I think it depends what the CRM is for, many are sales pipeline orientated which may not be what you want it for.
I have experimented with Ulysses, Agenda and currently DayOne using a combination of automation and tagging. All have worked well.
Currently I use the “nickname” field in contacts as an automation trigger to tag records in DayOne, called by a simple shortcut. The same nickname for each client is also used as tags and SAL names In Omnifocus, and my finder folder structure so everything matches up.
These may give you some inspiration to roll your own.
I’m curious what you’re using for your CRM now. I’ve started to use Trello to keep track of interactions and also tasks. Are you still using Agenda and if so what plan are you on?
No changed again (of course) and trying just to run off the native filing system and keep away from apps I do not need or cloud based apps where data is not always accessible.
I am using a combination of Drafts, an action to file a formatted with a date-client-title .md file, to a folder marked _inbox in Dropbox with Hazel rules to file to a _Notes folder in each clients individual folder.
I just found Agenda an overhead (same with Evernote, Devonthink, Keep it, Notion etc) I did not need, so many text processing and bucket apps now, when really a logical filing system will do most of what I need.
Markdown is now done with drafts on iOS, and Sublime text on a Mac, with Marked app for visual checking.
While it does not give me an easy date based overview it gives me a easy access to every clients notes and if I needed to search by date I could just do a search for 2019-09*.md for example.
I am looking at automating this further by running the drafts action on a timer which automatically processes anything in the inbox tagged with “crm” and then archives it.
Agreed… this is well worth a try. Notion has so much going for it - I just hope it keeps going with its development. But this template give a lot of insight as to how to use Notion better. A huge shout out to Charlie Taylor for the share! You can find Charlie on Twitter.
A hitch with using BusyContacts for CRM (which I have access to through SetApp): Catalina does not allow apps to access Mail and Messages, which was a key feature of BusyContacts.
Yes, “was.” No apps have that access any more after Catalina. Every developer this affects, from BusyMac to Houdah, asks users to submit feedback to Apple to rescind the restriction.
FYI one workaround BusyContacts offers is that it can work with mail if you are also using MailMate on the Mac.
Maybe, but it isn’t a good cross-platform solution. At this point I think most people in the Mac ecosystem also have iPhones (and possibly iPads as well) so a Mac-only process probably isn’t ideal now.
Just pointing out that searching mail on a Mac as BusyContacts (also MacOS exclusive) used to was still possible with an email external mail client
In my case I nearly always have access to a Mac or never more than a couple of hours away, and frankly nothing I would need a fully fledged CRM for is so important it could not wait a couple of hours.
The ‘always on’ culture creates an expectation that we need to always have everything doable and available now, training people to expect short delays makes for a far less stressful existence, always on just creates stress inducing and unrealistic expectations in clients.
I understand, but being a few hours away from my Mac is reason enough to want a cross-platform option to make contemporaneous notes. When I’m updating it’s typically while I’m on (or just off) the phone, so an iPhone app really is a necessity for me.
It might be different for an officeworker who primarily updates user accounts after receiving emails/texts but I don’t want to have to futz with creating notes apps on my iPhone that I later need to export into a CRM at home.
and trying just to run off the native filing system and keep away from apps I do not need or cloud based apps where data is not always accessible.
