Satisfied customers are critical to any thriving business, whether traditional or crypto. This is where customer relationship management or CRM comes into the picture.
For crypto companies, as we continue to gain mainstream adoption and onboard billions of users, it is integral that they have a meaningful relationship with their customers.
Let’s first understand what exactly a CRM is. CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management.
Any business with a customer base, regardless of size, requires CRM to store the customer details, including KYC, sales status, prospect details, sales opportunities, reports, email automation, lead management, and more.
As for how it works, just feed the software data and forget about it. Whenever there is a change in the sales funnel, the CRM should be updated appropriately, as this software can help businesses properly manage a lot of data.
A CRM identifies the difference between valid and invalid information, lagging points in the purchase, problems and upgrades their products, sales funnel strength, as well as efficiently manages lead tracking, customer interest trends, Email automation, and generates sales reports.
According to a study by Thomson Data, a properly implemented CRM system can yield an ROI of 245%. However, how does one find a treasure among the vast amount of CRM options available on the Internet? Here are some of the best options to enhance customer experience.
Salesforce Sales Cloud
Known for being the most comprehensive CRM, Salesforce is a global leader in customer relationship management software.
It is built to scale with any business and comprises social collaboration tools and a third-party app marketplace.
Relevant Content: Importance of Marketing in a Bear Market
The platform covers features like tracking the customer journey from the lead stage to signed contracts, integrating email campaigns with Gmail and Outlook, and pulling up highly detailed and customizable reporting.
More advanced features include opportunity management, contact management, sales performance management, visual workflow, and revenue intelligence.
However, it has a steeper learning curve than most and can be expensive for small businesses if they go with any plan other than the basic one.
A few years back, it even launched Salesforce Blockchain. This low-code platform enables organizations to share verified, distributed data sets across a trusted network of partners and third parties.
Built on the open-source Hyperledger Sawtooth protocol, Salesforce Blockchain allows companies to create blockchain networks and apps using clicks and easy-to-use tools.
Zoho CRM
Here’s another CRM solution that has integrated blockchain into the platform.
Back in late 2019, Zoho adopted blockchain-based timestamping through Ethereum to provide an additional level of verification for customers on Zoho Sign.
One of the most popular service providers, Zoho offers customizable options to fit the needs of most businesses.
Its powerful sales force automation helps with lead management, contact management, deal management, and general workflow automation.
Relevant Content: How To Optimize Your Content Marketing Strategy?
There’s a Canvas tool for the design that features an intuitive drag and drop interface, allowing users to customize templates and forms easily.
Its CRM product is built to support and integrate seamlessly with other Zoho products, including Zoho Sales, Zoho Invoice, And Zoho campaigns.
Zendesk
Used by the likes of OnePlus, OLX, Dailymotion, Udemy, Mailchimp, Siemens, and crypto exchange Bitkub, Zendesk is known for its customer services tools.
Their CRM product, Zendesk Sell, focuses on boosting collaboration between sales and other departments. It has built-in interoperability with other Zendesk apps such as Zendesk Service and Zendesk Talk.
One of its unique features includes a sales email intelligence suite for tracking, notifications, and automation with email templates, as well as out-of-the-box reporting tools to improve email outcomes.
The native dialer is another one that makes it easy for a team to make customer calls and send texts without having to leave the app while all the calls are automatically logged and recorded.
However, all the advanced features may make it expensive and complex for small businesses and those looking for simplicity.
Pipedrive
This sales-focused CRM provides all the tools to manage leads so that its users can track everything from forms, signups and a lot more in real-time.
Meanwhile, the visual sales pipeline allows managing, tracking, and customizing each stage for each sales representative.
Besides multi-language support, its advanced chatbot capabilities set Pipedrive apart from others.
Relevant Content: Email Marketing Guide for Crypto Companies
It enables its users to create intelligent and customized chatbots for their website that can answer customer questions promptly, qualify leads, and promote engagement.
Other features include unlimited custom fields to gather information and have comprehensive lead reports, Sales Assistant AI to optimize workflow, and a full suite of communication tracking for contacts, including calls, emails, and chats.
Overall, it’s pretty affordable and easy to operate, but that means limited functionality compared to other options.
HubSpot CRM
HubSpot can be the right solution for anyone looking for CRM software with only core capabilities. This one is a free CRM software, but it only allows 1,000,000 contacts, and upgrading will be an expensive option.
HubSpot CRM provides complete sales pipeline visibility with real-time contact management boosted with activity tracking, individual performance metrics, and other types of detailed reporting.
Other features include call tracking, a meeting scheduler, and email tracking.
Connecting calendar and email through Gmail and Outlook integrations is also an available option.
Ad management tools, Form and Landing page builder, and Live chat and chatbot builder are other features included in the free plan.
Freshworks Freshsales
The AI-driven CRM product of Freshworks offers tools for contact management, email integrations, and sales reporting while automating just about every tedious and repetitive task.
There’s also built-in telephony that lets users place and makes calls straight from contact and deal management.
By allowing users to do it all from one place, it streamlines the process of nurturing leads and gaining conversions. Freshsales further provides call analytics and reporting to guide and improve sales calls.
Late in 2021, the business software provider launched a unified CRM for startups called Freshstack, combining the company’s Freshmarketer, Freshsales, and Freshdesk products.
Relevant Content: Ultimate Crypto Marketing Strategy Guide
Keap
One of the best CRM for email marketing automation, Keap has been around for over two decades to help businesses make the most of their time.
This CRM provider isn’t entirely in the dark about crypto, either. It keeps its community updated about the crypto sector through its blog section.
While automation setup is time-consuming, which can make this option a bit expensive for SMBs, it is through clever automation of customer interactions and team workflows that Keap ensures seamless work and client management.
There are loads of marketing automation, email marketing tools, and third-party integrations offered by Keap to create and implement advanced marketing campaigns, automate email triggers and personalize them.
Tracking metrics like behavioral data and A/B testing are also provided.
Ontraport
Ontraport offers everything from marketing to payment processing, cross-selling, and coupon codes to automate online transactions.
The contact record consists of all the data regarding the campaign, purchase history, membership history, credit card information, and subscriptions.
Right from the contact, its users can also email, text, and process a transaction with a credit card.
When setting up a payment gateway, for instance, PayPal or Stripe, while using one of their vendor integrations, they enable users to take payments manually and automatically.
The self-described CRM software for small and mid-sized businesses offers pre-built and custom automated campaigns in its marketing suite.
At the same time, the visual drag-and-drop editor in the builder section allows users to set filters, triggers, and actions. Users can track campaigns here for stats like conversion rates and recurring revenue.
Relevant Content: Crypto Influencer Marketing Guide
Conclusion
Originally developed for large businesses and enterprises, today, several CRM options are available in the market that fit different business types and sizes.
When deciding on the solution to buy for a business, consider factors like the size of the business the software is designed for, the business needs, the budget, features involved in the quoted price, and customer support provided by the company.
Given that CRM is a $48 billion industry growing at a 16% annual rate, it has become an integral part of every business, small or big, crypto or non-crypto.
After all, CRM software can help track contacts, nurture leads, and monitor and tailor after-sales activities to bring more customers and build customer loyalty while optimizing the cost, gaining competitive advantage, and improving teamwork.
