Another customer relationship management tool has come to the fore in the form of CureCRM, a hosted software solution that tracks prospect and customer conversations in e-mail applications and Twitter and triggers a CRM engagement on the fly.
CureCRM, which launched to the general public Aug. 18, also includes an automated, e-mail-based scheduling assistant. This enables sales teams to schedule and place meetings into Google, Apple’s iPhone and Microsoft Outlook calendars, and sends reminder e-mails to all participating parties to join a scheduled meeting.
The startup also offers a plug-in that lets users search for contacts or e-mail conversations within Outlook. Similarly, another plug-in sifts through e-mail in Salesforce.com and automatically log all contacts, events and tasks to the leading SAAS CRM application.
CureCRM also promises Twitter Relationship Management, or TRM, tracking conversations about brands on Twitter, as well as tweets from prospective customers. CureCRM users can then respond to and administer tasks.
The Twitter integration could be CureCRM’s sweet spot. Twitter has made it clear it is becoming more friendly to businesses looking to leverage its real-time conversations as promotional tools, and salespeople and marketers are leading that movement. With CureCRM managing their tweet streams, sales managers can better keep track of leads and prospective clients.
CureCRM’s Twitter integration pits the startup against CoTweet, which helps companies engage customers using Twitter. But Twitter is only one pipe into CRM; CureCRM makes sure Outlook users and Salesforce.com customers also experience the same e-mail CRM and scheduling benefits.
And because it wouldn’t do to release a browser-based application solely to the desktop in this day of roving corporate road warriors, CureCRM can also be accessed via smartphones such as the iPhone, phones based on Android and Windows Mobile, as well as the BlackBerry and Palm Pre.
CureCRM is offering four packages out of the gate. Personal users can use the personal assistant, 7-day e-mail retention, e-mail-powered CRM and support for free. The intro version costs $29.95 per user, per month and adds team collaboration, mobile support and SMS/Twitter integration.
The startup version costs $39.95 per user, per month and adds an Outlook plug-in and personal mass mailer. The Sales Force version adds the Salesforce.com plug-in for $49.95 per user, per month.
CureCRM is also offering a promotion: The first 200 readers to sign up here will be able to access CureCRM free.