A CRM system’s main purpose is to maintain a healthy and strong customer-business relationship. Most of the successful businesses have dedicated software to manage the customers’ relations. While there are many great options to choose from, should your business choose a free or paid CRM version to get your business on the right track? Basic CRMs do help to do most of the jobs, but most of the premium features will stay locked. But does your business need those paid features? In this article, we will explore the differences between the paid and free CRMs and whether or not a paid service has any benefits.
Free Vs Paid CRM Tools
Free CRM
Free CRM is cheap and is a great choice if you have a small business. You can start managing your leads without any issues with any free CRM will provide you all the features you need to get started.
If you are planning to go with a free CRM, you need to consider the following:
● Will the service provider agree on SLA (service level agreement) for managing uptime?
● How secure is your data? Do they have any privacy policies?
● Are they offering any discounts on their paid services?
● What is their renewal policy? How much is the price increase?
● Do paid features offer much more than what you are getting for free? If so, look for discounts and buy their premium services.
Paid CRMs
No Storage Restriction
Paid CRMs allow you to access most of the critical functions like social media integration, account management, analytics, monitoring, and contact management. But free CRMs restrict storage capacity which is not a problem in Paid CRMs. Free CRMs also have a limit on the number of users who are using the platform. Some CRMs also put a cap on the number of customers whose data will be processed by the CRM suite. The paid version unlocks all these caps.
Support for Add-Ons and Customization
Paid CRM systems come with support for additional add-ons and extended support. They also have wider access to the knowledge base. Paid CRMs also have the option to be customized and integrated as per your business requirements. A very good example is Hubspot. It has all the functionality you will need in a CRM and you only need to pay for the sales seats.
Access to More Features
Apart from the usual add-ons and customization, the paid version offers more flexibility and provides wider access to a unified database all over the organization. It may cost more for the managers to be able to coordinate their teams and bring them on the same page. For example, providing access to customer data to the sales, support, and marketing team may cost extra. The teams can then have a shared inbox and have visibility of all the reports.
Conclusion
Whether a CRM system is free or paid, you have got to first figure out what kind of business you are running and what you want out of a CRM. If you have a small business, then paid services may be overkill. If, however, you have a comparatively large business, you may have to buy paid services that will pay in the long run. Consult here for CRM solutions in Manchester if you want to deploy a CRM for your business.
