Businesses with a service-based business model can benefit from using a customer relationship management (CRM) solution. Typically, these are those that deal in consultants, consultants and advice, software applications or any other business model where there are multiple customers who can purchase their products and services.
In this guide, we review the Best Crm For Service Based Business, best crm for small to medium business, is business central a crm, and best crm systems for large businesses.
Best Crm For Service Based Business
CRM, or customer relationship management, is the software that helps you manage your sales and marketing efforts. It’s a huge part of any service-based business, so it’s no surprise that there are tons of CRMs out there to choose from — which is why we’ve created this handy list for you! From the most user-friendly CRMs for small businesses all the way up to enterprise-level solutions that can handle thousands of users, we took into account price point, ease of use, scalability (for when your business grows), mobile accessibility and more when putting together this guide.
Best CRM for Ease of Use: Salesforce
Salesforce is the most popular CRM in the world, and for good reason. It’s easy to use, has a free version, has a large number of integrations, and has a large user base. Considering all that Salesforce offers—and how easy it is to learn—it’s no surprise that it’s considered one of the best CRMs out there.
Salesforce makes setting up campaigns simple with its automated workflows. Boasting an interface that customers describe as “intuitive” and “user-friendly,” Salesforce can help you save time by automating mundane tasks like sending emails or updating records automatically after completing certain actions on your website (like signing up). It also integrates with many other apps so you won’t have to spend hours trying to figure out how they all work together.
Best CRM for Small Businesses: HubSpot
HubSpot is a CRM that can be used to track leads, manage contacts and automate marketing campaigns. Its goal is to help small businesses manage their sales process better.
The best part about HubSpot is that it’s easy to use, offers a lot of functionality for a reasonable price and comes with a great interface.
Best CRM for Scalability: Zoho
Zoho is a cloud-based CRM that allows you to manage your contacts, leads and opportunities with ease. It allows you to build custom forms and templates which will help in getting more data from customers. Zoho has a free version that can be used for up to two users, but if you need more than this then it’ll cost $10 per user per month (which isn’t much). The good thing about Zoho is that they have over 1400 apps integrated into their platform which makes it easy for businesses to integrate other apps like MailChimp or Google Analytics into their CRM system.
Zoho also has an impressive collection of add-ons like design themes, marketing reports etc., which can be purchased as a premium feature at an additional cost. However if you just want something simple & efficient then there are no extra charges involved here either!
Best CRM for Mobile Accessibility: Insightly
Insightly supports mobile devices and offers a variety of ways to view data on-the-go. The platform also integrates with other applications, such as Google Calendar and MailChimp, which is great for helping you organize your day-to-day tasks.
If you’re looking for a CRM that will allow you to share customer relationship management data with others within your organization, Insightly is an excellent choice. Its free version allows up to five users—perfect for solo freelancers or small businesses—while its paid plans have no limit on the number of users so long as they’re all accessing from one office location (so no working remotely).
Insightly allows users complete control over their data access; there are no restrictions on where or when users can access it from. For example, if one user has left the company but still needs access via email address verification emails sent out by the main office location then this can be done without issue using Insightly’s multi-location feature (with its paid plans).
Best Free CRM: PipelineDeals
PipelineDeals is a free CRM that offers a lot of functionality for small businesses. It comes with tons of pre-built reports and dashboards, as well as an email marketing module that can be used in conjunction with your service based business’ website. The software integrates with many other apps like MailChimp, Shopify, Quickbooks and more.
PipelineDeals also makes it easy to connect with your clients through its built-in messaging system—it’s the most convenient way to keep customers informed about new products or services they might be interested in buying from you!
Best CRM for Customer Service Management: Freshdesk
Freshdesk is a robust customer service platform that helps companies manage their customer service operations. It has a powerful ticketing system, and a robust knowledge base.
With Freshdesk, you can create tickets from emails or phone calls. You can also route support tickets to the right agent based on their skillset, or assign them to agents automatically by analyzing their response time in previous conversations with customers.
Freshdesk offers an easy-to-use web interface as well as mobile apps for iOS and Android devices. You can also integrate Freshdesk with other third party applications such as Salesforce or Zendesk through its API or Zapier integration options. This makes it easy for you to receive notifications about new orders in your CRM while handling existing ones at the same time without having to switch between multiple tools all the time!
It’s available on both cloud (SaaS) and on-premise options depending on your requirements
Best CRM for App Integration: Vtiger
Looking for a CRM that integrates with other apps? Vtiger offers an impressive list of integrations, including Google Apps and Salesforce.com. That means you can work with your existing tools rather than having to switch over completely (just in case you’re not ready to make the leap).
You can also connect Vtiger to several online payment processors, including PayPal and Stripe, so it’s easy to collect payments from customers or clients on the go.
The right customer relationship management tool will help you keep the big picture in mind while still paying attention to the tiny details.
The right customer relationship management tool will help you keep the big picture in mind while still paying attention to the tiny details.
For example, Salesforce is one of the most popular CRM tools for businesses because it offers a lot of functionality, but it can also be overwhelming for some users. The software offers dozens of functions that can take some time and practice before you get used to how they all work together. Once you’ve mastered the basics, though, Salesforce has enough features to keep even a business owner with limited time on his hands happy and productive.
best crm for small to medium business
Midsize companies are sometimes seen as an awkward category, too large for the discounts available to small businesses, but too small to command the prestige of enterprises. But midsize companies account for a third of private-sector GDP, outperforming other segments in the past by adding millions of jobs. By getting the right mid-market CRM solution, these companies can continue to gain financial resilience, improve organizational capabilities, and increase the pace of product and business innovation.
What Is CRM Software for Midsize Companies?
Policy makers and business regulators usually define midsize companies according to the number of employees, between 100 and 999, and their annual revenue, more than $50 million but less then $1 billion. Today’s CRM software for midsize companies addresses the needs of these organizations with a balance of affordability, capabilities, and flexibility. A medium CRM system provides companies a readymade solution they won’t have to build themselves. It includes both core and extendable features, so companies are not stuck with only the basics. And it is within the company’s budget, so they don’t have to spend more than what they need.
Top 10 CRM Software for Midsize Companies
Midsize companies have overcome the obstacles smaller companies face, they are also confronting new challenges like managing a growing workforce, attending to more diverse needs from customers, and needing better tools to understand those customers. The best CRM for midsize companies can provide the application and platform to help the organization achieve that next level of growth in a smooth and organized way.
Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a sales CRM software that helps users visualize their process. It is affordable, easy to set up, and easy to use as compared with leading solutions for enterprise businesses. The activity-based selling approach of the software makes it an ideal CRM solution for SMBs. It has lead and deal management, customizable chatbots and web forms, and intelligent automation that learns from use.
Teams can track calls, emails, and contact history. The software promotes visibility and gives users greater control over their schedule. Other features include reports, mobile apps, and an apps marketplace with hundreds of integrations.
monday sales CRM
monday.com is a flexible platform that enables midsize companies to build the right CRM solution for their needs. It has a flexible drag-and-drop interface and ready-to-use templates, so they can customize the application for their sales pipeline and workflow quickly. Users can create a visual sales pipeline for easy tracking of leads and stages.
With monday sales CRM, businesses can centralize all their contacts, documents, and tasks in a single platform, avoiding the need to switch between systems. The software works across devices — including mobile — helping teams easily interact with customers, schedule activities, and close deals. It is scalable and integrates with many productivity tools.
Creatio
Creatio is a CRM and process automation platform. It offers modular CRM products to give midsize companies more options. The multi-channel marketing application allows users to streamline personalized communication across different channels to boost lead generation and customer retention.
It provides a comprehensive view of the customer, allows customer segmentation, and provides lead management of the whole lifecycle. Other features include end-to-end sales management with sales process automation, opportunity management, forecasting, and analytics. It also has full-cycle service management, omnichannel communication, and contact center case management.
SugarCRM
SugarCRM is an online platform that includes several products for marketing, sales, and customer service. It has predictive lead scoring, multi-channel marketing, and a drag-and-drop builder with preset templates for landing pages, emails, and conversion forms. AI helps users create forecasts, convert leads, and enrich profiles.
SugarCRM provides actionable insights from different sources, and notifies users of updates with real-time alerts. The software also includes omnichannel communication, customer journey mapping, integrations, renewals management, an issue management console, sentiment analysis, self-service portals, and case tracking dashboards.
Zoho Bigin
Zoho Bigin is a CRM software for growing midsize companies. It is pipeline-centric and affordable, providing companies a more powerful tool than simple spreadsheets. Teams can engage prospects faster by deploying web forms, send and receive emails within the CRM, and get a timeline view of all prospect interactions.
The software lets users manage multiple pipelines with custom deal stages, automate workflows, and manage activities like tasks, calls, and events. Users can close more deals with sales collaboration, real-time notifications, pre-built and custom dashboards, and mobile apps on iOS and Android.
Sendinblue
Sendinblue is an all-in-one CRM solution with a collection of tools to grow business through building stronger customer relationships. It helps organize the team and tracks every customer interaction. Companies can quickly set up their system by uploading their contacts database.
The software centralizes contact information, including notes from calls and meetings and attached documents. Teams can create different lists to organize contacts, create tasks, assign to team members, and add deadlines. Other features of the software are email marketing, SMS marketing, chat, inbox, marketing automation, transactional email, segmentation, landing pages, signup forms, and integration with Facebook Ads.
Keap
Keap, formerly known as Infusionsoft, is a CRM, sales, and marketing automation software for growing companies. It is an easy-to-use platform that enables midsize businesses to increase sales. Users save time through automated and repeatable processes for sales activities and marketing campaigns. The software captures leads automatically and enriches contact profiles through custom lead forms, landing pages, and social media.
Teams can easily access contact details and take actions directly from the contact record, whether on the desktop or the mobile app. This CRM solution also has segmentation, automation, and native integrations to many business apps like Shopify, QuickBooks, and HelloSign.
Copper
Copper CRM is a solution known for its Google Workspace and Chrome integration. Whenever using Gmail, Google Calendar, or Google Drive, users can download the Chrome extension or the Google Workspace Add-on and continue to manage contacts, deals, emails, and files. Teams can sync their meetings and auto-populate tasks.
A report builder lets users connect Sheets and export datasets into the CRM to create dashboards, reports, charts, and graphs. Other features include automated follow-ups, visual sales pipeline, alerts and notifications, workflow automation, activity feed, custom opportunity cards, and integrated project management.
Insightly
Insightly is a unified CRM platform for marketing automation and project management. It includes tools to help marketing teams create customer journeys. Sales teams get a centralized view of customers and deals. Project teams track milestones and manage processes to deliver projects on time. The software tracks relevant lead information and automatically routes leads to the right reps.
Insightly allows users to create and automate multi-step business processes like sending email alerts, creating or updating records, generating tasks, and executing commands to sync with external systems. Teams can create and send emails from within the CRM, send out bulk emails, track email delivery in real time, and monitor open and click statistics.
Drip
Drip is a CRM for e-commerce businesses. It provides the tools to help midsize online retailers build personal and profitable relationships with customers. The software helps users attract more customers online, send emails to increase engagement, and provide information that nurtures relationships and promotes loyalty.
It has an easy-to-use forms builder, so teams can connect to visitors and get them to sign up. Users can add fields, customize buttons, and configure rules to control when forms appear. They can also use pop-ups, targeted forms, and SMS opt-ins. Teams can also send personalized emails and texts, and automate them with a visual workflow builder. Other features include A/B testing, behavior-based automations, scheduled sending, social media integration, segmentation, and reports.
What are the Types of CRM Software?
CRM software is a system designed to help business users acquire, understand, and manage their customers. The ways CRM helps companies varies according to the tools it includes.
Operational CRM
Operational CRM systems assist companies in improving their operations, particularly in the areas of sales, marketing, and customer service. With automation, teams can streamline daily duties, automate time-consuming tasks, synchronize data across views and devices, and ensure movement in workflows. It can also store and organize information to provide customers additional convenience.
Analytical CRM
Analytical CRM systems aid companies in learning about their customers, their profiles, preferences, and pain points, so they can provide the right products and services. Through data analysis or analytics, teams are able to predict, calculate, and produce information through reports, gaining a better understanding of people and their behavior. The information allows companies plan better campaigns, build more accurate personas, and provide options for up-selling and cross-selling.
Collaborative CRM
Collaborative CRM systems serve companies by making it easy for different teams to access, update, and share relevant information to one another. For instance, users can identify the different preferences of customer demographics, and use that information to advantage. If a service agent receives information from a customer through phone, email, or social media, then marketing staff or sales reps can also contact the customer via these channels. Data captured and collected becomes comprehensive, giving companies a holistic view of the customer.
Features of CRM Software for Midsize Companies
The relationship between a company and its customers determines the future success of the business. The right features from the best CRM for midsize companies will improve the bottom line, help identify and categorize leads better, and increase the chance of referrals from existing customers.
Contact Management
Contact management enables users to store, organize, update, and share customer information, so they can cater to them more effectively. Mid-market CRM software offers unlimited or scalable databases of contacts and organizations. It also allows segmentation, a timeline or history of activities and engagements, and ways to share or export data into other formats.
Lead Management
Lead management allows companies to determine the best customers to follow up with using different classifications, characteristics, and calculations. This CRM feature helps organize the prospects and customers. Using automated logic or custom criteria, users can determine the persons they need to focus on, and help move along the pipeline. Today’s solutions include visual pipelines, deal tracking, and custom fields.
Communications
Teams need to reach out and connect with customers. This is possible with integrated communication channels built right into the CRM. Omnichannel features with a centralized inbox allow users to easily manage conversations and link them to contacts and deals. They can also make sales calls or chat with website visitors online. Moreover, the CRM makes it easy for teams to track all communication from a single platform, giving better visibility of the customer and providing more control over schedules.
Automation
Automation can span different teams and activities, covering marketing, sales, and customer service. CRM tools automate repetitive tasks to help users have more time with customers. It can automatically give alerts and notifications to remind teams of next steps. Automation can also include giving personalized and targeted recommendations, as well as help gather, update, and enrich customer data from publicly available online information.
is business central a crm
Microsoft Dynamics Business Central comes with built-in light customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities as part of the Essentials license.
Dynamics 365 Business Central Essentials or Premium users have access to Campaign Management, Campaign Pricing, Contact Classification, Contact Management, Opportunity Management, Relationship Management, and more.
Users associated with the Sales and Relationship Manager role will be immediately brought to a dashboard catered to your role. It features insights that provide easily-consumed information on the sales pipeline, top opportunities, and more. You can also display Power BI reports.
Dynamics 365 Business Central provides the ability to track activity with contacts or with customers. Contacts can be further identified as a person or a company. Opportunities can be associated with either a person or a company and set to follow a specified Sales Cycle Stage to guide the user through your process. A Sales Quote can also be created from the opportunity that can also be turned into a Sales Order.
Information about your customer or contact is provided in the Statistics sidebar in the Customer Record or in your customer list, updating as you scroll from one customer to the next.
Data highlighted in green indicates that you can drill down and view the associated entries.
Campaigns can be used to promote sales and line discounts for an individual customer or group of customers.
Of course, you can simply track activities associated with a contact or customer by creating an interaction such as an email or making a phone call. You can also note if an interaction was associated with a campaign response.
Dynamics 365 Business Central provides these and several other CRM light capabilities to successfully manage your interactions with contacts and customers.
best crm systems for large businesses
We’ve carefully chosen the best customer relationship management tools & systems. This roundup of the 15 best CRM Software will surely have the right software solutions for any size and type of company, whatever your specific business needs. We compare pricing and point out the best free crm options too.
Whether you need to customize your process, sales cycle, capture all touchpoints, look at your metrics, or gain potential customers, there is a CRM for every org.
CRM software comparison chart (top 10 highest rated)
What is the best CRM software? Here’s our top 15 list of the best tools & systems on the market
When shopping for best crm, you need to keep in mind a few things:
How many people will use it?
Does every department need it?
Do you want a robust platform with many features, or a simple platform with just the basics?
In the end, there might not be one single best crm software for all users and companies alike. We’re sure this great list of 15 CRM software vendors will have the right Customer Relationship Management solution for you.
HubSpot CRM (Best CRM software overall)
HubSpot made its name in inbound marketing. This helps companies attract new users through content. HubSpot also offers general crm tools, and they are among the best overall.
Everything in HubSpot is very intuitive. HubSpot’s products are divided between marketing, sales, service and CMS. Marketing helps you with lead generation to grow your network and save time. There is marketing automation to stay front-of-mind with your customers. For marketers you also get marketing analytics. The sales module of HubSpot is where you get advanced CRM and other software like a meetings scheduler. Service does help desks, tickets, knowledge bases and customer feedback. CMS is for managing your content. HubSpot CRM really helps you provide a great customer experience. You can also have a HubSpot add-on for Gmail or Office 365.
There are many different pricings for HubSpot CRM. A starter CRM and sales package has a cost per user of $40.
Salesforce (Best customer relationship management software for sales teams)
Salesforce is one of the oldest names in CRM solutions. Today it has many products and modules. These include customer relationship management software for the big three: marketing, sales and customer support. Overall, Salesforce is a solid and popular CRM software for medium-to-large operations.
Salesforce covers all your business processes. For marketing, Salesforce offers software to build email marketing campaigns. You can also set up marketing automation. There are social media listening and posting features. Sales teams using Salesforce get good customer relationship management. You also get CRM software to streamline the sales lifecycle with Sales Cloud. For customer service, Salesforce has crm tools for creating a self-service resource. Customer support reps can also use Salesforce CRM contact data to help customers in less time. Salesforce is very effective for both lead generation and customer retention. The only thing is, there’s some learning curve with Salesforce.
Salesforce has many pricing plans. There is an essential CRM software plan for $25. A professional CRM plan is $75.
Pipedrive (Best customer relationship management tool for pipeline management)
Pipedrive is a CRM platform that focuses on boosting sales and revenue. The name is meant to invoke the sales pipeline and drive up sales stats.
Like any good customer relationship management for sales, Pipedrive lets you track all your communication with each customer. There are software tools to make sure you maintain high levels of customer satisfaction along the customer journey. It has a suite of features to manage all your leads and ongoing deals. There are many features to help you automate repetitive tasks. Pipedrive is a very visual platform. This goes for monitoring the sales process and sales activities as well as for analytics. It’s also got mobile software for iOS iPhones and Androids. Overall Pipedrive scores points for ease of use.
There are 4 pricing plans for Pipedrive. The cost per user of the essential plan is $14.90.
Freshsales (Top CRM Software with AI lead scoring)
Freshsales is one of the best CRM Software by Freshworks. Freshworks is an all-in-one platform with separate SaaS for marketing teams and customer service.
Freshsales makes use of AI to help you understand your customers and leads. It does lead scoring to show you your best opportunities. Freshsales offers salespeople built-in email and phone software tools. You get clear customer data and actionable tips on how to manage customer interactions, like when and how to reach out. You can also get email notifications about new engagements or follow-ups. This set of software works great with other Freshworks products, like Freshmarketer, which has a chatbot feature.
Freshsales has 5 pricing plans. The cheapest one is $12.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 (Best CRM Software for business intelligence)
Microsoft doesn’t kid around when it comes to business SaaS. Dynamics 365 is an all-in-one CRM software and ERP set of tools.
Using AI, Microsoft Dynamics 365 helps companies find the right customers and demographic for their products. As a CRM platform, you get full views of all your customers. There are software tools to automate the sales process. You even get features to help coach your sales reps and improve their performance. Marketing tools find new leads. It also gives you sales forecasting and trend watching. Dynamics 365 has a full customer service suite as well as an API for customization. You also get extras like project management and accounting.
Being Microsoft, there are many different pricing plans. Basic sales CRM starts at $20. You can also choose between cloud-based or on-premise installation.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is best for:
Contact management software
Mailchimp (Best CRM tool for marketing campaigns)
Mailchimp started out as an email subscription SaaS, managing newsletters. Now it’s a complete customer relationship management solution for marketing teams for small business.
When it comes to marketing efforts, Mailchimp lets you build email campaigns, social media ads, and landing pages for your brand. There are audience segmentation tools to find new customers. A simple visual editor lets you create automated marketing campaigns. You also get tools like A/B testing and customer surveys. Mailchimp can give you stats like purchase likelihood for each lead. As well they have many third-party integrations and a developer API to supercharge your software. Overall this is a great SaaS for marketing insights.
There are 3 paid plans for Mailchimp. The essentials cost $9.99.
Zoho CRM (Good customer relationship management software for managing customers)
Zoho is a cloud-based set of business SaaS. There are loads of individual Zoho software. You can get a suite of them in packages like the CRM platform.
Zoho CRM is mainly used for sales purposes. It helps with lead capture to grow your network. Opportunity management tools see your leads move through the sales lifecycle. You get a 360 view of your customers information as well as various channels of communication. Real-time notifications happen when customers engage with your business. You get analytics on the best ways and times to reach out to leads. There’s also an AI-powered sales assistant, which also powers a chatbot tool. Aside from sales, you can use it as a help desk software for customers.
Zoho CRM software offers 4 different pricing options. The standard option has a cost per user of $12.
Apptivo CRM (Best CRM Software for workflow automation)
Apptivo is a cloud-based SaaS with many features. It includes a customer relationship management solution that is versatile for businesses of all sizes.
The CRM software from Apptivo are all customizable. There are automation tools to take over rote data entry and other repetitive tasks. It starts with customers relationship management and goes on to lead conversion and sales planning. You get analytics on your sales pipeline and other opportunity management data. Apptivo has email integration with software like Google’s Gmail. You can use Apptivo email templates for marketing or keeping in touch with regular customers. You even get stats on how competitors are doing.
The cost per user for Apptivo premium begins at $8. There’s also a free version from Apptivo.
Insightly (Top CRM software for analytics and reports)
Insightly is an all-in-one CRM solution and project management software. This is a professional platform for medium to large businesses.
Insightly gives you a total picture of your customers. It allows easy sharing of customer data across sales, marketing and project management. You can create automated marketing funnels that target audience segments. There’s email tracking, which shows you when sales leads open emails and other link click rates. Lead routing connects a customers with the right sales agent. Insightly also has great dashboards which have customization options.
For prices, contact Insightly.
Keap Infusionsoft (Good CRM tool for marketing and sales automation)
Keap and Infusionsoft are two business SaaS that work together nicely. Keap grows your business. Infusionsoft is the all-in-one marketing and sales software.
Infusionsoft begins with a customer relationship management Software. It logs all activity and reminds you of follow-ups. You can link your Gmail or Outlook to it. There are good email marketing templates. You can also automate personalized email campaigns. The lead management dashboard is customizable and very intuitive. You can set up trigger emails to make sure a sales team stays on top of the customer experience.
Keap Infusionsoft costs $129. But check with the vendor for updated prices.
Keap Infusionsoft is best for:
SugarCRM
SugarCRM is an all-in-one marketing, sales and service platform. This is a CRM system that’s hosted on-premise.
For marketing, SugarCRM has social media advertising tools which includes SEO tips. It’s easy to create campaigns from templates and a drag and drop editor. You can automate marketing campaigns to nurture contacts into leads. This feeds into SugarCRM’s sales force automation features. It helps you track emails and monitor all your leads through the funnel. Customer support software use smart routing to connect users with the best agent.
SugarCRM sells its tools separately. Both Sugar Sell and Sugar Service go for $80. Sugar Market is $1,000.
Nimble
Nimble CRM scores points for ease of use. This CRM system works with Office 365 and G Suite teams.
Nimble is web-based and works inside web browsers or other software. These include Microsoft Teams and Excel. Nimble has decent contact organization. You get all your engagement across multiple channels in one unified history. You can track projects and tasks. There’s standard sales process management to see all your open opportunities. There’s also good unified team calendars. Nimble has iOS and Android software too.