Customer relationship management (CRM) is any process, tool or strategy that helps businesses to better access and manage customer data. Like many things, Apps make CRM easier and faster. Therefore, in order to compete successfully in almost any industry, you need a reliable CRM Application.
The best CRM apps will give you valuable insight into how your customers behave and what they need from you. You will be able to track the tasks you need to complete to keep your customers happy and get more sales. It also streamlines and simplifies business processes for every employee who interacts with your customers. In the long term, CRM Application will increase your profit .
Here are some CRM applications that you can consider using in your business or company.
Salesforce
We chose Salesforce as one of the best because of its ability to influence various aspects of the business, including marketing, sales and even the IT department.
Advantage
- Operates on a cloud-based system, allowing access from anywhere
- Provide various business needs outside of CRM
- Fully customizable to suit business needs
Deficiencies
- Many features are required to pay again if added, so the monthly subscription fee can increase substantially
- Too many technical adjustments can overwhelm employees, result in further training, and of course increase costs.
Salesforce brings together many of your business needs, integrating with almost all of today’s systems, such as IT, sales, customer support, and marketing. This allows you to continue using the current system. While it also caters to small businesses such as MSMEs, salesforce can handle medium and large businesses as well. Thanks to its cloud-based platform, wherever you are, Salesforce keeps the business connected while enabling the company to focus on the customer.
The most important feature of Salesforce is how it integrates with other software. This is a basic part of the system, but other features can be added based on needs.
Salesforce leverages a learning community of Salesforce experts who can answer questions. It also provides training videos and even a certification program. This is very important because it allows customers to access this information at any given time, without having to contact customer support.
Salesforce is flexible with a world-class technical support team that can customize features to meet specific business needs. You can create customizable reports even without the help of the developer. Small Business plans start at $25 per month per user paid annually and can go up to over $1,000 per month as you add more users and more features.
Freshworks
Freshworks is our favorite solution for small businesses because it saves you the hassle of switching between platforms. All your Apps can now be found in one place.
Advantage
- Leads and sales are organized, operating on intelligent data metrics
- Perfect for small and medium businesses just starting out
- Can be customized according to business needs
Deficiencies
- Proposals for sales may not be business specific and can create more jobs
- Limited third-party integration, which can increase the cost of finding additional platforms
- Not having a lot of flexibility for the reports needed
Freshworks creates a platform that focuses business needs in one place, saving small business owners time and increasing focus. Setup is as easy as one click to start converting website visitors into leads. Access information from anywhere with this cloud-based Application. With connections to some of the best prospects for your business, you now have the ability to increase your prospect success rate and the number of sales you generate.
Freshworks uses an AI platform to predict your needs with intelligent analysis. The app works perfectly with many supported platforms for integration such as Hubspot, Meta, Klenty, and Calendly, among other apps.
This application has the ability to drag your contact details to a single system. You can create summaries of recent activity, email marketing, and more. With the analytics feature, you can seamlessly analyze customer support data.
Through Freshworks Academy, you can increase your knowledge and get certified. Apart from training academies and blogs, customer service is also easy to contact with a few clicks.
Prices start at $29 per user per month. Based on business requirements, higher, customizable plans are available. This cost-effective option caters to both new and small businesses with a complete platform while offering the most suitable package for your business.
Pipedrive
Pipedrive stands at the forefront of small business. This application offers advanced capabilities such as creating websites and comprehensive reporting at a reasonable price.
Advantage
- Track emails within the App, making them easier to find
- Easy to use and track prospects
- Offers some of the best Apps for basic sales management
Deficiencies
- Beginner CRM, so it’s not the best for larger or more advanced businesses
- Not the best customizable App
- Tracking reports can be tedious and time consuming
Pipedrive offers the best value with all the features businesses need to sell more while working less. This platform focuses on controlling the sales process, empowering you to scale your business to its full potential. The easy to use application allows to focus on your business and not the Application.
Its activity-based methodology tracks sales and makes following up with prospects easier. Pipedrive simplifies integration with other programs, such as email, OneDrive, GoogleDrive, and more.
Pipedrive’s 14-day free trial gives users full access to everything it has to offer, including 24/7 customer support. Plans start at $12.50 per month, with additional costs for add-on packages such as the LeadBooster or Web Visitor programs, which are $32.50 and $41 per month respectively.
Pipedrive offers customizable reporting. Metrics measure a company’s performance against goals. Integrated AI ( artificial intelligence) automates repetitive tasks, allowing you to focus on the customer.
Pipedrive offers blogs and support for increasing expertise with the program, as well as broader instructional articles on selling, scaling your business, management, and motivating your employees.
HubSpot
HubSpot has earned the hard-earned title of best free CRM App. The free plan has no time limit and allows you to manage one million contacts through your marketing, sales and customer service workflows.
Advantage
- Offers marketing automation tools
- Integrate the email inbox within the platform
- Connect all your customer interactions in one place
- Compatible with multiple platforms for integration
Deficiencies
- It can take a long time to make
- May require adjustments based on the complexity of your customer service requirements
- Additional features will be charged
HubSpot offers free marketing, sales, and customer service tools all in one place, and users can manage up to one million contacts without worrying about expiration dates or expiration dates, making HubSpot our top free CRM option.
Beyond their free program, paid rates start at $45 per month which is billed annually. Add-ons like inbound and outbound marketing consulting can take your business to the next level. This includes consultants to help guide you through strategy and grow your business.
HubSpot has a worldwide community of professionals who can answer your questions. There are in-app support options, as well as email and phone support that can help any time.
Integrating to and with HubSpot is an easy process. With step-by-step tutorials, you can have the platform up and running in no time. This application is integrated with popular programs such as WordPress, Gmail, AgencyAnalytics, and Zoom, among several other applications.
Users get detailed reports on productivity, individual performance and sales activity. All of this information is available at your fingertips from the reporting dashboard. With its full ability to customize processes to benefit business, you can’t go wrong with HubSpot.
Bitrix24
Bitrix24 CRM delivers everything you need in one package, enabling you to run nearly every aspect of your company, with the important benefit of consolidating all incoming and outgoing communications into one place for better business organization.
Advantage
- Full and complete CRM capabilities
- Ability to centralize all communication and collaboration
- Email marketing integration
Deficiencies
- User interface or UX display can be simpler
- A large number of functions can be overwhelming; no ability to delete
- Limited social networking capabilities
Bitrix24 comes with full CRM capabilities along with lots of communication options. For example, enabling video conferencing with high audio fidelity. This application is also fully integrated with more than 70 VoIP providers, for example RingCentral, Nextiva, and Vonage. With videos, calls, work chats and more, it’s easy to see why Bitrix24 is one of the leading CRM Apps companies, trusted by over five million users worldwide.
Many other features allow you to:
- Create groups per division/department (eg, sales, marketing, customer service)
- Easily segment people for workgroups, knowledge base and communication
- Share/view the work and progress of all group members
- Set up a knowledge base where users can message each other, create pages, post articles, and collaborate on assignments and projects
- Use the built-in chat feature to message teammates individually or by group or department
- Record and send videos
- Connect your e-mail accounts, allow you to send and receive e-mails from contact records in CRM and keep a running message history
- Set up customizable fields for managing contacts to capture specific data suitable for your business.
- See the “load” of communications generated by contacts (how much time your business spends communicating with them)
Webinars and training courses are available online for customer support and training. Technical support is not available for free account users.
Bitrix24 is free for unlimited users, but like almost all free entry-level plans, only a fraction of the features are accessible. Paid plans start at $19 for two users.
CompanyHub
While some CRM Application providers have the advantage of trying to customize your features, CompanyHub is one of the best because they have put most of the control in your hands.
Advantage
- Highly customizable, especially by your staff
- Strong reporting capabilities
- Email marketing integration
Deficiencies
- The lowest-priced plan doesn’t have sufficient reporting features
- Integration with MailChimp is not available
- No social media integration
In addition to standard CRM features like contact, product, and sales funnel management, CompanyHub is highly customizable for a wide range of industries, with creative controls you might be able to handle on your own.
CompanyHub App Maker has been working in the CRM space since 2012. They have developed a deep understanding of the needs of different types of businesses. They had used many CRM programs for their own sales team, and realized that many CRMs were either too complicated or too basic. This prompted them to design their own powerful yet easy-to-use CRM that is easy to adapt to user needs.
Most CRMs that claim to be customizable and integrated are limited to existing systems. However, CompanyHub goes far beyond what other CRM apps can provide. For example, you can:
- Create custom tables to store all kinds of data related to payments, projects, courses, schools, properties, etc.
- Associate records belonging to different tables with each other
- Change the label to be more specific (for example, “Company” becomes “College”)
- Filter notes by selected criteria
- Generate reports on any table or field for a certain period of time
CompanyHub also provides you with powerful email automation capabilities. Email Sync automatically delivers updated leads. Email tracking shows you who opened which email and which links they clicked. You can schedule emails and set reply reminders. A Gmail plugin is also available to allow you to track emails sent from there.
CompanyHub has also made it easier to enter data into CRM. For example, from a single page, you can create notes, edit fields, and add notes, conversations, and tasks, then send follow-ups.
You also have the ability to customize who can see which data, and you can choose from hierarchy and rule-based access controls. This means that even if two or more salespeople view the same report or page, the data they see will differ depending on what they have set to be visible.
Plans are available for $15, $24, and $42 per user per month. The $15 plan provides a single sales funnel, app integration, website lead generation, and email and calendar functionality. The $24 plan adds more reports and channels, and the $42 plan adds advanced customization and automation.
Training calls and demos are available where a CRM consultant will talk to you about your needs and guide you to get the most out of the CompanyHub CRM App.
Infor
Infor CloudSuite CRM, our top choice for small business sales teams, identifies opportunities, streamlines sales activity, alerts users to drive accurate forecasts, and has tools for sales managers to monitor their teams and territories.
Advantage
- Great sales team support
- Dynamic business rules ensure no leads are overlooked
- Great for mapping key opportunities and targeting profitable prospects
Deficiencies
- No auto-save
- Some reviews say it’s a little difficult to learn how to use it
- Very industrial user experience
Not all CRMs are as useful for salespeople as they are for marketing departments. Sales teams need specific things from CRM, including contact management, lead and funnel tracking, and deal management. CloudSuite CRM Infor delivers all of these features and more, making it the best for small business sales teams.
Infor CloudSuite CRM helps sales representatives streamline the process of moving opportunities through the sales process. Each step in the process is associated with the possibility that the opportunity will eventually result in a sale. As the opportunity moves forward through the process, it contributes higher value to the sales forecast. Sales managers can then review and adjust the probabilities assigned to each opportunity, or exclude opportunities from estimates. Here are some of the more important selling features of this CRM:
- Allows staff/admins to create new contacts or import them from ERP or Microsoft Office and store them in one location within CRM
- All contacts are automatically updated with contact history, and representatives can look up the required information via a single interface
- Through its dynamic business rules, no lead is overlooked at any stage
- “Hot” prospects can be handled by certain designated staff
An employee of yours can track prospects at every stage, from leads to closed sales, and all the steps in between
With prices starting at $65 per month, Infor CloudSuite CRM comes with a calendar that allows users to schedule, accept, decline or delete meetings. The calendar is synchronized with Microsoft Outlook in real-time so that all parties are always up-to-date.
Best CRM Conclusion
The best CRM applications allow you to store records, emails, phone calls, and sales pipeline estimates related to client records in your database. This minimizes the risk of missed assignments, appointments, and notes, which can interfere with your sales success. There are many options to find the CRM application that best suits the way your business works, and within the budget you have.
Please choose according to the company’s business or financial needs, or do you have other recommendations?