In this day and age, customers are stakeholders. They might not own a part of the company, but they define its success.
If a company makes great products, customers will recommend them to their friends and family. Customers act like marketers.
If, on the other hand, a company ignores users and adds random features, users will use a competitor's product.
This is why it is essential for companies to be customer-centric. When you focus on customers, building products is effortless.
To build around customers, companies must take feedback and implement it. This applies to both B2B and B2C companies.
You've probably seen some companies ask for feedback using a google form. Customers write their feedback which populates an Excel sheet. This Excel sheet will have thousands of entries. It would take the company forever to find relevant input from here.
Instead, many companies are now using Customer Relationship Management systems or CRMs.
CRM software improves your day-to-day operations by monitoring how you interact with your customers, manage tasks, and make essential data easily accessible.
There are different types of CRMs for different businesses. A variety of companies involved in various areas such as real estate, investments, technology, etc, use CRMs.
Let's look at what makes a good CRM and see what is in the market.
What makes a good CRM
Now that we have established that CRMs are directly proportional to a company's success let us look at what makes a good CRM.
The first factor is price. You might think the best CRMs have substantial monthly bills. But in reality, the best ones are free in some way. Some of them have free trials, and others have free versions with limited features.
The best CRMs offer free versions because they know what they offer and want to give a glimpse to customers. Some of their free versions are so good that you can continue with them indefinitely.
Next, you should look at usability. CRMs should be easy to use and customize. Automating repetitive tasks(calls, emails, texts), inputting details, and viewing information should be easy. It should also be simple to add custom fields and filters.
The best CRMs have a differentiating factor. This is mainly in the form of unique features. Some CRMs' sole focus is on sales, and others are on developers.
Finally, you should check if they have good analytics. You should be able to get all information and insights with the click of a button. Only then can a company tweak to get better results.
If the CRM has integrations with other software, it's a bonus.
Now let's look at some of the best CRMs available in the market.
SalesForce
I can't write a CRM article without mentioning Salesforce. It is probably the most known CRM in the market. While it might not be free or cheap by any means, it provides tremendous value for the price.
Thanks to countless features and integrations, Salesforce is the ideal CRM for growing a business. Companies can customize everything according to their needs.
Initial setup can be a little troublesome and time-consuming because of the many options. But once that is done, it is smooth sailing.
The main categories are listed on the top tab, which includes leads, tasks, opportunities, and reports. This makes it easy to navigate to relevant pages.
Salesforce offers excellent resources and support for companies to get accustomed to the software. They also have a community known as the Trailblazer community. Here you can find valuable resources such as in-depth guides on creating CRM reports. You can also communicate with other CRM users here.
In conclusion, if the price is not an issue, Salesforce is an essential tool.
ZOHO
Zoho is one of the most widely used CRMs. They power around 250,000 businesses in over 180 countries. They help these companies convert leads, grow revenue, and communicate with customers.
Zoho provides every solution you can think of. They have sales force automation to enhance your sales. This covers lead, deal, account, and contact management. You can generate, manage, and organize leads effortlessly. You can automate the process of generating leads from social media, websites, ads, etc.
You get what you expect from a CRM. You have process management, performance management, marketing automation, developer APIs, etc.
One feature that stands out is the customizability. When you use other CRMs like Salesforce, you are stuck with the generic looks and layouts.
When you use ZOHO, you get to use the Canvas Design Studio. This lets you redesign the entire CRM to make it your own truly.
Companies can use the colors, styles, and layouts that they want instead of boring ones.
ZOHO also offers a 15-day free trial to grasp all the features. Pricing is very affordable.
All of this put together makes ZOHO the CRM you cannot ignore.
DevRev
While the previous two CRMs focus on Sales, leads, and processes, DevRev focuses on developers and users. DevRev is a DevCRM, a system that brings developers and users closer together.
ADevCRM is so powerful because it keeps the customer at the center. Products and features are built with the help of user feedback and suggestions.
DevRev is the perfect CRM for B2C companies. Instead of communicating with customers across different apps and channels, companies can do everything on one platform.
You can use DevRev for creating tickets and issues, just like in Github and Jira. You can then assign them to particular people and teams.
It is easy to visualize all the parts of a process with the help of DevRev Trails. At a glance, you can see what APIs are powering what features.
Customers can give direct feedback to developers with a dedicated chatbox. Companies can do this with the help of the PluG SDK, which they can integrate into any web app easily.
The developers can then take this feedback and raise issues and tickets if needed.
This creates an efficient system that is built for quick and impactful progress.
HubSpot
HubSpot is the CRM to use if you are on a budget. They offer the entire CRM for free and not just a free trial. You get great functionality at no cost. When you need more, you can upgrade your plan.
You can connect all your ad accounts, social media handles, emails, blog posts, and landing pages to Hubspot. You can get information on what channel is bringing how many customers.
HubSpot also helps you rank better on Google with its SEO capabilities and campaigns.
You get all the standard features like Sales and deals management, automation, and analytics.
They have multiple integrations and guides for each one.
Insightly
This is another free CRM software. It is great for managing projects. It has all the necessary features that a CRM should have.
It's excellent for creating work pipelines with different tasks and events.
It also allows you to track leads using a Kanban board. This is a card-based view for all your projects, leads, and opportunities. You can see your pipelines and their elements in the form of simple cards.
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