If you’re not tracking your customers’ data, you’re missing out on golden opportunities to surprise them with impeccable service. Whether you’re in the stages before, during, or after a sale, the right service and support can help turn new potential customers into a loyal client for a lifetime.
With a CRM for service businesses to help your team track, store, manage, and organize all your customer data, you’ll never lose sight of your customers’ needs. Having them front and center helps you be proactive in the service you offer, creating a more positive customer experience for every account.
This post will give you an overview of why CRMs are essential for service-based businesses. We’ll also cover some of the top CRMs for service businesses and take a look at what makes monday CRM such a well-rounded solution.
Try monday CRMWhat is a CRM for service businesses?
A customer relationship management platform, or CRM, is software that helps businesses nurture and grow client relationships. In the service industry, customer relationship management software helps companies offer better support to their customers.
With a CRM for a service business, sales teams can get to know their customers better including previous interactions, purchases, and personal preferences, which can lead to offering more targeted and personalized service. Service CRMs can also be helpful in storing essential information, like support documents and contact data, making it quicker to access information and resolve issues in a timely fashion.
Benefits of using a CRM for a service business
A CRM for a service business can help teams engage with customers at every point of their journey, from an initial lead to post-sales customer support. There are many advantages that come with using a CRM, particularly for service-based teams or businesses. Let’s take a look at some of the main benefits.
- Improved customer relationships: Centralizing and managing your customer data will allow your team to provide personalized and timely service, leading to more satisfaction and customer loyalty
- Efficient appointment management: Automate appointment reminders to make sure coordination is seamless between service teams and customers
- Historical customer data: Access every customer’s entire history with your company, from messages to purchases, making it easier to resolve issues right away
- Streamlined communication: Integrated communication tools for emailing, sending text messages, and call tracking make it simple to respond to customer inquiries right away
- Real-time analytics: Reports and insights based on real-time data can help sales managers track service levels, team performance, identify customer trends, lead marketing campaigns, and make informed decisions
- Stronger team collaboration: When every team member can access the same customer data, they can collaborate better and offer a more consistent service experience
What CRM features do you need for a service business?
When shopping around for the right CRM for a service business, you’ll notice that CRMs come packed with a ton of features. However, you may not need all of them. Sometimes, having too many features can make your CRM feel overloaded, making onboarding longer and more cumbersome. Instead, look for CRMs that offer key features your business needs, such as:
- Contact management to keep all customer information organized on one platform
- Custom automations so that your team never forgets to follow up with clients
- Task management tools to assign and track tasks for employees
- Integrated communication tools like emails, SMS, and call features
- Analytics and reporting features to generate valuable insights and improve customer service
- Mobile access for on-the-go accessibility wherever your team goes
- App integration options for work tools you already use
The 5 best CRMs for service businesses
Selecting the right CRM software for your service business isn’t a small choice. Your CRM will become a hub for all your client’s needs, from service to inquiries and even upselling them or introducing new products. That’s why it’s so important to choose the right CRM for your business from the start. Here are five service CRMs that can boost your business’s service levels.
1. monday CRM
Best for: Service companies looking for a flexible and scalable CRM that will improve service levels
monday CRM, part of the monday.com Work OS, offers an all-in-one platform that makes it easy for teams to grow each customer relationship. Packed with features to create custom workflows that help employees track and manage customer interactions, monday CRM is also incredibly intuitive and easy to use, making it suitable for a range of industries and company sizes.
Key monday CRM features
- Data-driven dashboards: Get all the information you need in one glance with customizable dashboards to get visibility into operations and performance
- Multiple work views: Visualize work your way with Chart, Calendar, Timeline, and To-Do list views, making it easier to see customer data and tasks the way you want
- Custom automations: Cut down on manual and repetitive tasks with no-code automations that can be customized for automatic reminders, follow-ups, and more
monday CRM pricing
- Plans start at $12/seat/month
- Choose from four plans: Basic, Standard, Pro, and Enterprise
- Free trial available
- Learn more about monday CRM plans and pricing
2. HubSpot CRM
Best for: Service teams looking for a free, user-friendly CRM with great sales tools
HubSpot CRM is designed with streamlining customer relationship management in mind. The interface is simple to use and easily integrates with other HubSpot products. For service businesses, HubSpot CRM offers many tools to help teams attract, engage, and delight at different stages of customer journeys.
Key HubSpot CRM features
- Universal inbox: Your entire team can access the same inbox so that each customer interaction gets the attention it deserves
- Live chat: Connect with customers in real-time and offer instant support with a live chat feature for your website
- Meeting scheduler: Let your customers automatically schedule meetings without back-and-forth emails
HubSpot CRM pricing
- Plans start at $15/user/month
- Multiple plans to choose from depending on the service you need
- Free plan with limited features
- Learn more about Hubspot CRM plans and pricing here
3. Zoho CRM
Best for: Service-driven industries focused on building lasting customer relationships
Zoho CRM, part of the Zoho suite of products, is a good option for service-based businesses who want to build a memorable customer experience. With Zoho CRM, teams get a 360-degree view of their customers while getting a fully customizable platform that can fit existing workflows.
Key Zoho CRM features
- Track and assign jobs: Team members get notified when they’re assigned a job so that they take ownership of the task from start to finish
- Schedule appointments: Book and manage client appointments all in one place and set availability for specific team members or services
- Unify customer data: Instantly merge and access customer data from multiple channels, whether it’s email, live chat, phone, or social media
Zoho CRM pricing
- Plans start at $14/month/user
- Choose from four plans: Standard, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate
- Free trial available
- Learn more about Zoho CRM’s plans and pricing here
4. Salesforce
Best for: Enterprise-level service businesses looking for a powerful CRM with tons of integrations
Salesforce is a leading CRM platform, and for good reason. Boasting a suite of tools that make it easy to manage customer relationships, teams rely on Salesforce to drive business growth. The platform is scalable and ideal for larger teams with complex customer relationship management needs.
Key Salesforce features
- Einstein AI: Customize work and marketing automation tasks, apps, and prompts fully supported by Salesforce’s Einstein AI and free up time with autonomous actions
- Hundreds of integrations: Salesforce offers app integrations with hundreds of different work tools, making it simple to sync data between your existing platforms
- Advanced reporting: Using AI-powered analytics, Salesforce offers advanced features for reporting to stay on top of service performance
Salesforce pricing
- Plans start at $25/user/month
- Choose from multiple plans for small businesses and enterprises
- Free trial available
- Find out more about Salesforce plans and pricing here
5. Creatio CRM
Best for: Service companies looking for a low-code CRM platform to customize workflows
Creatio is a low-code CRM platform, which means service businesses can create their own tailored workflows with minimal technical skills. Combining CRM functionality with business and sales process management, Creatio CRM helps service teams deliver a seamless experience.
Key Creatio features
- Generative AI tools: Creatio CRM’s AI models help teams route and prioritize cases and create lists for customer segmentation without manual intervention
- Contact center: Intelligence queue management and case distribution functions help sort customers to the right sales rep for quicker response and resolution times
- Knowledge base: Create an interactive knowledge base for easy collaboration, file sharing, and quick search for commonly asked questions
Creatio pricing
- Plans start at $25/user/month
- Choose from three plans: Growth, Enterprise, and Unlimited
- Free demo available
monday CRM: A powerful platform for service businesses
When weighing different options for a CRM solution, consider your business’s current goals and look at how a CRM will help you achieve them. With a flexible and scalable platform like monday CRM, your business can continue to expand and evolve while your team continues to provide the same high-quality level of service your customers are used to.
monday CRM is an all-in-one platform that functions as a single source of truth for your team members. With monday CRM, your team can improve service and customer satisfaction levels while getting to know each customer better, leading to stronger client relationships, more retained customers, and sustainable long-term growth.
We’ve already looked at a few of the features that make monday CRM stand out for service-based businesses, but let’s look at a few more functionalities that make it the most suitable option for your company:
- Drag and drop interface that’s simple and intuitive to use for anyone of any technical background
- 200+ app integrations make it quick and easy to integrate your work tools and sync data in one single platform
- Access, manage, and update customer accounts from anywhere at any time with the monday.com mobile app
- Work collaboratively with real-time updates for comments on tasks, built-in communication tools, and automated notifications and alerts
- Build your own custom forms for customer intake, surveys, and customer feedback, and integrate the data into your workflows
- Robust reporting and analytics features allow teams to generate custom reports for deep insights into workflows and progress
- Hundreds of board templates make it easy and fast to get started with tracking and managing customer accounts
- AI-powered email composer and smart templates allow you to send out personalized communications in no time
- Manage billing and payments all in one place to keep track of settled and open accounts
Get started with the best CRM for service businesses
The CRM you choose should ultimately be the one your team will actually usefit your team. With high user review scores on sites like TrustRadius and G2, you can be sure that choosing monday CRM will help get your entire team on board with a platform they find easy to use. monday CRM is the best fit if you want a solution to track every customer, lead, and account while collecting all the data you need to make better business decisions that will help propel your team forward.
FAQs
What’s the difference between a sales CRM and a service CRM?
A sales CRM focuses on managing leads, sales pipelines, and revenue opportunities while a service CRM is more helpful for customer support, managing cases, and delivering great post-sales experiences.
How can a service CRM help improve customer retention?
A CRM helps teams track each customer interaction, noting their preferences and feedback so that they can personalize services and respond more proactively. This can help companies build stronger customer relationships and improve retention.
What’s the best CRM for service businesses?
The best CRM for a service business is the one that will fit your team’s unique requirements. Look for a CRM with all the features you need but that also offers opportunities for customizations and scaling, like monday CRM.