When faced with selecting a B2B customer support software system, it’s easy to immediately think of “the big guys†as your best solution. After all, everyone has heard of them, right? But just because a company has a large subscriber base and an even larger marketing budget doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right choice for your company.It always pays to do your due diligence before making such an important decision as going with a new customer support system.
If you’re a B2B technology company considering a customer support software system, PhaseWare’s Tracker Suite is unbeatable—even against Salesforce. If Salesforce is like a general practitioner, think of PhaseWare as a very affordable specialist. In this blog we take a look at just a few of the reasons that make Tracker Suite the best choice for your business.
Customer Support Focus vs. CRM Focus
PhaseWare co-founders come from an in-depth background in businessware development, innovation, and engineering. This background gives them first-hand knowledge of the world their customers live in: the challenges of developing, deploying, and supporting business software. Instead of embracing a one-size-fits-all business model, PhaseWare deliberately narrowed its niche to develop customer support software, with a focus on technology companies. By not trying to be all things to all people—or companies—PhaseWare can focus its development efforts on the features that matter most to technology companies.
Obviously a successful company like Salesforce also has innovative leaders at the helm, but unlike the case with PhaseWare, their leadership built the company’s success on customer relationship management (CRM) services instead of customer support. Only after the success of CRM did Salesforce add its Service Cloud support module to their flagship CRM solution. Unless your company is already a Salesforce CRM customer, it’s unlikely that they are top-of-mind for your support solution.
Comparing Expenses
Tracker Suite is easy on the budget. PhaseWare offers named and concurrent licenses, meaning multiple support agents can share licenses, but still have their own individual accounts. Tracker is available to any user that a company has set up within the system, as long as the number of users logged in at one time doesn’t exceed the number of concurrent licenses purchased. PhaseWare offers low-end pricing and will beat competitor’s pricing.
For existing Salesforce customers who wish to add the Service Cloud, Salesforce provides a bundled service for $300 a month, per user. Unlike PhaseWare, Salesforce does not offer concurrent licenses to lower their customers’ costs.
Hosting Options
Our recent blog explored the pros and cons of hosted and on-site solutions. Tracker offers cloud-based services as well as options to host Tracker on-site on your own company server. Salesforce has no on-site options for their Service Cloud. For some companies that require local hosting, this rules out Service Cloud altogether.
Personal Service
PhaseWare is a small company run by real people—folks who know your name, are friendly (and sometimes say “y’allâ€), and who will interact with you to provide training and support. This same level of service is available to all PhaseWare customers, not just those who pay a premium. PhaseWare’s small size allows them to be nimble, quickly responding to customer needs. Customers love PhaseWare because they always say yes!
Integration Enables the Best of Both Worlds
If your company is already using Salesforce for CRM or is considering adding it, why not get the best of both worlds? PhaseWare Integrations uses APIs to easily connect your Tracker data to Salesforce so you can view it in Salesforce and vice versa. This winning combination provides best-in-class customer support software with best best-in-class CRM capabilities.