Software Reviews names Pipedrive CRM, Zoho CRM, and Oracle Sales Cloud among Customer Relationship Management Emotional Footprint Award Winners.

 SoftwareReviews Study Reveals Top Four Vendors for Best Customer Relationships in the Customer Relationship Management Software Industry 

TORONTO, Nov. 21, 2019 – SoftwareReviews, a division of world-class IT research and consulting firm Info-Tech Research Group, published its 2019 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Category Report today and launched its corresponding Emotional Footprint Awards for CRM, naming four champions based on exceptional user reviews. Survey questions, which have been crafted by seasoned IT industry analysts and backed by 22 years of IT research, focus on CRM software users’ relationships with vendors. The following vendors received top scores: 

1.      Zoho CRM 

2.      Pipedrive CRM 

3.      Oracle Sales Cloud 

4.      SugarCRM[JG2] 

Zoho CRM software users said that the performance-enhancing abilities of the vendor were the best in the industry, helping them to make a positive impact on propelling their product forward. According to Pipedrive CRM software users, the vendor showed them the greatest amount of respect in their service experience, reflecting that good service matters. Oracle Sales Cloud users rated the vendor as the best in the industry for continually improving, showing that the software is keeping pace with market directions. The strongest positive sentiment that SugarCRM users felt with the vendor was trustworthiness, particularly when asked about conflict resolution. Of the survey responses about negotiation and contracts, intended to help software users understand how the vendor will work with them in negotiation, software users said they felt every vendor had overpromised to some degree. 

Relationships play a large role in customer satisfaction, illustrated by the Emotional Footprint Diamond, a quadrant that plots software vendors based on aggregated emotional response ratings. The value index metric captures how software users feel about the value they receive relative to cost – with regard to business value created and importance to success. It even reveals plans to renew. The Net Emotional Footprint measures high-level user sentiment in the areas of service, negotiation, product impact, conflict resolution, and strategy and innovation. Together, they create a powerful indicator of overall user feeling toward the vendor and its product from the software users’ point of view, not typically uncovered in traditional data quadrants. 

 

As Ben Dickie, director of research and advisory, CRM, at Info-Tech Research Group, explains, “Providing a great experience to your customers or constituents is a critical mandate of modern organizations. Having the right technology stack in play to support sales, marketing, and customer service capabilities is essential. The centre of a well-oiled ecosystem for customer experience is a CRM platform.” 

 

What is the Emotional Footprint Diamond?

The Emotional Footprint Diamond illustrates the customer experience with software vendors and a complex relationship spanning procurement, implementation, service, and support. The Net Emotional Footprint of a vendor is a result of aggregated emotional response ratings in the areas of service, negotiation, product impact, conflict resolution, and strategy and innovation, creating a powerful indicator of overall user feeling toward the vendor and its product from the software users’ point of view. The data published in the Emotional Footprint Diamond is collected from real end users through authentic software review surveys and meticulously verified. The survey uses standard net promoter scoring (positive percentage minus negative percentage) to arrive at the Net Emotional Footprint score. These skillfully crafted survey questions are informed by two decades of IT research and advisory. 

 Vendors with top user scores receive the Emotional Footprint Award. The Emotional Footprint Awards, an initiative proudly founded in 100% user-review data, is free of traditional components such as market presence and analyst opinion, which are opaque in nature and may be influenced by vendor pressure, financial or otherwise. 

SoftwareReviews is a division of Info-Tech Research Group Inc., a world-class IT research and consulting firm established in 1997. Backed by two decades of IT research and advisory experience, SoftwareReviews is a leading source of expertise and insight into the enterprise software landscape and client-vendor relationships. 

By collecting real data from IT and business professionals, SoftwareReviews’ methodology produces the most detailed and authentic insights into the experience of evaluating and purchasing enterprise software.