What's Wrong with Top Producer 8i?

[RESteve]

Somethings not right with their product; perhaps it's too convoluted or complicated. I certainly feel that it's not new-agent friendly, and a tad bit expensive.

What do you guys think? What's wrong with TP8i?

[JoeFrow]

I don't want to do a bash fest but I really don't like this product. I had it for a couple months (still do just waiting for my subscription to expire) and not only is it not an easy program to use, it does not perform to my expectations.

I am a pretty tech savvy guy, and have trained hundreds of individuals who could barely able to use computers to use programs far more complex than this and I found this program frustrating to use. Now, if you someone were to take the time to learn all its quirks and features it would work well, but in my opinion for a busy professional or a non tech savvy person it is not a viable option.

Plus the template library they love to harp on leaves a lot to be desired. Some of them are just plain silly and I would never in a million years think of sending them to someone.

All in all the price is not so bad for me, but it just does not do what I thought it would and since I have found more robust programs that are more suited for my needs.

P.S. Make sure if you buy it and don't like it you cancel in 30 days, otherwise you are stuck for a year.

[jessiesc]

I've had several conversations recently with a few developers (at least they told me they were) and tech support people. The outcome and conversation were interesting and here's a few bullets:

They needed to get off the old platform and while the user interface is cumbersome and extremely complicated, they are working on more intuitiveness.

Many features are poorly designed and very few if any of the bulk features are useful.

According to the developers, they welcome suggestions from customers (I made quite a few regarding bulk updating and navigating) and are looking into streamlining their interface.

The biggest issue with them IMO, is their UI is not logically segregated due to the complexity of features as well as how the features were implemented.

While they did move to a new db, the issue is they retained the schema and did very little to improve or enhance it.

[OCTeam]

I dumped it. Team members found it too cumbersome to use. Learning curve too steep for most. I mainly wanted a KISS system and TP was not it.

[Mitch]

We had tried it a couple of years ago and found it to be non productive. That's why we built our own system, the 100MPH Marketing and Software System. The problem with most of the companies out there is that they are not Realtors. They are a bunch of tech guys that really don't understand our needs. Most of the drips are more fluff than substance. I'm always writing about how important it is to have drip campaigns with substance.

On top of the drip issue, it was not very user friendly. Let's face it it's not worth anything if you can't figure out how to use it to increase business.

[RESteve]

The problem with most of the companies out there is that they are not Realtors.

My sentiments, exactly. Agents are always looking to integrate new tech products into their business, but not at the cost of being overly complicated to the point to where they don't even have the desire to learn how to use it

[Madtown RM]

Good to know. I was considering purchasing TP 8i this year to house my client database.

Where is a good place to put it instead? Is CMS 2.0 a good place?

[Ryocheck]

I have had Top Producer since 2005 and never use it anymore. You could say I am not in love with it at all. For a while I did use it for past client follow up letters but then I found that the letters were cheesy and when writing my own it was just as simple to use an excel file for my follow up database. In fact this reminds me, I need to cancel my subscription.

[TrophyHomes]

Are there any good CMS's that are a one time fee not the 40 dollar a month type thing?

[brandonre]

Hey Steve, The only good thing I like about it is that it automatically inputs my leads directly from my idx other than that it is not very impressive but I am not sure what a good alternative would be to top producer.