Customer Relation Management or CRM is a tool that helps businesses to develop, manage, and maintain profitable relations with customers. CRM helps in tracking and analyzing every interaction with the clients. Without a CRM, it is possible for businesses to lose their precious clientele.
Any business that wants to take advantage of CRM software should include all their customers in a central database. Then, CRM helps businesses in increasing their profitability and positive customer interactions.
If you’re on the hunt for an ideal CRM software, then you’ve landed at the right guide. There are different types of CRM software, they include operational CRM, Analytical CRM, and Collaborative CRM.
Features of Using a CRM Software
An ideal CRM software can help with:
- Contact management
- Lead management
- Sales forecasting
- Instant messaging between employees
- Email tracking
- Integration with email clients
- Content sharing
- Central analytics dashboard
Businesses who rely on CRM software for their day-to-day tend to enjoy several benefits, such as
- It leads to better and improved client/customer relationships.
- Supports improved cross-functionality and improves team collaboration.
- CRM offers better efficiency in serving clients and offers staff satisfaction.
- Reduces cost and manual efforts
There are also some drawbacks of not using CRM software, such as
- Without the CRM, it can be tough to manage customer data in excel.
- It's always challenging to move between multiple tools.
- Increases manual effort to a great degree.
- Small-scale businesses end up losing track of customers.
- Limited access to data and low customer satisfaction level.
CRM Software |
Customer Rating |
Type |
Cost |
Mobile Support |
Trial Version |
Monday.com |
9.5/10 |
Private |
Average |
Android, iPhone/iPad |
Yes |
Pipedrive |
9.5/10 |
Private |
Not too expensive |
Android and iOS |
Yes |
Salesforce |
8.5/10 |
Commercial |
Expensive |
Yes |
Yes |
Zendesk |
9.5/10 |
Public |
Average |
iOS & Android |
14 days |
HubSpot |
9.4/10 |
Free & Commercial Use |
Free trial version |
Yes |
Yes |
Breakdown of Best CRM Software
1. Monday.com
Monday.com CRM allows businesses to manage customer data, customer interactions, and more. Plus, high-level security makes sure all your data stays safe. It also comes included with a tool that allows you to capture leads from multiple sources.
Features of Monday.com:
- Session management
- Advanced account permissions
- Automates up to 100,000 actions per month
- HIPAA Compliance
- CRM software allows you to build and customize your dashboard.
- It provides a clear overview of sales, processes, and performance.
- Allows you to automate repetitive tasks.
Pros of Monday.com:
- Monday.com offers solutions for all kinds of work
- The tool is super easy to use
- Advanced search capabilities
- Offers time tracking, chart views, and private boards.
Cons of Monday.com
- Monday.com doesn’t have a free plan.
- Switching between plans can be tough.
2. Pipedrive CRM
Pipedrive is an incredibly famous CRM tool that’s built to provide minimum input and maximum output. The best thing about Pipedrive is that it makes the sales teams invincible. You can organize your business in a way that offers productivity. You can easily keep track of sales, and boost revenue.
Features of Pipedrive:
- Pipedrive offers a great sales pipeline and email integrations.
- You can customize goals, API, and mobile app.
- The software is highly customizable, supports multi-environment, and offers 24/7 support.
- It has great reporting, map integration, email tracking, and data importing features.
Pros of Pipedrive:
- Offers a simple UI and is client friendly.
- Offers multiple pipelines, customization, and email ID integrations.
- Highly flexible tool.
Cons of Pipedrive:
- You can’t send emails directly through the Pipedrive app.
- Pipedrive doesn’t offer an in-built phone system.
- There’s no way to track customer responses on apps.
- The automation can be better. It lacks the ability to create custom reports.
- Email, phones, and other features are available as an add-on service.
3. Salesforce CRM
Salesforce CRM is one of the best cloud-based CRM software you’ll come across. Business owners can use Salesforce to fulfill their business requirements. The best part is that Salesforce works perfectly for small and medium-scale organizations.
Salesforce CRM is hosted on the cloud and is easily scalable. It's easily customizable and you can build an environment for your business that offers growth.
Salesforce CRM helps businesses understand customer requirements. It indicates new ways to help, and solve issues, and it offers a clean deployment.
Features of Salesforce:
- Has communities and markets that can generate sales and leads.
- Supports multiple email integrations and helps in running applications.
- Salesforce can be used for forecasting.
- You can use Salesforce to keep the customers engaged.
- Offers analytics and real-time data visualization.
Pros of Salesforce:
- Offers a custom dashboard.
- Software navigation is super easy and simple.
- Has tons of social media capabilities that boost productivity.
- It’s a cloud-based solution and offers incredible automation functionality.
Cons of Salesforce:
- Some customization can cost a lot.
- Has a complex environment and can take some time to be understood.
- Poor technical support staff
4. Zendesk CRM
Zendesk is another top-rated CRM to choose from. It's built specifically to help sales personnel reach their peak. It has tools that are catered toward deal closure and customer satisfaction in mind. The integrated tool streamlines the day-to-day sales operations.
Sales managers can even use it to track sales, and conversions, verify performance visibility and improves pipeline management.
When a sales team uses Zendesk, they can choose to do multiple tasks at once from a central dashboard. Sales executives can schedule meetings, make calls, and monitor the history of a customer without any issues. Moreover, the mobile app helps you get access to all the features whenever, and wherever.
Features of Zendesk:
- Thorough sales reporting and analytics
- Sales prospecting
- Endless integration and APIs
- Sale email intelligence
- In-built dialer
Pros of Zendesk:
- Offers multiple attractive email templates that sales execs can use to create emails.
- Central dashboard to keep track of all sales-related activities.
- Mobile Sales CRM app.
- Incredible customer support.
- Engage leads automatically by automating emails and tasks.
Cons of Zendesk:
- No free plan available
5. HubSpot CRM
In today’s market, HubSpot CRM is the most used CRM tool. The feature-rich offering and powerful mechanisms have won over millions of clients. Plus, most of the basic functionality can be accessed for free. This means, that if you have limited needs you can use the tool for free, lifelong.
HubSpot’s easy-to-use and understand platform helps clients get set up in mere minutes. The tool is simplistic, runs smoothly, and has all the necessary features. HubSpot is definitely one of the best free CRM software.
Features of HubSpot CRM:
- Gives you enough freedom for customization.
- Offers a board for task management.
- Can synchronize the marketing department.
- Phone, email, and website integration.
- Helps in managing the pipeline with complete visibility.
- Keeps logs of every activity automatically
- Allows users to see all the information about contacts in a single place.
Pros of HubSpot CRM:
- Offers an excellent feature for searching companies.
- Keeps working in the background without hampering other works.
- Comes with Google integrations such as Gmail, Google Drive, and Calendar.
- Keeps client records in one place.
- Can read feedback from clients.
Cons of HubSpot CRM:
- Through HubSpot, you can’t send emails through multiple companies at the same time.
- Free version doesn’t offer advanced functionality.
Conclusion - Best CRM Software for Business
CRM tools are incredibly helpful for businesses who want to keep track of a lot of data and scale quickly. It helps in maintaining organizational workflows and building strong relationships with the customers.