As we said before, you can view the calendars of multiple users as long as you have permission, filtering by category as before. But you can also now perform conditional searches-searching, say, all scheduled tasks for next week but excluding maybe phone calls.
Search functionality has been consolidated and enhanced. Previously, Redtail offered two search functions: "Intellisearch" and an advanced search. The new enhanced search function replaces these and allows you to zero in on what you need when a few characters are typed into the engine.
The search engine now accepts "and/or" searches, so you can search for everyone using a certain status or keyword. Currently, it only allows two search criteria, though Redtail plans to expand these. Once you get your list of search results, you can filter them further if required.
Once you've completed your search, the drop-down menus on the right allow you to perform tasks related to your search results. For example, you can print mailing labels by selecting a label type from one drop-down menu. Another allows you to perform exports. You can also run mail merges and reports. In addition, there's an options list. This allows you, for example, to run a mail merge on 100 of your clients and to attach a note to all of them on the fly.
There are numerous other improvements as well. The program handles photos better, has a much-improved reporting engine, new "Opportunities" views and sorting capabilities. The company will soon add support for smartphones to further increase Redtail's usefulness. Two-way SMS support will allow you to text the Redtail database and request data from it, such as a client's phone number. Redtail will text it back to you. By the time you read this, you should also be able to use the system with Copytalk, the mobile service that allows you to transcribe your voice to text. The software is expected to accommodate Financial Profiles before year's end. There's more, but it will have to wait for a future article.
The bottom line is that the new Redtail is shaping up as a more modern, more responsive and more intuitive version of what is already a popular online CRM application. At $65 per month per database (a database can accommodate up to 15 users) it is extremely affordable, too. I'd really like to see some work-flow and checklist templates included (items offered by competitors), and there are a few minor kinks that need to be worked out before final release, but all indications are that the Redtail CRM is poised to continue its winning ways.