Capsule CRM first came to market in 2009 on the back of a wave of simple apps like Highrise which promised users a zero-learning-curve experience.
The obvious appeal of Capsule is the ease with which new users can start engaging with the system, but what makes it really stand out is the ability to use it across your business and benefit from a true 360 degree view of the customer.
Log in and the first thing you see is a well thought-out dashboard with your personal tasks in the left hand column, and a feed of updates from the entire organisation on the right – so you get an immediate overview of everything that’s happening in your business.
The rest of the system breaks down into four areas:
- People & Organisations
- Calendar & Tasks
- Sales Pipeline & Opportunities
- Cases
People & Organisations
This is the main hub of activity, and it starts by presenting you with every single person and organisation you deal with under the Find tab.
If that sounds a bit daunting it really isn’t.
To find what you need, just start typing into the Google-style search and you’ll see the list shrinking as you type.
Or if you’ve added any tags you can pick them using the dropdown menu to see a filtered selection.
The other way is to flip over to the very clever List tab.
You can make a List by adding one or more conditions (data fields, tags and logic statements) to match to a more complex set of criteria. Saving a List stores these conditions allowing it to be recreated whenever you need it using the latest data.
I’ve seen this used for everything from the annual label run for Christmas cards, to contract renewals and distributing software updates by email.
It’s a simple, but incredibly powerful way of eliminating the need to keep additional customer information on spreadsheets and enabling some business-specific tasks.
You can add all the custom fields you need to customise Capsule for your business by accessing your Account Settings.
Selecting any Organisation provides you with immediate visibility of its tags, data fields, contact information and background details, and a list of all the People associated with that organisation.
It also gives you a feed of updates relating to the organisation, which is great for quickly getting up to speed if you are picking up a call or email.
You can add a Note or Task, upload a File, or create an Opportunity or Case.
The page for a Person works the same way.
It’s worth remembering that when you add information at this level will also be seen when viewing the Organisation – but not the other way around.
You can capture emails by copying them to your unique dropbox email address, and Capsule will file them to the correct contact(s) based on the email address.
The same applies to any contact form submissions from your website, and in both cases an unrecognised email creates a new contact with some basic details which can be either added to, or merged with an existing contact.
A very nice feature is that the 4-6 most recent items viewed appear as links in the menu bar at the top of the page. So if you get interrupted (e.g. an inbound call) this makes it really easy to get right back to what you were doing beforehand.
Calendar & Tasks
Shows your tasks in a calendar (or a list).
I don’t know how often you’ll access tasks this way. I found myself picking up on outstanding tasks naturally from from the Dashboard and Contact pages.
Wherever you do it – adding a new Task enables you to set the date, time and whether the item repeats (e.g. a weekly sales meeting). You can add a category (e.g. call, email, meeting or anything else) to help manage your workflow, and where appropriate associate a Task with an Organisation, Person, Opportunity or Case.
Sales Pipeline
Gives you a dashboard showing some high level metrics (financial forecast, conversion ratios, and the number of opportunities at different stages).
I really like that you can get up different tracks to reflect the sales process for different products.
You can also use the power of the Lists function to interrogate your pipeline, and save the Lists you want to recreate on a regular basis.
Cases
Lets you create a support ticket for a specific issue, and add Notes, Files and Tasks as you track them through to conclusion. You can report on tasks based on their status and tasks using – you guessed it – Lists.
Integrations
Capsule CRM doesn’t offer the longest list of integrations with the Free Plan, but it includes selection of accounting applications (Xero, Sage, Freshbooks and Kashflow), workflow applications (Zendesk, Free Agent) plus handy integrations with Mailchimp and Wufoo forms.
There’s also a one-way push to Google Contacts.
The Professional Plan gets you a longer list of integrations including G Suite, and for developers there’s an API you can use to integrate other systems.
Capsule for Mobile
Capsule offer mobile apps for Andriod (5 upwards) and iOS (10 upwards) that allow you to interact with your data on the move.
Pricing
Capsule’s simplicity extends to pricing with just 2 plans.
There’s a totally Free Plan that gives you 2 users, 10MB of storage and up to 250 contacts – which in a small business might be all you ever need.
If you want to more users, storage or contacts the Professional Plan gives you 2GB of storage, 50,000 contacts and premium integrations with other apps – all for just £8 per month/user which feels like incredibly good value.
If you’re looking for a capable and cost effective CRM for a small to medium sized business and want to test Capsule CRM then I suggest you register for a free 30 day trial on the Professional Plan to access the full functionality, as the basic plan comes with a few limitations.
Conclusion
Capsule CRM really delivers on simplicity and ease of engagement.
Super-simple customisation using tags and custom data fields, combined with the power of Lists means it can be customised for your business.
It focuses on delivering benefits to users, and you shouldn’t have any great difficulty encouraging your whole team to use it – so everyone will benefit from a 360 degree view of the customer.
If there’s an area of weakness it’s this; anyone can edit the contents of those lovely custom data fields or add their own tags. This shouldn’t hold you back in a small to medium sized business, but the addition of some field level permissions would open the way for Capsule to be used in bigger implementations where there’s a need for more control.
A full featured CRM you can use throughout your business for just £8 per user/month. It combines a zero-learning-curve user experience and can be customised for your business.
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Ease of Use
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Features
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Integrations
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Value for Money
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Value for Money
