Thoughts on PatronManager

I'm a big fan of things that make life, professional and personal, easier and I have to say I was impressed with what PatronManager had to offer. This was my first exposure to a CRM program. Most times when I had a question it was answered and if I was wondering if the program also did something else (like notify a staff member of a task assigned to them from within the program) a majority of the time the answer was yes. From the presentation it seemed like PatronManager was very aware of itself and what its clients want. It already provides this cool 360 view of patrons and all these tools to keep up with them (ticket sales, subscriptions, who has been in contact with them, etc.), but they also have additional tools in the works that specific clients are testing out for them. I think it's great that the company seems to be constantly working to improve itself and I assume some of the new things they have planned for the future have come from research and client feedback.

I did sign up for the webinar and had to watch it at work. I was unable to ask any questions because I had things to work on and I missed some parts of the presentation. Luckily, we were sent the prerecorded version and I was able to watch it again in my free time.

As far as questions I would have asked here's what I have:

• Does the system allow friends to choose seats near one another by clicking on links shared through Facebook? I ask this because I would want to make sure I was sitting near a friend and the system automatically giving me that option would save me time from asking my friend where their seats are. It could always be a feature that the original ticket buyer can choose not to include.
• I love the Chatter Feed, but wondered if there is an instant messaging feature? It would be nice to quickly ask a question of another staff member right there in the system if both of you are logged on. I also think it just makes sense to have along with the Chatter Feed.
• Lastly, I would have asked how they compare themselves to competitors like Tessitura when they are pitching this tool to potential clients? When we get into the demo for Tessitura it would be cool to see how the two compare based on the others view of the competition.

The last feature I really enjoyed was the pie charts. I love that it automatically updates itself as information is entered and you don't have to create a new one. I work at a print shop and we use PrintSmith to manage our projects and client information. When I see programs like PatronManager I have to wonder why PrintSmith is so ancient compared. It can barely build a decent excel spreadsheet.

I thought I would end this by sharing some reviews I found of actual PatronManager clients. Enjoy :o):