Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.
Vox Pop: Email via web CRM?
Merlin Mann | Aug 27 2007
Most businesses and an increasing number of people (including me) are looking for friction-free ways for teams to deal with incoming public email accounts. Whether you're managing a home eBay company, fielding FAQs, or reviewing incoming resumes, it seems like there must be some good, lightweight web apps for teams to use and collaborate around. Ron Richards just pointed me to Cerberus, and I've previously looked at DayLite, MailTank, and Sugar. I like the trouble-ticket approach in some ways, but I also wish it could be prettied up -- ideally including remote form submission from your own domains. The Question to You:Have you found a free or inexpensive web-based app that helps your teams manage incoming email and convert them into assigned tasks? Got one that’s great at template-based responses? Anything with the power of a support ticket app that’s a bit prettier from the user’s standpoint? edit 2007-08-27 09:17:40: Shoulda mentioned: relevant self-links are okay on this one. 20 Comments
POSTED IN:
 I'm not sure a true...Submitted by Ryan McGeary (not verified) on August 27, 2007 - 9:49am.
I'm not sure a true CRM package is really what Merlin is asking for. If I'm guessing correctly, he wants something where multiple people can take turns replying on behalf of the "company," provides a todo-like inbox, makes it easy to reply with saved snippets or templates, and provides threaded histories for each subject. To me, CRM implies you might want to initiate contact at a later date with a person. Most times, this just isn't necessary when dealing with a lot of incoming public email. When dealing with mass amounts of incoming email, the responses become more important than the contact information. Besides, keeping thousands of contacts like bigarmadillo75@aol.com don't yield a lot of upside. This is why I would lean away from some of the full blown CRM solutions and focus on something that just does email management well. » POSTED IN:
|
|
| EXPLORE 43Folders | THE GOOD STUFF |
