Seven years ago, we introduced Nutshell: a new CRM with several big ideas.
We understood a handful of the challenges sales teams face, and set off to solve them. Along the way, feedback from our customers revealed even more challenges that we didn’t consider. That’s why so many of the best Nutshell features were inspired by suggestions from our own customers.
Spending the time to delight individual customers doesn’t scale, but it’s a total necessity if you hope to build a product that people actually want to use—especially in a startup’s formative years.
Here are nine popular Nutshell features that didn’t exist until our customers asked for them.
One-click account backup
When Nutshell was a fledgling company, a lot of our customers were (naturally) worried about the stability of our business. To ease their concerns, we added a one-click “export everything” feature so users could back up their information at any time. After all, it’s your data, not ours.
Spreadsheet-inspired lists
While spreadsheets work fine for individuals managing their sales efforts, they’re terrible when it comes to sharing. Still, a lot of people seem to like them, so we embraced our customers’ comfort with spreadsheets and designed our lead lists with familiar rows and columns, plus filtering and sorting right out of Excel.
No matter how you’re used to working, we want to make the transition to Nutshell as easy as possible.
Duplicate finder
Few things cause more confusion for CRM users than duplicate contacts. When we launched, our duplicate detector simply pointed out when you were looking at somebody who might be in Nutshell twice.
Our customers asked us to think bigger: We got countless requests from Nutshell users who wanted to find all possible duplicates at once, rather than one at a time. Now you can hit the “Duplicates” box in People/Custom fields, and Nutshell will put every offending record in a list, for quick and easy cleanup.
Lead cloning
For companies that have recurring or renewing opportunities with the same client, re-creating a lead over and over again can be aggravating. It took a suggestion from David Higbie at Modelon for us to recognize that common pain point, and create a lead cloning tool that begins the process again, for the next renewal.
Minimizing data entry is the most helpful thing we can do for sales reps, so we’re thrilled to offer this feature for businesses that sell repeatedly to customers.
Reporting on individual product lines
Our friends and neighbors at Arbormetrix originally requested this feature after they kept getting asked for breakdowns of revenue by product line during board meetings. It was exciting to learn that our customers were using Nutshell to present to their boards, and one of our investors suggested that we dig in to find a solution.
The resulting feature gives users the ability to quickly see the revenue each of their product types is generating within the sales report—a very useful addition for businesses that have more sophisticated product and service lines.
Calling and emailing from the dashboard
Any time we can save our customers a few clicks, it’s a cause for celebration. Thanks to suggestions from Ryan Hartsell at Oxford Partners and Dave Guernsey at Stacks Data, we added the ability to send emails and place phone calls (via Nutshell Pro’s click-to-call feature) directly from the Dashboard, rather than clicking into contact records first.
Negative filtering
We designed our filters so that our users could find things like “leads from Google Adwords” or “sales over $1,000.” But if you wanted to know “leads that didn’t come from a trade show” or “leads in our Midwest territory that are not owned by my sales rep Jacob Smith,” it required a lot of unnecessary legwork.
Having an “is not” option while filtering companies, people, and leads gives our users another way to find what they need quickly. Special thanks to Mark Noeker at Thermal-Tec and Tannus Quatre at Vantage Clinical Solutions for bringing this one to our attention.
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One of our most frequently requested features, this recent addition gives users the ability to attach files to emails sent from Nutshell, and automatically imports email attachments from synced and BCC’ed emails, letting you accomplish more within your CRM without having to switch between programs.
More lead creation options for Zapier
Connecting Nutshell with Zapier allows you to automatically complete actions such as creating people and leads, and performing contact searches. Our customers let us know that they wanted more automation beyond simply creating the lead, so we made it possible for multiple types of important lead information to sync to Nutshell.
Now, data such as which pipeline the lead should be in, what competitors they’re checking out, and which market gets the opportunity can be added without any extra work—which lets salespeople focus more on closing the deal than hunting down information in multiple systems.
Honorable mention: Individual activities by lead
This was actually a request by us, since we use Nutshell to manage our own sales activities and customer relationships. We wanted to look at individual sales and understand the typical number of calls and demos that lead to each one, but didn’t have an easy way of doing that.
The most interesting thing we learned from this new feature? When one of our trial users calls in to our support team, there’s a 50% chance they’ll become a customer!
1. What does the G2 Crowd ‘High Performer’ award signify for Nutshell CRM users, and how is it determined?
The G2 Crowd ‘High Performer’ award, which Nutshell earned in Winter 2017, is a significant recognition based directly on the voice of our customers. It signifies that Nutshell CRM consistently receives high customer satisfaction scores from real users, as evidenced by their reviews on G2. Unlike other categories, ‘High Performer’ status is awarded to products that have substantial satisfaction ratings but may have a smaller market presence compared to ‘Leaders.’ This means that while we might not be the largest CRM provider, our users are exceptionally happy with our product and service, making us a top choice for businesses prioritizing user experience and effective solutions.
2. Why are customer reviews on platforms like G2 Crowd so crucial for evaluating CRM software, and how does Nutshell leverage this feedback?
Customer reviews on platforms like G2 Crowd are invaluable because they offer unbiased, real-world insights from actual users. These reviews provide a transparent look into a CRM’s usability, features, support, and overall effectiveness in solving business challenges—information that marketing materials alone can’t convey. At Nutshell, we don’t just celebrate these awards; we actively listen to every piece of feedback. We use customer reviews to identify areas for improvement, prioritize new features, and refine our user experience. This continuous feedback loop ensures that Nutshell evolves in direct response to our users’ needs, maintaining high satisfaction and delivering a CRM that truly works for them.
3. Beyond the 2017 award, how has Nutshell maintained its commitment to customer satisfaction and product excellence over the years?
While the Winter 2017 High Performer award was a proud moment, our commitment to customer satisfaction is an ongoing journey. Since then, Nutshell has consistently invested in product innovation, responsive customer support, and user-centric design. We’ve introduced powerful features like AI Agents for enhanced productivity, advanced marketing automation tools, and deeper integrations, all while ensuring our core CRM remains intuitive and easy to use. Our dedicated support team provides free, unlimited assistance to every customer, ensuring they get the most out of Nutshell. This continuous dedication to improvement and support is why Nutshell consistently ranks highly in customer satisfaction across various industry reports, year after year.
4. What tangible benefits can a business expect from choosing a CRM like Nutshell that is recognized for high customer satisfaction?
Choosing a CRM like Nutshell, recognized for high customer satisfaction, translates into several tangible benefits for your business. Firstly, you can expect higher user adoption rates because your team will find the software intuitive and genuinely helpful, leading to better data hygiene and more consistent processes. Secondly, strong customer satisfaction often correlates with excellent customer support, meaning you’ll have reliable assistance whenever you need it, minimizing downtime and maximizing productivity. Lastly, a highly-rated CRM typically offers a better return on investment (ROI) due to its effectiveness in streamlining sales, marketing, and customer service operations, ultimately driving more revenue and fostering stronger client relationships.
5. How should businesses use G2 Crowd reports and awards, like the ‘High Performer’ badge, when making a CRM purchasing decision?
When making a CRM purchasing decision, G2 Crowd reports and awards serve as a powerful validation from your peers. We recommend businesses use them as a critical data point, but not the only one. Look for products that consistently appear in ‘High Performer’ or ‘Leader’ quadrants, as this indicates sustained user satisfaction. Dive into the actual reviews to see if other businesses with similar needs and challenges are finding success. Pay attention to comments about ease of use, customer support, specific features, and integration capabilities. This holistic approach—combining award recognition with detailed user feedback—will help you identify a CRM solution like Nutshell that not only performs well but also aligns perfectly with your unique business requirements.
