ClearView CRM Reviews

Pros

I like how easy the navigation is and how you can figure out what you need to do. There are a variety of reports to use.

Cons

I wish everything could be done in Clearview instead of some stuff having to be done in Pledge maker such as payment transfers.

Pros

User friendly, mostly obvious what fields you need to view to find data, easy to make a donor profile report, relatively easy to run program summary reports. Varying levels of my staff have been able to figure it out...

Cons

The payments versus gifts tabs - there is no one place where it seems like you find out the balance of a pledge or total pledge amounts while also seeing all the gift information in one place; organizations typically have more than one contact person and there is no place for this information. Searching for records is challenging because Aliases have to be created exactly the way someone might search instead of just looking for records that may contain the information.

Pros

It is fairly easy to use and navigate, I like the custom dashboards and prospect profiles. I also like the feature for recording actions with prospects.

Cons

It is hard to get responses from the support team, I have had many tickets that took over a week to be answered. Most of them simple tickets such as "add a new user".

Pros

Love the look and feel and how easy it is to navigate and hop around without having to drill all the way back out. CV is an excellent product. The ability to label fields, hide fields, sort fields, etc.. as well as the screen configuration features is such a great selling point.

Cons

Software shouldn't hold you hostage. Allowing more flexibility in updating, inserting and deleting data (especially in bulk) should be easier. I am happy to hear lockbox and auto update improvements are on the horizon (already signed up to beta test).
Would also like to see some new aggregates offered as standard features (on the screen) like:
How much an event raised, how much a team raised, raised vs goal, event raised by year (same event held over multiple years) would be fantastic as would some list manager enhancements to really allow users to rely on it.

Pros

Almost every screen is customizable. Dashboard doesn't fit your needs? Create a new one. Need to track different KPI's? Make a report and import it in your Dashboard. View only the most relevant gift info. Create tabs for donors that display only the info (and calculations) you want. Great stuff.

Cons

The software is currently in a great state if you have someone who's a high-level SQL programmer. It's in a decent state if you don't.

This is especially true with regard to reporting, and it is not wholly user-friendly to those without software/database experience. To counter this, the ClearView staff have provided several "safe" domains wherein any user can create an accurate report, however they are very simple.

All that said, the basic reporting module is limited. I don't know SQL and I've run up against limitations in this module. (An advanced version of the reporting module exists, however it is for those fluent in SQL. )

Pros

I find Clearview to be extremely easy to use. It does not have a big learning curve. Great product!!

Cons

System can sometimes be slow but that may be because of the amount of data we have to parse. That's all.

Pros

There are a lot of layers to the data that you see, and the reporting feature on the dashboard easily keeps track of YTD, MTD, and recent donations in a concise manner that makes reporting easy.

Cons

This program has most of what we need, but finding exactly where the information is or how best to utilize it can be difficult.

Pros

The system is fairly intuitive and easy to use. SofTrek works closely with our database team to offer customization and is always looking for ways to improve.

Cons

Sometimes the language is not consistent - you may see something called one in a section, but called something different in another area.

Pros

Writing List Queries. I find it easy to select the data that I want for the output. I also find it easy because the output comes in an excel spreadsheet.

Cons

It's reporting functions. It doesn't seem to have good report features I want to be able to compile a report and have it come out in a more readable format that I can present to people other then in an excel spreadsheet.

Pros

The software is easy to work with and understand. It also is able to gather and track important information.

Pros

The software is fairly easy to navigate and has the ability to add much detail to the prospect file.

Cons

Running reports can be challenging. I find that sometimes data is pulled that was flagged to omit. The prospect search function is not broad enough. You pretty much have to use the exact way that the prospect is entered. It would be nice if it was a little smarter. I often search by name then by address or other information that I have just to ensure I am not creating a prospect for someone that is not a new donor. Often I will do this search with no results, create a new prospect and then only after I have gone through the process of entering all the information, the system will tell me it is a duplicate.

Pros

The best part of the software is the up time. It is rarely down. Also the support is one of the best. The screens are really easy to follow and match. Also the search of prospect has gotten a lot better.

Cons

There are still a handle of functions that are still only on Pledge maker and not ported over to Clearview

Pros

The reports are great and the simple search functions are easy to use and navigate. It provides information in real time.

Cons

Could use a freshening up in appearance. Would like to see a simpler dashboard with customized information and exported reports with direct links to CV numbers.

Pros

Mobile App.

Cons

Follow up on Actions. Have to enter a second contact/action.

Pros

Once you learn what the different categories are it gives a good glimpse of your donor and their tendencies.

Cons

I entered gifts into the database and gift entering is bulky and very time consuming. It seems like some of the steps could either be consolidated or eliminated.

Pros

build my own reports. Easy to find donor history

Cons

I have difficulty pulling reports by appeal code

Pros

Clearview made searching for donors within our organization and pulling up donor profiles very easy. When we had calls coming in, I could use the search engine with quickly and with ease.

Cons

Clearview's functionality was not so user friendly. it was difficult to navigate the many options in this database and some of the functions were clunky and cumbersome

Pros

all in one place
Good action and tracking

Cons

too many reports means too many to chose from it appears overwhelming

Pros

The looks of the software are top-notch. When working, reports are easy to pull, which allows more staff to pull their own reports.

Cons

The customer service seems to be lacking - canned reports will be broken, and when we ask for help, ClearView already knows what's wrong, but hasn't done anything to fix it. Then it takes a long while to fix reports.

Cons

Limited functionality and customization. Does not allow for multiple contacts in an organization record. Reporting is clunky and the query function is nearly useless.

Pros

Clear process. Easy to review donor history.

Cons

Still in the learning process, would like to learn more on back end of program.

Pros

The user interface is very friendly and intuitive . There are a ton of ways to find the information you need and built in tools to make your research more effective.

Cons

Because it does so much, it takes a very long time to load some information. This is to be expected from a piece of software this large but it still feel a bit TOO slow.

Pros

Powerful.