Customers are vital to any business, and customer relation management (CRM) software enables you to maximize every interaction. We help you choose the right CRM for your business based on our in-depth testing.Customer relationship management (CRM) systems benefit businesses by automating tasks, centralizing customer data, improving collaboration, and providing insights for targeted email marketing. However, selecting the right CRM system from the multitude of options can be daunting. Some CRM systems offer just the features essential for small businesses, while others are robust enough to meet the demands of large enterprises. PCMag has been reviewing solutions from leading and lesser-known vendors for over a decade, helping to ease your decision-making process. Apptivo is our Editors’ Choice winner in the category for its excellent flexibility and deep lead profiles, but all of the services below are worthwhile options for your business. Make sure to click through to our in-depth reviews of each and read our buying guide for more CRM advice.
What Is CRM Software?
CRM software helps you track and nurture contacts to build customer loyalty and increase sales, from the first marketing touch to a closed sale and on to the next engagement. They are far more capable than spreadsheets for this purpose, especially if your customer list is large or if you want to integrate data from other business services. CRMs can also automate processes, such as creating calendar events, identifying new sales opportunities, prioritizing sales pipelines, and setting appointment reminders. Moreover, this software prevents multiple people from chasing the same prospect.
How to Match a CRM System to Your Business Needs
The most challenging part of choosing a CRM is understanding what a product can do and what your salespeople need. Don’t simply pay for one of the big, all-inclusive CRM software packages up front. Many large CRM packages are often platforms rather than tools, so using and deploying their numerous features can be unnecessarily costly and time-consuming.
Instead, figure out how to recreate the tools and processes your team currently uses in the CRM software you’re evaluating. You also need to think about your customer. Consider running an online survey or focus group to find the optimal sales experience.
As with any software, it’s critical to take advantage of free trials. No matter how many reviews you read or demos you watch, you can’t fully understand how a CRM solution works until you use it yourself. Be sure to have colleagues from different departments try it out as well, so you can see how it works in various situations. Most vendors offer at least a trial. Some, including HubSpot Smart CRM and Zoho CRM, offer free plans, albeit with limited features and user capacities. These can either serve as a full-time solution for small companies or a long-term trial for larger ones.
What Support Options Do CRMs Provide?
Whether it’s some difficulty with a particular feature, mapping a data import, or the initial setup process, you will likely need support from your vendor at some point. That’s why it’s essential to utilize your free trial period to assess the responsiveness and effectiveness of a service’s support team. Some tips:
- Ensure you understand the level of support you get with your plan and whether it’s upgradable.
- Check out the provider’s support forum. See what questions other customers ask and how long it takes for the company to respond.
- Look for DIY resources. Are self-service tools available for specific issues on a support site? If so, be sure to assess their effectiveness. Search the knowledge base to see what kinds of articles and videos are available.
Can CRMs Integrate With Your Existing Business Software?
Salesforce and other larger CRM platforms have extensive feature sets that are available as modules, each with related features. If the features you need are available, you can configure your entire solution by accessing the relevant modules. However, if something is missing or your sales staff prefers some other product, you might need to turn to third-party solutions.
Native, pre-built integrations are ideal because they minimize the setup process. All of the products on our list work with many of the most popular apps. Alternatively, a developer on your team can build a custom solution via an API. Before you commit to a CRM, make sure it can work with your vital business services via either method.
How Can You Protect Customer Data?
You need to pay attention not only to customer information that originates within the CRM but also to the supporting data from other systems, such as your customer support software. You can’t reliably communicate with customers if your data is inaccurate or unorganized, and that means lost revenue. Ensuring good data quality is a matter of testing and constant vigilance. Depending on the size of your staff, you might need to hire someone to manage all data management tasks, including automating workflows, backup, and protection. If you feel such a hire is in your future, involve that person in your CRM search as early as possible.
When you work with customer data, security should be top of mind. It’s a warning sign when your CRM doesn’t generate an audit trail whenever someone changes a password, or if it doesn’t let you define access controls for each user. Customer data is extremely valuable, especially now that customers are more reluctant to part with it. Securing it isn’t just about maintaining privacy; it’s about protecting profitable relationships.
You should ensure that your CRM software integrates with as much of your current IT security stack as possible, such as your identity management system, so your employees can take advantage of single sign-on (SSO) authentication or multi-factor authentication. But you also need to closely evaluate a vendor’s policies to ascertain exactly where your data resides, who is responsible for its safety, and what happens if there’s a problem. Search for any past breaches and how the company responded to them as well.
Do CRMs Use AI?
Yes, AI is increasingly prevalent in these services. Many CRM vendors leverage it to automate tasks, derive insights from data, and offer personalized recommendations. Some services even provide generative AI tools to help steer your communications.
Do CRMs Support Mobile Devices?
All of the services on this offer dedicated apps or let you access their main sites via a mobile browser. The former solution is preferable, but in either case, you can use them to do pretty much everything you can with the desktop site. Don’t commit to a CRM solution until you fully evaluate the mobile experience. For many companies, mobile might be the primary platform.
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