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I happened to come across your article today and was somewhat dismayed by your comments regarding Salesforce.com's customer service. As the CEO of Commence Corporation a provider of CRM solutions to thousands of small to mid-size businesses I have very little interest in defending Salesforce.com about their quality of service, but I feel that there is a point to be made here that has is overlooked. The industry analysts have done a terrific job of positioning CRM as a commodity offering with price being the differentiating factor. As a result, vendor's already dealing with a highly competitive market are scrambling to offer lower cost solutions to win the hearts and minds of the small business community. What the customers has failed to realize is that customer service is really the differentiating factor and anyone selecting a low cost offering is going to give up that service. Does Salesforce provide poor service to customers that selected the $9 per user program or the $125 per month offering. How about Sugar CRM -- their low end offering at $7 per user based on their web site indicates they only offer e-mail support at this price with a response time of 1 to 2 business days. You also mention Zoho which is free for the first three users. What level of service should I expect for free. No vendor can provide a quality level of service at the price points above. You have singled out Salesforce, but add Sugar and Zoho to the mix as well. At Commence, we have learned that companies that engage in a CRM initiative to improve their front office business processes want a interactive business relationship with their CRM provider and they are more than willing to pay for this service. If you select a solution for free or $7 to $9 dollars per user then CRM is probably not that important to your business, but lets not single out vendor's for poor customer service.
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