The Customer Is ALWAYS Right

Manage your clientele

The customer is always right. But it doesn't help when you forgot what the customer was talking about. If you're running a small business, you might want to take a look at Customer Backup, a program specially designed for managing your customers and business. This tool helps you keep track of not only your customers, but your sales, as well as a few other things.

Fix the speed bumps, then we'll see

I don't want to start off with the bad, but I felt like these things should be addressed. I saw that there were a few things that Customer Backup should fix. The first and foremost is their Scheduler. I had no clue what day it was when I was looking at the calendar. It would be great if this could get a facelift. The quick search function doesn't work. For companies that have hundreds, or thousands of customers, this function can become useful when trying to navigate between all of them.

The third thing that I noticed was that, even though I sold a product worth over $250 (but the customer hadn't yet paid) and that I had only $188 total profit, I wasn't at all in the red. It still showed a positive outcome of $438 as total profit. I'd like to see a little star, or marker indicating that, until the customer pays, I'm technically in the negative.

What Customer Backup Offers

After the install, Customer Backup prompted me for a few initial settings before I got underway. Since Customer Backup can be applied for both admins and clients, a few settings needed to be set in order for everything to function properly. After the setting of passwords and basic user functions (this included the ability to add, edit, and delete a customer), I was on my way to running a potentially successful business.

The user interface is quite intuitive and clear to figure out. Your customers are all listed on the right hand side with details of when their accounts were last updated written underneath (this includes the last active operators). Your main window pane shows the different tabs that you typically use to manage all your customers.

Your 'personal details' tab offers general info on your customers (i.e. name, email, address, etc.). Your 'purchase detail' tab offers you general customer buying information, like transaction/purchase details and cash earnings for that product. The 'company status' tab shows database details and total revenue details. The 'backup' tab gives you the option to create and restore your current database and finally, the last tab is your 'quick start tab.' Here's where you can see your total recorded budget along with database strength.

Underneath these two window panes are your shortcuts. You can generate reports, add/edit/delete customers, create charts, schedule tasks, or just add a few notes. All of which are simple step-by-step operations that don't take a lot of time.

When it comes to keeping track of your users, this program's got a good grasp on the whole operation. Yet, I feel like it still has a few things to catch up on after MSCRM (Microsoft's Customer Relationship Management) has set the bar so high.

The Good

For your basic customer managing needs, Customer Backup has the fundamentals for any small business geared toward success. You have generated reports, earning charts, good customer handling, and an overall feel for ease of use.

The Bad

There's a few more nuts and bolts that need to be tightened before this becomes the fine tuned machine it's meant to be. Fix the 'quick search' or else it'll be a hassle to constantly scroll through and find clients. Revamp the scheduler because it looks confusing and maybe stretch things out a little, it feels a little clunky when you're using C.B.

The Truth

The truth is that it's not a bad piece of software to have if you're running a business, but I can't say that it's better than the standard that's already out there. There's no reason why you shouldn't give it a shot, maybe it fits all your needs just fine.

Check out the pictures below.