All about CRMs

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) can be described as a business tool aimed at managing work with customers, but which in turn has a transversal impact on the different areas of the company. This set of systems has as its basic foundation and as its purpose the search for customer satisfaction.

The term CRM designates software that encourages interaction with customers, and that promotes the exchange of data to allow obtaining a better strategic knowledge of customers and their preferences; this knowledge, in turn, allows for improving the development of all the company's internal processes. Among the main functions of the CRM are the creation of automation mechanisms and sales promotion, the storage of various repertoires of information about the commercial transactions of the company and customers, and the obtaining of key business indicators.

These digital mechanisms also involve the monitoring of marketing campaigns and the management of business opportunities, actions that allow us to predict lines of consumer behavior and future sales. Thus, CRM as a whole represents an approach to managing a company's interaction with current and potential customers, but also the way of thinking that it has towards them. In this way, a CRM encompasses those interconnected systems that maintain specific data on interactions to maintain the relationship between customers and the company at all times.

It should be noted that the computer systems that make up the CRM collect data from different communication channels, such as the company's website, telephone or email interactions, live chat, or through the company's social networks, among others. It also collects information from the interactions made by downloading or reading the materials specifically uploaded on the company's website, and even from the forms that are attached to the website that the customer needs to complete before downloading a document.

The integration of these computer systems allows information to be centralized in a single place, which enables companies to establish more accurate feedback on sales processes, as well as obtain a more accurate measure of business results. At the same time, the management of data on the relationship with the customer allows identifying the causes of the purchase to adapt the company's strategic resources in future interactions, and thus, achieve increased productivity through greater coordination between the areas. All this results in the possibility of direct strategies with greater precision.

Among the aspects that determine the choice of a suitable CRM should be considered:

1. The characteristics of the company (the business model, its size, and the number of areas and employees).
2. The sales model that is carried out and the size of the stock.
3. The size of the work team.
4. The strategic and commercial objectives that are pursued in the short, medium, and long term.
5. The state of formalization of internal processes.
6. The organizational culture.

All of these factors represent powerful variables that must be taken into account when choosing the best CRM option.

At present, you can find several companies that offer different types of CRM. Among the best known, the following stand out: HubSpot, Freshworks CRM, Salesforce, and ODOO CRM, among others. Although all of them have different origins and trajectories, they have as a common feature the possibility of providing specific digital services adapted to the needs of each company and the profile of its customers.

1. HubSpot

HubSpot is one of the leading inbound marketing companies in the world and its CRM is one of the best for working on digital marketing strategies. Here, CRM is the underlying database that the areas of Marketing and Sales work with. For this, it is enough for customers to register for free, go to the “companies” menu and click on “Add company”. After they have entered the company's site and location, CRM will search a database of more than 20 million companies from around the world and complete the customer record with information about the company's area of operation, number phone number, address (within a country, city, and province), annual income, etc. Customers can add an unlimited number of companies, and even filter them according to that information, as well as include opinions about them.

 

2. Freshworks CRM

Freshworks is an Indian company with a presence in more than 140 countries that offers solutions based on various products aimed at solving different business problems. Among them are: Freshdesk to facilitate customer service management, Freshcaller as a tool that facilitates call center operations, Freshteam as a personnel selection platform in the Human Resources Area, and Freshchat, as a technology to establish contact with customers from a chat bubble on the website, among other services.

 

3. Monday as CRM 

Monday is an operating system that allows you to manage all the company's work through the orderly use of a dashboard. In other words, it is a visual management platform for the content assigned to each area or participant in certain processes. The service, which is rented, uses the information of each member to establish a consolidation of the company's operations and projects, generating an environment of collaboration, efficiency, and impact for efficient decision-making.

4. SALESmanago

SALESmanago is a powerful CRM platform focused exclusively on the development of e-commerce. It uses inbound marketing strategies to implement solutions in real-time that allow you to increase the flow of sales. This device uses CRM mechanisms that provide valuable information about the needs and behavior of customers. This tracking and analysis of information allow valuable time to be saved and the sales process to be optimized.

 

5. Salesforce

Salesforce is a company that uses state-of-the-art technology through the strategic implementation of CRM in the cloud. In turn, it uses Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things to centralize data in one place and, thus, achieve unified sales and detailed customer service. The company provides the service of 'Customer 360', which is a powerful customer relationship management platform (Customer Relationship Management, or CRM). This allows the customer to convert into a lead after the sale is made.

6. Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a software tool for managing Customer Relationship Management, developed by Microsoft. It is a suite in the cloud, which brings together the best Sales (CRM) and planning (ERP) features of Microsoft Dynamics together with collaborative tools, as well as Business Intelligence (BI). In this case, CRM systems provide agents with the latest customer information in real time. In this way, they can easily see customer data and create personalized experiences based on up-to-date data and analysis that help salespeople identify and prioritize opportunities. The CRM also offers information about customers and their needs so that staff can adapt marketing communications, sales offers, and services, centralizing this content, which reduces the time spent searching and monitoring your employees.

 

7. Sendpulse CRM

Sendpulse is a very efficient tool that not only allows you to manage email marketing campaigns but also has other functions that will help you better communicate with your customers. Free CRMs are offered to automate sales and customer communication. You can accept orders, stay in control of your sales process, collect data to build your customer list, and launch marketing campaigns – all this and more on one platform. Store all the information you need from customers to provide autonomy to your marketing and sales teams in your CRM database. In addition, it has a very convenient, extremely simple, and intuitive interface. And if there are any questions, you can always write to 24/7 support, which is located in the bottom right corner of the page.

 

8. Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM is an online CRM system that allows you to manage sales, marketing, and support on a single platform. It is a digital suite that works in the cloud, and that includes all kinds of office applications such as the text editor, spreadsheet, presentation editor, databases, task planner, and wikis, among other computer mechanisms. All of your sub-applications interact together to provide quick answers and a greater flow of knowledge, which saves a lot of searching time.

 

9. Leadsquared

LeadSquared is a company that introduces cloud-based CRM and marketing automation solutions. This service can be applied to companies of all sizes and in different sectors, such as educational or health and wellness centers, real estate services, or hotels. At the same time, within the same company, it can be used to work in different areas, such as Marketing (online commerce) or Finance.

This is so because LeadSquared helps users to automate tasks such as capturing potential customers, managing marketing resources, processing sales information, and preparing reports along with their subsequent analysis. In addition, the service offers lead scoring, landing pages, marketing and sales insights, and role-based user access and segmentation. In short, it represents a dynamic and versatile tool, since it can be integrated with applications such as Super-Receptionist, Ozonetel, LiveChat, Olark Connector, Zopim, and GoToWebinar. The software is available on a subscription pricing model and can run on most web browsers, though it also has a dedicated app for Android and iOS.

10. SugarCRM

SugarCRM is a LAMP-based customer relationship management system developed by SugarCRM, Inc. SugarCRM collects data and tracks customers, enabling Sales, Marketing, and Service teams to Collaborate throughout the customer lifecycle. This translates into offering a better service made up of more valuable and memorable experiences, each one based on predictive insights, without the inconveniences of manual data entry.

11. Vtiger

Vtiger is an open-source CRM application to make a tool with functionality similar to SugarCRM and Salesforce.com, but open source. It features options such as automated sales management (customizable product entries, inventory and vendor management, citations, and billing), and a customer tracking system, including a self-service customer portal. It also provides other functions such as market automation (lead research, campaign support, and knowledge bases), inventory management, and analytics and report production. It breaks down information silos by bringing together marketing, sales, and support interventions on the same page. Lastly, it provides a live 360-degree view of your customers, which helps build brand loyalty.

12. RD Station

RD Station is a leading company in the development of SaaS platforms. RD Station Marketing is a software tool that allows companies to carry out better campaigns, nurture leads, generate qualified business opportunities, and achieve more results, through the use of social networks, emails, Landing Pages, Pop-ups, Automations, and Analytics. It makes use of all-in-one tools to capture contacts and combine pages, forms, WhatsApp, and email marketing. It allows studying the sales funnel and creating personalized processes focused on the personalized follow-up of each customer’s trajectory.

13. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a global cloud-based software company. It has also developed the Pipedrive web app and mobile app, customer relationship management tools within the sales process. Among other services, it offers two easy and time-saving ways to track email conversations. In addition, it automatically connects emails to contacts, generating a complete view of everything that is happening with a potential customer in one place. This allows you to improve sales productivity. On the other hand, it allows you to automate and expand sales. For example, if the sales team spends too much time doing repetitive tasks like manually sending emails to prospects or creating one-off follow-up actions, using this device will streamline those processes. Finally, it allows you to gain visibility into the sales funnel and its management: it shows a graphical view of the funnel, allowing a good organization and greater control of a complex sales process.

14. Bitrix24

Bitrix24 CRM manages the interaction with actual and potential customers, external collaborators, press people, and any other group of people interested in interacting. The CRM in Bitrix24 operates once it creates a contact database where contact history and interaction are managed and stored. All new events (phone calls, messages, meetings) linked to a scheduled member or company are easily logged and further interaction can be planned for, including task assignment integration.

15. Cliengo

Cliengo's CRM automatically centralizes all the information and queries from customers who chat with the company through the chatbot, WhatsApp, or web forms, so that it can be shared later with sellers and thus enable better monitoring of sales. Commercial management can be organized from the Cliengo CRM and it can be integrated with the CRM that is already being used. The device enables functions such as access to all customer information orderly, understanding the purchasing instance in which they are, and correctly monitoring commercial management. It also allows you to organize commercial management by automatically assigning customers to different advisors in a commercial team, which allows you to manage the sales cycle simply and efficiently. Finally, it makes it possible to better organize digital campaigns by qualifying stakeholders and linking campaign metrics to actual sales.

 

16. Odoo CRM

Odoo presents an Open Source CRM software and integrated system. It has an open source "community" version under the LGPLv3 license and an enterprise version under a commercial license that complements the community edition with commercial features and services and is developed by the Belgian company Odoo S.A. It enables speedy sales by providing an intuitive user interface designed especially for sales, and a dashboard for a better overview of transactions. It also helps reduce data entry by getting auto-generated leads from email, and also by making it possible to manage a backlog via simple drag-and-drop.

At the same time, it contributes to the promotion of leads by creating campaigns to automatically send emails tailored to the lead segment and its activities. In addition, leads can be scored according to explicit or implicit criteria (for example, taking into account page views, location, or time). Different actions are then defined based on the lead score and team assignment rules. You can also easily import lead files with the Odoo column matching tool, detect leads' countries, states, and cities automatically from your visitor's IP address, or trigger live Odoo chat from a website to talk to visitors and convert them into leads. Lastly, you can monitor the source of these by using UTM trackers in all of your marketing campaigns.

17. Neolane

Neolane Inc. is a technology company that provides marketing tools. It develops multi-channel campaign management software and business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketer services. Neolane integrates with multiple CRM systems, including Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and Oracle/Siebel CRM, among others.

Neolane software provides a cloud-based web services service. It manages direct marketing campaigns, lead information, and resources, and performs analytics. The software also allows companies to design and orchestrate targeted and personalized campaigns from direct mail, Email, SMS, and MMS. It also allows you to interact with customers in a personalized way through social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter (which is called "Neolane Social Marketing"). Lastly, the company offers consulting services, either through its capacity internally or through partners such as Valtech, Acxiom, or Epsilon.

18. SageCRM

SageCRM is a British software development company. It enables customers to choose between a fully integrated CRM or point modules such as Sales, Marketing, and Services from Sage that suit specific business needs. The computer system seeks to create a new management model in companies based on customer orientation. Among its main functions, we can find: 1. It allows you to prepare budgets and orders with a couple of clicks. 2. It facilitates collaboration between departments. 3. It leaves room for quarterly sales and performance monitoring. 4. It reduces the time spent on administrative tasks, among other benefits.

 

19. SAP CRM

SAP (Systems, Applications, and Products for data processing) is an ERP or Enterprise Resource Management System that, as such, has a structure based on modules. Each of these modules corresponds to one of the main business areas of the company: that is, they are autonomous, but remain connected to each other and to the central server, which makes it easier for data analysis and exchange of information to enjoy great accuracy and fluidity. One of these SAP modules is related to customer relationship management, better known as CRM (Customer Relationship Management). The main purpose of CRM is to help companies manage their relationships with customers in an organized, efficient, and fluid way, which results in a greater boost to the growth of the organization.

A CRM like SAP is very useful for both large corporations and small and medium-sized companies because, for example, it helps Marketing and Sales departments to identify and select their best customers, thus managing much more successful and effective marketing campaigns. On the other hand, SAP facilitates the exchange of information between the employees of a company, that is, the CRM will help to better manage accounts and sales, improve digital sales or streamline existing processes. In this way, employees will have the necessary information and processes that allow them to know, identify and understand the specific needs of customers, and thus be able to satisfy them more adequately.

 

20. Suite CRM

SuiteCRM is a modular open source application perfect for automating the sales force, marketing, and customer service together. SuiteCRM is oriented towards customer relationship management. It is written in PHP and is often used as an alternative to proprietary software from major companies like HubSpot, SalesForce, and Microsoft Dynamics.

The interesting thing is that it enables workflows. This is an option that allows you to configure tasks that are repeated many times so that they are carried out automatically, which saves time. So, Workflows are computer processes that allow for automated tasks that require several steps and are repetitive in the work environment. Without these workflows, these tasks would have to be carried out manually.

Therefore, the most important objective of workflows is to reduce the time of standardized and recurring tasks, so that a faster and more efficient service is achieved. This allows a great optimization of work and, therefore, an increase in business productivity. These SuiteCRM workflows can be used to update fields, create records, or send communications under certain circumstances and when specific criteria are met. It is also possible to add new customers or create alerts when a record is modified, among many other options.

In the business world-oriented software market, there are currently several cloud tools that make use of CRM to manage sales and customer interactions (to observe their life cycle or convert them from simple leads to loyal customers) or to manage the storage and flow of information and bring it closer to all areas of the company that require it. The use of these highly systematized digital mechanisms and whose information is gathered in a single center guarantees that the internal processes of the company are directed to address the needs of the customers.

The decision on what type of software is best for each business model will vary depending on the size of the company and the business objectives pursued (which, logically, try to achieve through defined strategies and processes). In this sense, although the CRM does not constitute a solution to the problems in itself, it indeed contributes to saving agents time when looking for specific information, it allows obtaining a more precise global image of the company and it contributes to accelerating the realization of processes and decision-making based on the most recent changes in customer consumption.