Switched from a Rolodex of vendor contacts to a CRM, feels like cheating
For 12 years I kept every service provider in a beat-up leather Rolodex. Plumbers, IT guys, print shops, you name it. Each card had notes like 'good price, slow on email' or 'broke a chair in 2019, still paid invoice.' Problem was, I only knew what was on the card. When a vendor went out of business or changed their pricing, I'd find out on the phone, after wasting an hour.
Last February I finally moved everything into a cheap CRM, $29 a month. Now I track every quote, every follow-up, and even the vibe of the person I talk to. Took me a weekend to type everything in, but this week I had to find a backup for our copier service and pulled up three options with their response times and past issues in under five minutes. That used to be a whole afternoon of calls.
I still miss the physical cards sometimes, but the notes are way deeper now. Has anyone else made a similar switch and felt weirdly attached to their old system, or is it just me?