The Best Alternative For Act! CRM

1.Expensive Add Ons

There are “tons” of add-ons to beef up the Software, but most are paid and bundled with unnecessary features.

Though there are tons of other add-ons, the cost of these add-ons poses a big problem for many users of Act! Customer Relationship Management app who cannot easily afford to purchase all these necessary tools and thus Act! has to face criticism for not providing its users with these all-important tools for free.

Cost is one of the issues raised by the users regarding these add-ons. Another important problem faced by the users of Act! Is that these add-ons are bundled up with some unnecessary features, which means that people do not have the value for their money, as not all features can be utilized. Thus, the solution to these issues can be that Act! provides its users with free of cost add-ons or, if not free of cost, then at least it can make sure that the cost of most important and most demanded add-ons are reduced to an affordable level.

Furthermore, these add-ons should aim to provide the service that they claim to, and not be bundled with unnecessary features that do nothing more than to just increase the size of the add-ons and contribute to making the entire system slower, and much more sluggish than usual. Only through valuing customer’s money, and ensuring that it is being used to purchase valuable products, can this issue be resolved.

2.Frequent Crashes

Crashes, freezes & the calendar integration with Outlook does not work properly The issue of Act! crashing has been raised by many users in recent times.

This issue has provoked many updates and fixes have been provided by CRM experts, yet the problems related to crashing and freezing of the Software have been found time and again, mainly when using Act! on a Windows 10 computer.

This issue was experienced mostly by people using version 16 or version 17.1 or 17.2 of Act! Pro or Act! Premium. The fact which is noteworthy here is that many complaints received by Act! from its user regarding this problem, came in late January this year. This is when Microsoft released an update for .NET Framework.

The obvious reason that can be associated with the Act! not working or crashing on PCs with Windows 10 can be the compatibility issue.

However, this issue has been raised by people using Windows 7 as well when they have upgraded a certain feature of their Windows. The common complaint that has been registered by people is that Act! stopped working when trying to use the Documents tab, open history attachments, or when trying to attach a file to a note after running Windows updates. The main cause that CRM experts have identified related to this crashing and freezing of Act! is that, on January 26, 2016, Microsoft released an update for the Microsoft .NET Framework which updated Microsoft .NET to version 4.6.1. This update has been known to cause issues when trying to interact with the Documents tab, modify attachments, or attach new files to the database. To deal with these issues, Act! provided its users with QFE (Quick Fix Engineering) updates or generally referred to as hotfix.

These hotfixes were necessary because the systems using Act! were live and currently running. Releasing a statement regarding the issue Act! said, “Upgrading to Windows® 10 introduces many new features, some of which may affect the Act!. We highly recommend performing a complete backup of your Act! database before upgrading to Windows®, through Act! v17.2 and later are compatible and are fully supported. We have additional recommendations to make your transition as smooth as possible. Act! crashes when attempting to attach any document to the contact using the documents tab or when attaching any document to a note. Additionally, Act! crashes when attempting to open an existing attachment in the History tab.” Providing its users with a new version of this Software just to deal with some bugs would have been counterproductive for the organization itself, but still, Act! provided its users who were using Act! v17.0 or older versions of the Software with solutions to deal with this issue. The problem was that these solutions were not as reliable as Act! itself stated that “The information below is provided as a convenience.

The steps below are meant to attempt to work around the issue on versions of Act! which are not supported on Windows 10 and have been known to resolve the issue on some computers, however it is not guaranteed that they will work.” With these types of solutions and because of the entire issue, Act! is expected to lose many of its potential customers which can be provided to be harmful for the organization as a whole. As expected the crashing issue wasn’t resolved this time either, and many of Act!’s users continued to crash when trying to access their Documents tab.

This resulted in many users posting on their forums, for a solution. When customers are not provided to correctly even after countless updates and purchases, then there is bound to be an outburst as seen here: https://kb.Act.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/38199 Upon further investigation, it was also found out that it was not just the Documents tab that was responsible for the crashing, but attempting to attach files within Notes, Histories, and Activities would do the same. Thus, anyone facing this problem couldn’t just choose to “avoid” it, as it had spread to the entirety of the program. Using the Act! itself had become an impossible task due to this error, and it was quite baffling that a real fix was not being rolled out. After this issue erupted, Act! released yet another Hotfix, titled, “Act! v17.2”, and stated, “This issue has been resolved in Act! v17.2 with the release of the Windows 10 document tab fix (Hotfix 0)”.

The problematic part still existed, and it was that there was no such fix for Act! 16 or below, which meant that any user using the older version would have absolutely no control over the program and would constantly crash, whether they used Windows 10, or Windows 7.

There has been no such announcement confirming the fix for the older versions of Act!, which means that any user on the older version will have to upgrade to Act! 17 if they still want to be able to retain its functions. Thus, the only real “solution” provided to Act! 16 users were not to upgrade to Windows 10. Otherwise, they would be locked out of the program entirety.

The issue was quite lazily handled and stands out as being a very poor effort on part of their development team. Not only did they not ensure that Act! was compatible with Windows 10, but they also took a lot of time in releasing a hotfix to address the issue, and even when they did, they locked out a very huge proportion of their user base, by not rolling out the fix to older versions of the Act! program.

3.No Sychronization

Problems arise when deleting items from people’s calendars when trying to sync up.

Act!, while being one of the most used Customer Relationship Management app, isn’t without its own set of bugs and issues. While one might think that these issues should be resolved as quickly as possible to ensure that no customer has to go through any sort of problem, it is often the case that many of these bugs are prolonged and remain in the CRM Software for a very long time, even after multiple users have reported them, and have voiced their dissatisfaction.

Sometimes hotfixes or “patches” that aim to remove these problems are introduced, but more often than not, these patches don’t actually fix the issue, but rather just try to mask it in some manner, which of course causes the issue to still be prevalent for many users. In some cases, Act!’s developers have forced their users to upgrade to a newer version of the program to be able to use it.

Otherwise, they would have Software-breaking bugs that would stop them from using the Act! program entirely.

One of these kinds of bugs in the Windows 10 issue arose where if the users tried to access many parts of the program while on Windows 10, they constantly crashed and were unable to access it. A “fix” for this was announced, but it was available only to the users that had the latest version of the program, and anyone that hadn’t purchased it, had to either upgrade or stop using the program entirely.

Thus, it is quite evident that even popular and widely used programs like Act! can certainly have issues that make their users quite frustrated and dissatisfied. Another example of this type of issue is the problems that arise when deleting items from people’s calendars during syncing. A user has claimed that due to the constant crashes that take place while using the program, they have stopped being a fan of Act! entirely.

They further stated that whenever they tried to delete items from other people’s calendars during sync ups, they were not able to, which was a very frustrating experience for them. Not only that, but if it was up to them, they would stop using the program entirely, but, as their sales team were using the Act! sales Software, they were forced to do so as well. Finally, they stated that the calendar also caused a lot of issues when trying to get it to work with Outlook.

Here is what the user Patrick M. had to say for the program, after giving it just one star out of five: “I have never been a big fan of Act! because I have always had problems with it. Many times I have issues where it crashes, or freezes, or the calendar integration with Outlook does not work correctly. We have even had problems in the past with it deleting items from people’s calendars when trying to sync up! The bottom line is that I, at least personally, have always had problems with it. To me, it has always been problematic and I have never liked using it. Unfortunately, it is the CRM our Sales team uses and therefore I am forced to use it to align with the sales team and see their calendars, prospects, notes, and so on. Particularly the calendar sync with Outlook has also always been problematic for both me and other users.” A blogger and customer of Act! even stated that “You won the battle, and got my money.

But if this is the way you treat customers, I guarantee you will lose the war. When I emailed Joe Morrell about these adventures, he replied “Act! has a very good product with a lot of solid features, but they should be ashamed of their customer service. They are so useless that you really are pretty much on your own.”

Later on, he added: “I plan to tell this story when I give speeches about the importance of exceptional customer service in the internet age.

It will help me to make the point that any firm that treats their customers badly should expect unhappy clients to email all their friends, and then post the details in their blogs.” The full review of this blogger can be viewed here: https://adverselling.typepad.com/how_law_firms_sell/2006/12/unhappy_custome.html This customer has the complete right to be dissatisfied with the quality of service provided by Act!’s developers and customer service.

The constant lack of regard given to the customer and the way he was treated only goes to show that despite the various issues arising in the Software, Act! has done very little to fix them. This may be due to a lack of understanding on the part of the developers or some serious communication issues that may be between the customer service providers and the development team. When there are major issues like calendars not working, then there certainly is a lot to be said about how the developmental process is not being taken care of properly. Thus, if Act! wishes to ensure that their customers and users remain loyal to them, it is of the utmost importance to provide constant fixes, and make sure that future updates do not have these issues, to begin with.

Only through proper customer support and relations can Act! hope to remain in the reputable position that it once was, as the best “Customer Relationship Management” Software that is available to the people.

4.Lack Of Integration

“Activities do not roll. Outlook email does not integrate at all”

Customer Relationship Management programs are often judged on their ability to increase customer interactions— after all, that’s exactly what they’re being advertised to do. They try to reach this aim but giving various options and abilities to the user or company, through which they can help to forge a better understanding between said company and their customer. This forms strong customer satisfaction and leads to loyal customers.

Thus, most companies use only the best customer relationship management apps, as forging this understanding and bond is very vital to their business. When companies purchase these customer relationship management programs, they often look for programs that work great out-of-the-box and come with very few bugs — if at all. These programs aren’t exactly cheap, and thus, wanting good functionality from them is the right of the buyer. However, some customer relationship management programs don’t perform to their fullest extent and can be a cause of let-down for many customers and product buyers. Act! CRM Software has also failed to provide the needed functionality that most of its users desire and need.

This lack of functions can include things such as a lack of training videos, or the incompatibility of Act! 16 or lower Act! programs with Windows 10. Along with these glaring issues, the program also has lots of bugs such as the report section constantly freezing or lagging, and the activities not rolling. Another common issue that is discussed by many users is the fact that Outlook email does not integrate at all with Act!. This is obviously a big issue, considering the massive usage and popularity of Outlook. PCMAG, on their review of Act! stated: “Act! Premium Software lets you manage all the information about your contacts in one place.

It’s not easy to use the Act! software as it feels more like a beefed-up contact manager than a true customer relationship management (CRM) service.”

About the lack of additional functions, and needing extra information and knowledge to use the program efficiently, they added: “Dated interface. Confusing menu options. Trial is a demo, not a fully functional trial. May require extra training to learn how to use.” The full review can be read here: https://www.pcmag.com/review/254714/act-premium

Regarding the lack of integration that the program has, a user and customer mentioned: “Act! is completely useless. I’ve tried using it over the years. It never consistently works.

Integration with Outlook is a complete fantasy. It randomly won’t open. The files are never backed up correctly. It’s truly the most perniciously foul program ever created. It could only be that this bad is done on purpose. No one, regardless of how incompetent, could even accidentally design code this bad – so it has to be deliberate.” While the sentiments of this particular user may seem a bit harsh, there is no doubt that there is a lot of truth in what they have mentioned.

The program does suffer from a lack of integration with Outlook, which makes it very unsuitable to be called a true customer relationship management program. Finally, another user shared their opinion on Act!, calling it very outdated, and that it required too many clicks to conclude that other CRM apps can achieve in 2 or 3 clicks. “Awful product! Stay away. I have to reinstall every month or so to keep features running.

Tech support is useless. Despite the review here from LGerrand, this product hasn’t really changed that much since the early 2000s. They are behind in Windows support. If you want to see how bad this company and its reseller and product are, login to the support community and just look at how many bugs there are in the system – some of them going back 10 years or more. This company is useless. They are milking 15 year old technology and haven’t added a substantive feature in 15 years. It takes 20 clicks to do some things that should be able to be done in 2 or 3 clicks. Does the company care one bit? Absolutely not. They get new owners every 2-3 years, and I hope things will change, but the company has a culture of mediocrity, and they rarely achieve even that with support.” This huge problem keeps the program far behind those available today.

However, even so, no program is beyond repair. Even if the Act! does lack a lot of functionality that is easily available in other customer relationship management programs, it is possible to add these features to the program and make it much better by reducing the number of bugs that are present, while also making the overall environment much more user friendly, and suitable towards beginners.

5.Unsupported Operating Systems

Act! Pro simply does not work with Windows 10.

There is one major issue that has been identified regarding it. Many users who opted for Act! pro as their CRM Software choice raised the issue that this Software has major compatibility issues with Windows 10.

According to some of the user reviews, Act! Pro simply does not work with Windows 10.

This issue is a big drawback for the organization because all around the world nearly 300 million devices use Windows 10 as their operating system which makes up around 22.99% of the market share. If any startup that has opted for Act! as their CRM Software figures out that this Software doesn’t properly work with Windows 10 then obviously they would change their CRM Software rather than switching to a different operating system and they might never opt for any Software solution that Act! provides. The major reason behind this compatibility issue can be the update of the Microsoft .NET framework that Microsoft provided in late January. This update has been known to cause issues when trying to interact with the Documents tab, modify attachments, or attach new files to the database.

Act! however, was quick to identify this issue and provide hotfixes for some version of the Software, Act! Version 17.1 and Act! Version 17.2 and while addressing this issue Act! released a statement saying that “Upgrading to Windows 10 introduces many new features, some of which may affect Act!. We highly recommend performing a complete backup of your Act! database prior to upgrading to Windows, though Act! v17.2 and later are compatible and are fully supported. We have additional recommendations to make your transition as smooth as possible. Act! crashes when attempting to attach any document to the contact using the documents tab or when attaching any document to a note. Additionally, Act! crashes when attempting to open an existing attachment in the History tab.“

But the problem for Act! is that the people who were already using the Software might just use these hotfixes to solve the compatibility issue but new users or as we can say new potential customers of Act! pro might not be too intrigued in buying Software and then using hotfixes to make it work fine with their systems and this can cost the organization many new customers.

It’s quite clear that most customers like purchasing programs that work “out of the box”, and having to download multiple hotfixes just to get a program to run isn’t something that any customer considers ideal. This will obviously mean a loss of many potential customers. Furthermore, while this hotfix claimed to have fixed the Windows 10 compatibility issue entirely, it actually did not fix it for many users.

This issue was made available only for users on Act! 17 Pro and those who are using Software and programs newer than it. However, users who had the Act! 16 or older versions of Act! had no way of using it, and constant crashes were witnessed by them without any solution or fix.

A customer can be seen asking support for help as they used Act! 16 and Windows 10 was not compatible with it, and they asked for a fix. The support did not offer any good solutions, and only stated that the fix was for Act! 17, and not for 16, meaning any users of the old Software had to either stop using the program entirely or have to pay money to upgrade it to use it further. This is clearly no way to fix issues as it only leads to more frustration on the part of the customer, and the only fix that was actually available for users on Windows 10 was to either downgrade or revert to Windows 7 to continue using their Act! Software, or just delete ACT entirely and look for a Software that was compatible with Windows 10.

Certainly, constant releases of hotfixes, ill-managed customer support, and incompatibility issues that are widespread are no way for any big-time CRM service provider to Act!. By making their Software obsolete for Windows 10, Act! has managed to completely turn away a huge portion of their user base, and will undoubtedly have to release a better patch or hotfix in the future to get rid of this issue. Otherwise, they could witness a decrease in the number of users.

6. Substandard Reports

“The reports section is very slow. The terminology is not explained. The reports don’t tell you which campaign it’s about.”

One thing that most programmers and developers try to make sure of is that there is no use of any such specific terminology that will cause users to require online help to understand. These terminologies are often translated into simpler words that are understood by even new users or people that are not familiar with the different customer relationship management programs.

While Act! is one of the better Customer Relationship Management apps out there, its interface does contain lots of different terminologies that can not only prove to be daunting and difficult to understand for any newcomer but also be very difficult to memorize for even experienced users. Thus, this issue should be addressed as soon as possible to make the program much more suitable for beginners and friendly for people that aren’t well-versed with the different terms that these programs usually come with.

Another thing that most users have complained about is the issue that the program has with its speed, especially in the reports section.

The reports section is very slow and difficult to load, making the overall experience really frustrating and tedious. A program needs to be quick so that it remains as useful and efficient as possible. Imagine being in the middle of a very important business endeavor, and needing urgent assistance from Act!, just to have it lag and provide slow performance. Act! CRM pricing will certainly be a very difficult thing to manage and handle, especially after the price that is paid for the program.

Customers prefer the program that they buy is working well out-of-the-box and has very few bugs or issues. However, due to the heavy lack of bugs and various problems that are found in Act! really make it a difficult product to buy for someone who is starting out in the field. Most newcomers in the field are thus switching to other and better options, and Act! is an option for those who do not want to invest too much money, or want to go for the cheaper, but a worse option.

The fact that the reports section is highly incomplete, to the point that the reports do not even mention which campaign it is about, and works very slowly without constant lags makes Act! a very difficult program to get by.

On G2Crowd Reviews, a user stated:

“I love my mobile device and at the time, you couldn’t do anything with the Act! mobile app. I kind of remember a lot of upgrades too, that got irritating. It didn’t work well with Outlook, well, it kind of worked. The bottom line, it had the basics but you had to buy additional modules for everything and it just didn’t feel like a solid and cohesive product. There are a ton of better options.”

This review shows that the user was not happy with the program’s functionality, as it had the basics provided, but needed the help of other modules to be considered a full product. In the end, they just stated that there are better options than Act! available for use in the market. They also disliked having to constantly upgrade to a new system, which is something that Act! requires its users to do quite often.

Another user reviewed:

“Having to buy a new version every year puts a bad taste in one’s mouth – in particular as XP comes to the end of its life and older office applications need to be replaced, it necessitates a lot of cascading budget issues, and Act!’s price, while reasonable – is non-trivial.

The integration with Outlook is… Insufficient. I would also complain about the calendar – except that I can’t find a better calendar anywhere – it’s very comparable to outlook’s – but since every user has had a different (but largely bad) experience trying to synch their calendars – I’ve got people throughout the company that simply use one or the other, or have abandoned electronic type calendars altogether.

There are many add-ons that can make Act! snap and be a lot better than it is out of the box, but some of these features should really be included. It’s inexpensive to find a contact-numbering add-on for instance – but heaven helps you if you try to decode Act!’s super-secret SQL tables and try.”

According to this review, much like the previous one, the constant issue of upgrading it quite frequently in Act!. This user also took issue with the lack of functionality provided in the Outlook integration. They also stated that while many of the add-ons that are available for Act! make it better than it is normally, these products are often quite expensive and should just be made part of the actual program, rather than needing to be bought individually to use.

7.No User Training

“There are a lot of issues in Act! which are not able to customize and do not have a training session. It is very difficult to learn.”

Many Act! users have actually complained that many different menus and other functions of the program are not easily understandable, and they have to resort to either watching unofficial videos online, which can often scam or fool users more than anything else, or constantly contact support for help.

Sometimes, Act! Software support fails to answer questions as well, leaving the user in the dark completely. To such a user, the program is as good as useless because as mentioned, a program is not worth anything if the user does not know how to use it properly.

Act! can be a very difficult and frustrating experience of trial and error, just to get the basic functions running.

All in all, this pressing issue cannot be resolved by releasing a set of free information sessions or videos that are aimed at helping the users with any problems that they may have come across and taught them about the things and functions that are otherwise not found on the internet.

8.Customer Support

“The support is difficult to get, long waits, and not always correct. The customer support offered a knowledge base article on the first problem with two fixes. One was for beginners and did not work. The other referenced menus and options that do not exist”

Act!, being the biggest CRM service provider, needs to upgrade their support system because many users of the Software have raised the issue of the support system not being useful enough to help in the problems arising with the Software.

It has been seen that whenever an issue is raised by a customer, the person is kept waiting for a proper response, and apart from the response, the fixes for the problems that Act! provides is not always correct.

It is obvious that time is needed by the organization to understand and solve the issue but when the solution is not always good enough for the customer, a trust deficit between the customer and the organization is created that might prove to be bad for the organization in the long run. This is because the market is flooded with similar Software and other CRM solutions and the general perception of a customer is that they don’t always wait for a hotfix or they’d prefer changing the Software if their trust is lost in Act!.

Making the customer support system better needs to be the first and foremost priority of any company nowadays because the way you treat and manage your customer shows how concerned any organization is about the satisfaction of its customers. Act! provides a knowledge base article for any problem raised by a customer. This is a really promising way to deal with arising issues because those who haven’t yet encountered the problem can also see the article and use that particular hotfix to avoid that problem. But then again users of Act! have raised their concerns regarding the accuracy and correctness of that base article as well, because the solutions provided in these articles are known to not always work and this is one of the major issues that Act! needs to work on.

While these base articles can provide the “basic” information on any given problem, most of the time the problem that arises for a user is specific to their files, thus simple base information not only can cause more frustration for a user, as neither the solution worked for them, nor are they receiving any sort of fast and instant support.

According to a reviewer of Act!: ”Customer support offered a knowledge base article on the first problem with two fixes. One was for beginners and did not work. The other referenced menus and options that do not exist.”

This indicates that the support not only failed to provide the customer with the information they required, but they also lacked knowledge of the program itself, as they provided the customer with incorrect and unneeded information. The first article provided to the customer was a “base” article for absolute beginners. The customer was in no need of this article, as they had already known the basics and were trying to resolve their own personal issue that was specific to them. The other article mentioned menus or options that did not even exist! Not only are the support articles outdated and out of touch with the actual program, but the support staff is unaware of this glaring problem, and is continuously providing their customers with wrong information.

An example of Act!’s flawed customer support is when the “Windows 10” crashing incident took place. Many users who updated to Windows 10 noticed that Act! crashed repeatedly when a user would try to open their documents tab or write notes. This issue was obviously a very serious one, as it can stop a user from using Act! altogether. Crashing would mean that the program closes without any notice or information, thereby making it absolutely unusable. The hotfix for this problem wasn’t released until very late, and even that did not resolve the problem for all of the users.

Many of the users that had older versions of Act! still had to deal with the problem of constant crashes, and the only viable solution that they had was just not to upgrade to Windows 10, which of course, is no solution on part of Act!’s development team, but rather an instinctual effort made by the users to continue to use Act!.

It becomes clear how the support staff tries to dodge the question of the user at first, and then, in the end, fails to fix the problem, leaving the only way for the fix to be either pay money and upgrade or not get Windows 10 at all.

For a CRM provider as big as Act!, this simply no way to be responding to customers and users. Furthermore, making their program in such a way that it causes issues is also a concern that Act! should address immediately. The way the program is designed also causes lots of users to have to contact support lots of times, just to understand how the program is handled and used. Not to mention the support videos that Act! provides are nothing more than marketing videos that try less to solve the issue of the user, and try to get them to buy another unneeded add-on.

With all that has been mentioned, it’s no wonder why lots of users of Act! claim that the program certainly has lots of issues regarding its support staff. Providing incorrect, false, and irrelevant information is nothing less than a black flag for support staff as it quite evidently reveals that they, themselves, are painfully unaware of their own program, meaning that they just can’t help anyone else with their issues either.

Building good relations between customer and company is the biggest step for any company, and by constantly failing to make their customers happy, a company loses the trust and support of their customers quite easily.