Zoho for lead management- what’s your experience?

So I’ve started using zoho for all of my prospects and leads that I’ve generated and set appointments with- but I find myself not trusting the app.

I have been using it for the past week and I can’t say I’m intuitively impressed- I’m getting duplicate contacts, some contacts aren’t saving the notes I make, and their search/filter system is difficult.

Some context for me:

I’m running a small business where I do a lot of cold lead generation and cold calls/appointments and follow ups with free trials of a physical product. Keeping track of all my contacts and what stage of the sales process and who I have closed or not or given a trial to has been tricky. I’m a one man show so far with some help from a VA who inputs contacts for me from time to time.

Here’s some pros and cons I’m running into:

Pros: the business card scanner is handy unless they use a weird font or lettering, and making calls/logging call info is great. But aside from that I can’t see any other pros.

Cons- I don’t see much organization and agent learned how to color code or view my contacts in a way that is discernibly searchable or organized for me. And I don’t like the interface from a Visually pleasing level.

I haven’t done any tutorials or sat with a demo team, and maybe that will make a difference. I’ve just picked it up and been teaching myself as I go. But for now I’m thoroughly unimpressed- does anyone else have experience they’d like to share, alternatives, or advice for me to get over myself and do better with zoho?

All thoughts welcome.