Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a complex process for a business. The cash flow may or may not be robust, but customer data always flows in large quantities. Managing such large datasets can be tiring. And thus, choosing CRM software development can help you overcome the situation.
In this blog, we shall discover what CRM software solutions are, what they do, and how they benefit your business. So, let’s begin and unlock the secret behind higher productivity with the least effort.
Table of Contents
What is CRM Software Development?
CRM software development is a process of building a software solution to automate the tasks associated with the customer relationship management process.
In simple words, a CRM tool helps you store, organize, refine, and manage the large customer data that is the leads you get from different channels.
A CRM tool automates the following tasks for you-
- Lead Capture & Organization
Leads flow in from various channels to your DMs. Your business website, social media platforms, business listings profiles, Google Business Profiles (formerly Google My Business Profile), and many others.
A CRM tool captures all these scattered leads in one place and provides you with a comprehensive and well-organized contact list.
- Contact Management
All your business contacts, the new leads, hot leads, cold leads, existing customers, and prospects, all in one place. Manually noting the contact details can be messy and baffling.
Building a custom CRM saves you from such hassles. You can find all your contact details with their status on a single CRM tool.
- Content Marketing
Sending personalized emails and messages to leads and prospects becomes easy with a CRM tool. Shooting messages manually can be troubling for the sender. It takes hard work, repetitive creative writing, and time.
However, a modern CRM tool comes with a content marketing automation feature. It helps you get rid of repetitive personalized writing and sending messages.
- Sales Pipeline Management
With smart CRM software development, a business may find a tool that visualizes the whole sales pipeline from first contact to deal closure. The CRM tool tracks the entire lead journey, notifies and reminds users to take follow-ups, and also forecasts conversion possibilities. This way, a CRM tool becomes your best friend and business partner.
- Reporting & Analytics
By tracking leads, the CRM software collects crucial business data, and for ease of comprehension, its AI features can offer visualized reporting and analytics.
When large datasets are presented meaningfully in an organized way, consuming and internalizing data becomes easier for the decision makers. It speeds up the decision-making and problem-solving for the business.
- Real Time Lead Tracking
Customsied CRM also automates the overall lead tracking in real time. Rather than you, as a business owner or Business Development Manager, tracking the leads manually, the CRM tool keeps track of the calls, messages, chats, follow-ups, and the overall lead status.
Using automation for lead tracking can reduce the burden on management leaders and ensure better lead management.
- Demand Forecasting
Additionally, the CRM tool also tracks which products and services get more leads and more conversions. Eventually, it forecasts the demand for particular products and guides the owner to manage production and plan marketing campaigns accordingly.
This is how a CRM solution makes your overall sales management easy. Now, let’s discover the type of CRMs that you can choose for your business.
Choosing A CRM: Ready to Use Vs. Custom CRM Software
When it comes to integrating a CRM solution into a business, the owners have to choose between Custom CRM vs. Off-the-Shelf CRM
However, many businesses prefer ready-to-use or off-the-shelf CRM solutions over custom development these days.
Off-the-shelf CRM solutions are ready-to-use SaaS solutions that are just a subscription away. No installations, no months of waiting, just a quick fix solution for CRM.
Some leading examples include Salesforce, Zoho, Pipedrive, HubSpot CRM, MS Dynamics 365, Freshworks, and there are many more.
On the contrary, a customized CRM solution is fully made to order just for you. It has exclusive branding, UI UX, features, and functions tailored to your needs. So, which one should you choose? Let’s have a quick comparison:
| Basis of Comparison | Off-the-Shelf Software | Custom Software |
| Set-Up Time | Quick Set-UpHardly takes 20-30 Minutes | Can take up to 1 Hour for Installation |
| Set-Up Process | Very Simple | Simple |
| Memory Required for Set-Up | No device memory consumed | Needs device memory for installation |
| Installation Type | SaaS-basedSubscription Away | In-Device Installation required (if not Cloud-based) |
| Payment Frequency | Monthly, Quarterly, or Annual Subscription Plans.Repetitive Payments | One-time paymentNo recurring subscriptionsLifetime subscription-free |
| Cost | Expensive in the long run due to never-ending subscriptions | Expensive to buy, but lifetime free from subscriptions. |
| UI UX Customization | No UI UX customization | Unlimited UI UX customization |
| Feature & Function Customization | Customization is rigidOften expensive | Highly flexible in customization.Fully tailored to your software ideation. |
| Third-Party Integration (Like ERP or An API) | It might be complex, depending upon the provider | Simple and on-demand third-party integrations |
| Scalability Criteria & Level | Scalability is limited and requires additional costs. | Highly scalable at a nominal cost. |
| Data Privacy | Data sharing with the provider and third parties is required. | Full data privacy. Keep your business data close to your chest with end-to-end encryption. |
A business may refer to the table above and choose a CRM solution that best fits its requirements. Both ready-to-use and custom CRM systems have their own advantages and disadvantages.
However, for enterprise-grade businesses, developing a Custom CRM solution appears to be a better choice.
What Are the Benefits of CRM Solutions for A Business?
Whether ready-to-use or customized CRM solutions, automation in Customer Relationship Management through a software solution has varying benefits for a business.
In addition to enhancing its productivity, CRM automation helps a business in different ways. Let’s discuss the key benefits of building one by one:
#1 Simplified Large Data Management
As a CRM solution that stores all your contacts on a single dashboard, you get simplified data management. You can filter data based on its status, type, freshness, and more.
Eventually, CRM software simplifies large data management for you, freeing you from baffling large data chunks.
#2 100% Calculative Accuracy
To err is human, but to err is not a CRM tool! Powered with advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), CRM or any other software solutions accurately perform simple to the most complex calculations.
Like the calculator in your phone never errs. Such calculative accuracy further paves the way for another benefit-
#3 More Informed Decision Making
When you get 100% data accuracy, your sales teams make more informed decisions. A CRM tool helps a business visualize complex data into easily comprehensible reports.
When the team has highly refined data in hand, making informed decisions become easier.
#4 Easy Data Consumption & Representation
With a CRM too, consuming large contact and lead data becomes much easier. A smart custom CRM software development focuses on building efficient data handling, storage, manipulation, and representation features.
When large data chunks are represented in a presentable manner, they become more comprehensible.
#5 Predictive Analytics for Right Decision Making
These days, Machine Learning (ML) Integration encourages predictive analytics in a CRM tool. ML technologies help you predict and forecast the demand for all your products and services.
Eventually, when you have the direct customer data, planning production becomes more data-driven.
#6 Kicks Out Monotony
Absence of a right CRM tool makes you spend hours juggling between messy Excel spreadsheets. This brings monotony to your work schedule.
But a CRM software automates most of your monotonous manual tasks, making lead management less monotonous for you.
#7 Better Use of Human Resources
When the calculative and data manipulation tasks are automated, the human resources can focus on high-caliber tasks like problem solving and decision making. Eventually, you can allocate your human resources in a judicious manner.
#8 Transparency in Lead Management
When all your leads are unified in one portal and accessible on a single dashboard, it enhances the transparency in lead management.
When all the agents know the lead status, there is no duplication of efforts. Also, the tracking becomes super easy.
Top 4 Types of CRM for A Business
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is not only about lead management and sales funnel management. Rather, CRM also focuses on pre-sale and post-sale customer care and satisfaction. Eventually, based upon varying functions, a CRM may be categorized into 4 major categories:
#1 Operational CRM
An operational CRM aims at automating the daily business processes. Processes such as sales, marketing, customer service, relationship management, etc., can be automated with 10x higher speed and accuracy.
Certain repetitive tasks, such as contact management, tracking, follow-ups, content scheduling, emailing, etc., do not require manual labor anymore. Rather, they are now unmanned operations. An operational CRM helps a business automate these monotonous and low-caliber tasks so that the human resources may focus on high-caliber jobs such as strategy and decision-making.
#2 Analytical CRM
Data collection and analysis are crucial for strategy and planning in business. Recognizing behavioral patterns and forecasting demand used to take weeks earlier. But now the data analytics is a job of 1 day. Analytical CRMs are a tool for faster analytics and reporting.
An analytical CRM tool collects, stores, and manipulates crucial customer information and presents it in a comprehensible and consumable way. Graphical reports, pie-charts, and well-structured tables – that’s what an analytical CRM makes of scattered data.
#3 Collaborative CRM
As the name suggests, a collaborative CRM ensures transparent communication across various departments, including Sales, Marketing, and Customer Support (collaboration).
When all the major departments have access to a lead’s progress, business management becomes more effortless and accurate.
#4 Strategic CRM
Taking automation one level up, strategic CRM is more helpful for a business to track a customer’s lifetime value and design engagement, retention, and loyalty programs. This way, a strategic CRM ensures overall customer satisfaction through strategy making.
In spite of different types of CRMs available, a business may get all-in-one features and functions through custom CRM development.
However, it is best to consult a reliable Software Development and IT Consulting company first and share project requirements.
Based on the size, scale, and requirements, a company can recommend a better solution for a business.
AI in CRM Software Development: Leveling Up in 2025 & Beyond
These days, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has taken over all business software and mobile applications. When it comes to CRM, mere CRM development is not enough.
To match the pace of the fast-growing business and tech world, integrating an AI-powered CRM solution is a smarter choice. Here’s how AI makes your CRM solution more efficient:
#1 Customer Behavior Analysis
By analyzing the customer behavior, an AI-powered CRM solution can analyze consumer behavior and help a business identify behavioral patterns.
Consumer behavior data is a diamond mine for a business. Accessing such data so easily can help a business plan informed marketing and production strategies.
#2 Predictive Analytics & Demand Forecast
Based on the consumer behavior analysis, AI-powered CRMs also make the decision makers independent of forecasting and reporting.
A smart CRM can provide demand forecasts, and the decision makers can focus on data-driven production, manufacturing, and marketing strategies.
#3 Smart Chatbots for Handling Customer Queries
Repetitive customer queries now no longer require all-day working telecallers. Rather, smart AI assistants and chatbots can handle the customer queries and take the necessary actions on their own.
Eventually, businesses can entertain their customers 24×7 hours without operating on double shifts. Businesses can save time, effort, and cost simultaneously.
#4 Sentiment Analysis for Better Customer Handling
Through its Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities, AI can understand the sentiments of the customers while interacting with your business.
Based on this sentiment analysis, your CRM tool can help you handle their grievances better. When you have an understanding of their sentiments, you can draft more personalized and targeting messages and marketing copies for them.
#5 Voice Recognition for User-Friendly Experience
NLP can also make the customer experience better with a voice search feature. When customers can search by voice and report their complaints and inquiries through a voice message, without having to explain the situation in long messages and emails, your CRM instantly becomes more user-friendly than others.
Therefore, advanced custom CRM software development must be AI-driven with the most advanced features. This can lead to better automation, freeing you and your team from extreme hard work, which can further reduce human errors.
Features & Functions You Must Have In Your CRM Software
Now, you know almost everything about a CRM tool. So, let’s now list down some features you must plan in your CRM tool if going for custom development.
Based on the above discussion, we can highlight the following features as the most necessary and relevant for a smoother project management-
Core Modern Features
- Lead Management Dashboard – A modern CRM tool must compile all the relevant lead management information in a single dashboard. From lead capturing to lead scoring and deal closure, a CRM dashboard should offer everything on a single screen.
- Data Visualization – To understand the entire sales strategy at a glance, data visualization and analytics are crucial. Especially, sales pipeline visualization is an important highlight.
- Email & SMS Automation – Why invest the precious brains of marketing professionals into emailing and SMS sharing? Let the CRM tool handle it and allocate the marketing professionals to high-caliber tasks like market research and content development.
- Customer Support Module – No need to hire telecallers in bulk. Let the AI smart bots handle the customer queries effortlessly. You can offer 10x faster customer query resolution.
- Reporting & Analytics – Swimming into highly scattered data is old-fashioned and wastes time. Modern-age CRM development must focus on reporting and analytics features.
- Tracking, Monitoring & Reminder System – Automating follow-ups with a tracking and reminder system can help improve the efficiency of the customer support department by 20 times.
- AI-Based Forecasting Engine – Let the CRM tool analyze the customer behavior, track sales pipelines, and forecast the demand of a particular product and service for you. Plan better strategies, minimize production wastage.
Basic Additional Features
- Third-Party Integrations (API/ERP) – For better inter-department communication and transparency, a CRM tool must connect with the accounting, marketing, or ERP tools.
- Role-Based Access Control – For clear hierarchies and a responsibility guide, the CRM must have a role-based access control feature. This way, every individual understands the roles and responsibilities of everyone.
- Cloud Storage – These days, maintaining cloud storage instead of using heavy machinery and storage devices is seen as a better option to reduce hardware-related bottlenecks. So, make sure that the CRM has cloud storage for lead data.
- Data Encryption – Additionally, for high data security, it is better to choose end-to-end (E2E) encryption. Let the CRM development company know that you specifically need E2E encryption.
Custom CRM Software Development Cost Estimate
Now, let’s come to the most crucial part of this discussion – the cost to build a custom CRM software! See, the cost to develop CRM or any other software depends totally upon the overall project complexity.
The project complexity depends upon the level of customization, the technologies chosen, the features, and the functions you need in the CRM.
Eventually, an accurate cost estimation is not possible. However, on average, the starting cost may be USD 9,000 and go even higher with customization.
Wrapping Up
CRM software development is not just a fancy business tool; rather, it is a necessity to strengthen customer relationships and streamline business operations. Ready-to-use CRM or getting a custom CRM software for business, a CRM tool helps you experience ultimate business process automation. With AI-powered CRM tools, you can automate crucial tasks with 20x higher accuracy. The right CRM can help you increase your business productivity and glide through the sales pipeline more smoothly and effortlessly. So, invest in a reliable CRM tool today and unlock 100x higher efficiency.
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