Todd Hoskins Reviews Tools for Small Business
Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools and products that could belong in a small business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks who would be their customers in a form that’s consistent and relevant.
Rapportive
A Review by Todd Hoskins
If you do not use Gmail for personal or business use, sorry, this review is not for you. Please come back again next week. If you do have a Gmail account, or your business utilizes Gmail, install the Rapportive plug-in. Believe me, it will be worth it.
Why?
Rapportive removes the ads on the right column of your Gmail page, and replaces them with the social network information of the person sending you an email. This is simple social CRM, immediate information on where to find and interact with friends and customers outside of email. A field to take notes. And, itâs free.
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The latest tweets, job information from LinkedIn, and geographic location all help provide context. For a salesperson, entrepreneur, executive, or customer service representative, the value of getting information right within your browser saves time, can help you prioritize responses, and allows you to know more about your customer than their email address. The notes section is handy for recording birthdays, kids, and conversation cues.
Takes less than two minutes to set up. Privacy concerns are minimal because Rapportive only has access to your contacts, not your Gmail password. (Thank you OpenID). The Rapportive extension is available for the Firefox and Chrome browsers.
Summing Up â Is it worth it?
Enterprise Value: 3/5 â more complex CRMâs are available, but this is simple if you have corporate Gmail.
Entrepreneur Value: 5/5 â Bridges the personal and the professional and saves time.
Personal Value: 5/5 â Did you know Johnny had a Flickr account? Now you do.
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Thanks, Todd! You can find Todd on Twitter @ToddHoskins
I’ve installed the plugin. It’s not perfect, but it’s already way more useful than the ads it replaces!
What about you? Have you used it? What do you think of Rapportive?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!
Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.
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This is great. I just opened a social media service company and this will allow me to understand a bit more about my customers and how I can tailor a proposal without having to do so much research.
Thanks Todd.
Loved the simple instructions on the download page – very clear and exactly what will happen (step by simple step, more businesses should do this and decrease frustration and “help!” questions).
Installed it already – I never liked the ads Google forces on you, but now it shows info I like from those who took time to write to me.
Karin H (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)
Trey & Karin,
Glad you found it useful!
Todd
Thanks for the article. I tried Rapportive on my business gmail account but couldn’t get used to it. I ended up using a new CRM that I found about: http://www.pipejump.com it connects nicely with Google Calendar to it works perfectly for me.
The CRM-lover in me hates the idea that people would use their email inbox as the hub of their CRM, but on the other hand, whatever gets people to adopt is a good thing. This looks like it’s meeting people where they’re spending their time most and prompting them to take action with their customers. Great.
Hi!
I use it as a quick reference to see someone’s locations while I read their email. It’s fast and efficient tor that.
If you have a social media team, you may already be communicating with your customers or leads online. But, does your CRM have any record of those interactions? Social CRM integration lets you tie those conversations to existing records in the database. You can have a complete view of your interactions with your customers—whether they came in the form of phone calls, e-mails, or tweets.