The majority of businesses today rely heavily on robust CRM software. This is not surprising considering the fact that any business, irrespective of which industry it belongs to, is only as good as its customers. Hence, the majority of the companies have customer experience/satisfaction as one of their primary goals. To stay ahead of their competitors and ensure their customer loyalty, businesses need to ensure that they have an effective and successful system in place to build and maintain strong relationships with their customers. This is where CRMS software comes into the picture. In this post, along with explaining a few basics of CRM software, we will also focus on the top 10 CRMS and their use cases to better understand how to use the software.
Table of Contents
What is a CRM Software?
CRM software aids businesses in managing and maintaining a better and more efficient relationship with their customers. The software also comes equipped with several tools and technologies that enable businesses to convert their leads into sales successfully. A CRM software offers a single repository to store all the customer information, which helps businesses better organize their customer data, automate regular tasks, and streamline various processes to boost their performance and productivity.
Benefits of a CRM Software
Apart from offering companies a single platform to gather all their customer data, some of the other benefits of CRM software include:
- Better efficiency – With all the customer information in one place, businesses can set up a better workflow, a seamless collaboration between teams, etc., all of which boost efficiency.
- More transparency – The CRM software enables teams to have better visibility about the various processes, thus, helping in maintaining better and clear transparency.
- Customer retention – With streamlined processes in place, automation of regular tasks, improved efficiency, and productivity, etc., businesses can improve their focus on the customers and retain them.
- Boost sales – One of the major benefits offered by CRM software is that it helps in streamlining your sales process, which in turn increases the conversion rate of your leads into sales.
Key CRM features
CRM software has become an integral part of every business, and today, businesses have the option to choose their ideal CRM software from over more than hundreds of CRM software. Every CRM software offers different features, tools, functionalities, etc. However, there are some features that can be considered common ones that should be on your list when you are looking to invest in CRM software. Some of these features are:
- Contact management
- Interaction tracking
- Lead management
- Email integration
- Document management
- Quotes/Proposal management
- Pipeline management
- Workflow automation
- Reporting/Analytics
- Sales forecasting
Top 10 CRMs and their Use Cases
As mentioned earlier, in this post, we will be taking a look at the top 10 CRMs and also provide insights on how you may use the CRM to suit your business needs.
Microsoft Dynamics 365
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is one of the best CRM software currently available in the market that can help you accelerate your business by maximizing your business relationships. This software aims at enabling businesses to improve their sales and marketing productivity. Microsoft Dynamics offers a wide range of tools and features, such as gathering social insights, offering business intelligence, centralizing customer information, and more. This software essentially offers its CRM functions through five different apps – Sales, Customer Service, Marketing, Field Service, and Project Service Automation.
Key Features
- Contact Management
- Project Management
- Marketing Automation
- Quotes
- Lead Scoring
Use Case
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is your best option if your focus is on gaining in-depth customer insights. This software offers a 360-degree view of all your customer data and provides key insights – all in real-time. It uses AI-powered solutions to provide information, such as how to best acquire leads and customers, what your customers want, how you can fulfill their requirements, etc. It also provides real-time insights based on your customer’s demographic, behavioral, transactional, engagement, and feedback data. All of this enables your marketing teams to create personalized and targeted campaigns.
HubSpot
HubSpot is one of the most popular, forever-free CRM software suitable for businesses of all types and sizes. Whether you wish to incorporate the software for your entire business or for specific teams like sales, customer service, marketing, etc., this software will not disappoint you. One of the USPs of HubSpot CRM is its extremely easy-to-use interface. From automating various manual tasks to aligning internal teams to gather meaningful insights to offering top-notch customer experience – there is a lot that you can do with this CRM software.
Key Features
- Marketing Automation
- Contact Management
- Referral Tracking
- Call Logging
- Product Catalog
Use Case
One of the best use cases of HubSpot is that it is an ideal tool for aligning all your data. One of the functionalities of HubSpot is that it syncs each and every interaction that you have with a contact. This enables every team member to stay on the same page, irrespective of which department they belong to. With access to complete data, team members can use the data as required to effectively boost their customer loyalty. Also, this entry, syncing, and updating of contact data is completely automated by HubSpot, which means that you do not have to put in any manual efforts.
Salesforce
Salesforce is another top CRM software that can help businesses ranging from small to medium to large in automating and managing various processes, which can save them time and resources and also boost their productivity. Salesforce offers an extensive range of features and tools which enables easy collaboration across the business. This CRM software is suitable for use by businesses across various industries like automotive, education, retail, media, communication, hospitality, and more. Businesses can also take advantage of Salesforce’s AI technology-equipped chatbot – Einstein. Overall, CRM software helps businesses and their customers to come together and achieve great results.
Key Features
- Project Management
- Contact Management
- List Management
- Marketing Automation
- Customer Support
Use Case
Businesses can use Salesforce to automate their various repetitive tasks. With the help of the Einstein AI chatbot, businesses can provide information to reps about past interactions with customers. This insight enables the teams to improve their customer engagement and relationship and also boost their productivity by providing key information such as next steps, etc. The AI-powered chatbot also helps in improving customer experience and support by offering personalized customer support, automating support to save reps time, recommending possible actions to reps, and more.
Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is a fully-featured CRM software that enables businesses of all sizes to maintain top-notch customer relationships. Along with offering all the core features of CRM software, Zoho also offers Zia – an AI-powered sales assistant which helps in understanding the CRM data, tracking visitors to the website, and predicting sales. One of the key USPs of this CRM software is that it enables businesses to reach their customers via multiple channels, including phone, email, live chat, social media, etc. Zoho CRM’s list of features also includes pre-built and customizable KPIs, which can be used to categorize the areas where the team is excelling and where they are lacking.
Key Features
- Marketing Automation
- Referral Tracking
- Lead Scoring
- Contact Management
- Quotes
Use Case
One of the best use cases of Zoho CRM is that it can be used to provide an omnichannel customer experience. This means that businesses can support and maintain excellent customer relationships through various channels without having to leave the CRM platform. All the data that is obtained from these phones, live chat, email, social media interactions, etc., are automatically saved to the CRM. So whether you are sending emails, providing support calls, hosting meetings, or providing presentations, all the data gathered from these different mediums will be available in your CRM tool.
Pipedrive
Built especially for small teams, Pipedrive is a sales CRM and pipeline management tool that comes equipped with features focusing on the functions of sales reps. This CRM software is known for its clean layouts, intuitive interfaces, and easy user experience, all of which enable the teams to visualize their sales pipeline and focus on areas that require more attention. From tracking performance to managing deals to automating repetitive tasks to predictive revenue to sales forecasting – there is a lot that you can do with Pipedrive. It also comes equipped with a security feature that provides information on how your data is being used.
Key Features
- List Management
- Quotes
- Contact Management
- Call Logging
- Project Management
Use Case
Apart from taking advantage of all the top-notch sales-related features, businesses can also use Pipedrive to track and maintain the top security of their data. The security feature offered by this CRM software enables businesses to monitor how and who is accessing their data. Businesses can use the unified security dashboard to identify users and their activities in real-time, set user log-in notifications, create customized rules for secure practices, etc.
Freshworks 360
Next on our list of top 10 CRM software is Freshworks 360 – a sales CRM and customer engagement platform. This CRM software uses artificial intelligence to enable your sales and marketing teams to provide better, efficient, and personalized customer experiences. Using this software, businesses can gain access to a 360-degree view of their targeted customers and view all the customer data from multiple sources on one single platform. This CRM software is split into two – Sales Cloud, which assists businesses in lead generation, lead qualification, and lead management, and Marketing Cloud, which offers an AI-powered chatbot to interact automatically with the customers.
Key Features
- Customer Support
- Marketing Automation
- Contact Management
- Lead scoring
- Project Management
Use Case
For any business to succeed, it is important to have a clear alignment between the sales and marketing team. Freshworks 360 is an ideal CRM software that can help businesses maintain this alignment and in turn, boost their productivity, improve collaboration, and improve the customer experience. This CRM software offers several useful tools and features, such as the Customer-for-Life Cloud feature, which enables both the sales team and the marketing team to be in sync with each other and stay on the same page.
NetSuite CRM
Similar to most of the CRM software listed above, NetSuite CRM is another strong CRM software that offers businesses a comprehensive view of all their processes. This software offers all the traditional CRM capabilities along with other key functionalities like sales forecasting, commission management, quote delivery, eCommerce tools, etc. NetSuite CRM helps businesses in gathering customer information from multiple sources in one single platform, which then can be used to design and deliver personalized customer experiences.
Key Features
- Contact Management
- Lead Scoring
- Customer Support
- Market Automation
- Referral Tracking
Use Case
NetSuite CRM is an operational CRM software that can be used by businesses to gain complete control over the automation process. This software can be used for automating various business processes, such as automating sales channels by establishing the customer acquisition and retention standards, automating marketing campaigns, automating customer support, etc. By automating such key processes, the teams can focus on improving their customer experiences, focus on coming up with more personalized content, enhancing their efficiency and productivity, etc., rather than spending their time on manual tasks.
Salesflare
Salesflare has been designed specifically for small businesses with B2B models. One of the core features of Salesflare is that it tracks everything automatically. The primary focus of this CRM software is to track and organize your B2B operations. With its easy navigation and easy-to-use interface, this popular CRM has become a preferred choice even for medium- and large-sized companies. Salesflare is capable of automating all your data input workflow and sales processes, thereby enabling you to boost your customer service experience. It also automatically logs in all the phone calls, messages, meetings, etc., and organizes all the data, which makes it easier for the team members to access the required information. You can also use their various features like website tracking, link tracking, email tracking, etc., to monitor customer interactions.
Key Features
- Contact Management
- Lead Scoring
- Project Management
- Marketing Automation
- Product Catalog
Use Case
One of the popular use cases of Salesflare is tracking sales. For businesses that are in core B2B sales, it is vital to keep track of every lead in your sales pipeline. It is quite common to forget about a lead, its details, follow-up, etc. This is where Salesflare comes into the picture. With the help of this CRM software, you can rest assured that you will never lose any lead, miss, out on any of the details, or lose revenue. Sales managers can also use this software to track and monitor their team, identify areas of improvement, and provide relevant coaching.
EngageBay Sales CRM
EngageBay is another comprehensive CRM platform that offers a mixture of sales, marketing, and customer service features. It helps small businesses to better manage their customer relationships and improve their sales processes. This CRM software offers a wide range of features that enable businesses to boost their sales and marketing efforts. With the help of EngageBay, businesses can perform various functionalities, such as automating the scheduling and monitoring of personalized emails, creating customizable pipelines for different products and sales processes, monitoring your social media channels, and more – all through one tool.
Key Features
- List Management
- Customer Support
- Lead Scoring
- Call Logging
- Contact Management
Use Case
EngageBay Sales CRM can be used by businesses to gain a 360-degree view of the customers’ journey. For every business, it is vital to have a clear picture of their customer journey – right from the beginning to the end and with the help of this CRM software, businesses can gather customer data from multiple sources, analyze them, and come up with the required solutions. EngageBay provides real-time information, thus offering the teams opportunities to identify new prospects, close deals successfully, predict and forecast customer requirements, etc.
BigContacts
BigContacts is an advanced CRM platform that helps simplify customer relationship management. This is another top CRM software that offers an intuitive interface with easy navigation that allows businesses to keep track of all their customer data and interactions. By providing a 360-degree view of the customer data, this software aids in boosting team collaboration, providing deep insights, and increasing efficiency and productivity. There are several tools and features offered by BigContacts that enable businesses to streamline their various processes. The software also offers a top-notch task management feature that comes equipped with custom reminders, automation of recurring tasks, detailed calendar views, etc.
Key Features
- List Management
- Referral Tracking
- Contact Management
- Marketing Automation
- Lead Scoring
Use Case
One of the best ways to improve customer experience and relationships is through personalized interactions. With the help of BigContact, businesses can use the data gathered to develop more meaningful and engaging interactions with their customers. This, in turn, will help in boosting customer retention and loyalty. You can use this CRM software to set up automated drip email campaigns based on the contact activities. You can also save time and resources by taking advantage of the email templates provided by the software. With the help of these efficient email campaigns, businesses can ensure that they are interacting with their existing and prospective customers at the right time.
Conclusion
The scope of CRM software is quite vast, and as more and more technologies are developed, the CRM software is also enhancing its features and capabilities. With such an extensive pool of CRM software available in the market, it can be a tad bit difficult to choose the ideal one for your use. Hence, it is recommended that you first set your goals and targets and then choose a CRM software that will best help you achieve those goals and targets.
If you like reading about market trends, check out our CRM statistics blogs for more such content.
