition due to the wise choice you made to more effectively utilize your current resources and invest in a platform that will grow with you.
Posted by Bob Walton on Tue, Nov 18, 2008 @ 09:14 PM
The ripple effect from today’s tough economic times has forced virtually every business to re-evaluate how they are doing business. When top line revenues decline it’s important to evaluate your expenses to cut back where you can. The challenge is to tighten the belt while maintaining the level of service your existing customers have come to expect.
To successfully navigate these tough waters, it’s important to correctly distinguish between an expense and an investment when making decisions that affect the future growth of your business.
It could be argued, and the numbers show, that Contact Management Software (CRM) fits squarely in the investment category. So what questions show you ask when approaching this technology investment?
- How much more money can my organization make?
- What is the return on my investment (ROI)?
There are two ways to justify this investment in your company
- Increase revenues or
- Reduce costs
Costs can only be reduced so much, but that is generally where of the attention is focused because it is easier to quantify. The real payback in CRM can be realized by increasing the revenues of the organization (top-line growth). This increase in revenue is driven from three primary areas:
- Enhanced customer service/ retention
- More targeted selling efforts
- Improved Productivity
You may be saying to yourself, “This is great, but what does this really mean for my bottom line?” There are a number of studies that have been conducted on this subject and the numbers are very appealing. Below are the findings from industry veteran, Barton J. Goldenberg, author of the book CRM in Real Time: Empowering Customer Relationships.This books draws on Barton Goldenberg’s 20+ years of experience guiding firms to a successful implementation of CRM solutions and techniques. Goldenberg demonstrates how the right mix of people, process, and technology can help firms achieve a superior level of customer satisfaction, loyalty, and new business.
The ROI
- 10% per year increase in the gross sales revenues per sales rep during the first three years.
- 5 % decrease in general and administrative cost of sales during the first three years.
- 5% increase in win rates for forecasted sales during the first three years.
- 1% margin improvement in the value of a deal over the system’s lifetime.
- 5% improvement in customer satisfaction among customers
When you look at these numbers and apply them to any business, they can translate into some meaningful results.
The bottom line is businesses that take care of their customers and consistently find new ones will be successful. The people most responsible for finding new customers and maintaining satisfied, profitable relationships with existing ones are sales people. Many CRM platforms try to be everything to everyone, offering everything from Accounting, Project Management, to Ticketing Systems. The most successful CRM solutions are those specifically designed to help manage the sales process. And no matter what measure we look at, when a focus is established and maintained in these key areas, the positive results to both the top and bottom lines cannot be denied.
Posted by Bob Walton on Sun, Dec 16, 2007 @ 08:35 AM
BigContacts is a powerful application. And yet, it is designed to be simple to learn and use. Kathy Sierra writes about the problem of Featuritis in her blog Creating Passionate Users. There is a point at which an application becomes difficult to use and starts to frustrate users. Here is the graph Kathy uses to perfectly illustrate the point:
I think that software can be complex and still easy to use. To achieve that, we focus on a few things. One, don't require users to have to remember anything. Instead of cute icons to represent some feature, just spell it out. Our 'Actions' section is just a list of things you can do. It would take less space and might look better to replace that list with a set of icons, but then you'd have to remember what each of those icons does. Another thing we do is to put most everything right in front of you. You don't have to go searching for something. If you want to add a photo, just click on the 'Add a Photo' link right on the page. No need to remember where that feature is. Another thing you will find in BigContacts is that there are no modes. There are no buttons that change meaning depending on what mode you are in. Other contact managers have a 'view' mode and an 'edit' mode and you have to not only remember which mode you are in, but what buttons and links do when you are in each mode.
The hard part of picking up a new software tool is learning and then retaining all that useless knowledge about modes and where things are hidden and what all those icons mean. It is very frustrating and makes you feel stupid and nobody wants that.
With BigContacts there is no user manual. Because once you create a user manual, you are admitting your application is too difficult and that people need a book to use it. We will do our best to never have to resort to that.