The most user-friendly CRM tools for small business

There are countless CRM tools available on the market and each one brings something different to the table. At its core, CRM software helps manage your customer relationship database to improve customer service, sales conversion rates, and retention.

In an organization that deals with many customers with different needs, a CRM tool isn’t optional, it’s a necessity. It makes it easy for you document and understand each customer’s peculiar requirements. At the same time, it allows you to quickly access your CRM database and take proactive steps to improve all aspects of the customer experience.

CRM tools for small businesses, because they’re used by so many groups in an organization, should be simple. If you’re not using a user-friendly CRM, many of the benefits associated with a robust customer database are lost. Instead of improving efficiency, it adds complexity and increases expenses.

That is not the goal. The right CRM will be easy to learn, maintain, and help you achieve your specific goals. This article will highlight multiple CRM tools that are both easy to use and effective at improving customer relationships.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a CRM tool for small businesses and it has an emphasis on allowing users to choose their own journey. When you first sign up for Pipedrive, it has a few preconfigured tabs and views to help you get started.

This specific configuration is only ideal when you’re learning the CRM tool for the first time. When you start to use it in your daily workflow, you’ll realize you have custom needs based on activity and data collection. For example, a wedding planner and a credit payments company would need different data and workflows.

Pipedrive makes this possible with customizable tabs. You can configure them to show specific information on each view so you have a snapshot of the important data in your CRM database at a glance. Use this to make the right decisions. In addition to custom views, you can also set up custom data fields that cater to your business’ specific needs. Once set up, they’re accessible every time you want to add or update a contact.

A large part of sales, marketing, and customer service is communicating with the right people using the right material. Pipedrive has an email integration that pulls in data and enriches it with what’s already in your database. No manual data entry required and you’re able to send and receive emails from right within Pipedrive.

With many CRMs, it’s a challenge to understand exactly what needs to be done today, tomorrow, or next week. Pipedrive sends a daily alert every morning that gives you a rundown of your upcoming tasks. You’ll be able to plan your activities to get the most out you day.

Finally, it caters to its users through a simple but detailed forecasting and statistics dashboard. It’s possible to see your own performance and the performance of individual team members. You’ll know who’s doing well and who’s falling behind. At the same time, you have a clear forecast of revenue, broken down by deal, in your pipeline.

PipelineDeals

PipelineDeals is another tool that makes it easy to manage your customer relationship database. It caters to organizations in diverse industries such as construction and organizational consulting. A prerequisite for serving so many industries is a simple interface and robust features.

This CRM tool gives users access to deep 1-click integrations with other apps that they use in their day to day activities. It makes it simple to manage everything from finances and sales to marketing and customer service.

The CRM software is structured so that as soon as you log in, you’re able to see the progress and amount of all the deals in your organization. If the default doesn’t work for you, it’s possible to create multiple pipelines that reflect the way you do business. Each one can be updated individually and you can always see a snapshot of overall progress then get deeper insights with just a few clicks.

If you don’t want to set up the app yourself, there’s an option for concierge onboarding. A dedicated account manager will assist you in setting up your CRM tool to meet your business’ needs. Once done, they’ll coach you on getting the most out of PipelineDeals so you and your team are better able to serve your customers.

Another strong suit of the CRM software is the ability to configure and access detailed forecasting. With just a few clicks, you’ll be able to set up forecasts for different pipelines in your business. This gives you a bird’s eye view of future revenue without having to cobble together a separate solution.

Another powerful and user-friendly aspect of PipelineDeals is the ability to create customized workflows. If your company has 20 clear steps from prospect to customer then you can map that out and create customer workflows which include things like email tagging, calls, and labelling. Even a brand new team member can jump in and use the workflows to close deals or help existing clients.

Another powerful feature that makes it more user friendly than the rest is its ability to automate different aspects of your sales pipeline. It can update deals, assign tacks, send notifications, and more so you and your team are always up to date.

monday.com

monday.com is a versatile CRM tool for small businesses. It combines project management, team collaboration, and customer communication in one platform. monday.com serves almost every industry you can think of so ease of use is baked into the DNA of the product.

It departs from the standard way of organizing your contacts and projects and instead focuses on a visual, color coded, workflow for task management. 41% of tasks on to-do lists aren’t completed but this color coordination helps cut that number down.  For example, if a task or project is on track, it’s labeled green. If it’s off track or not quite done, it’s labeled yellow. This allows you to understand progress at a glance and find bottlenecks in your processes.

You also have the power to customize every aspect of your workflows. It comes with a few templates to guide you but those can be tweaked to fit your specific situation. In addition to custom workflows, you have access to custom dashboards which can be set up to show you the information you find most useful. If you update a task, budget, or project in one place, it automatically reflects across all of your dashboards and views.

There are multiple views to track progress on any project or deal such as a calendar view, map view, timeline view, and more. They can be further customized to show you the information that matters at that point. monday.com also integrates with many other software solutions like Gmail, Typeform, and Dropbox so you can pull in the right information and speed up your work.

Finally, monday.com has automations that are triggered when certain tasks are completed (or left pending). For example, if a task isn’t completed on time, a notification can be sent to the right team member. If you’ve completed a task, it can automatically update a report or even initiate the next task in a project. All these features together make monday.com a powerful CRM tool for small businesses.

Conclusion

In the end, your business has unique needs. The CRM tool that works well for one business may not work well for you. Even if that’s the case, the software you choose should have invested time and energy into creating a system that’s usable for the majority of customers.

When you’re choosing the CRM system for you, consider its ability to automate certain tasks and workflows, the customization options, and the opportunities to integrate with other tools you’re using. If, at the very least, it doesn’t have those features, it may not be able to meet your needs. Always do your research to make sure you’re choosing the right CRM. Be sure to check out our detailed reviews to help you narrow down your options and make the correct choice.