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Top 3 CRM systems for small businesses in the UK

Published on 31/10/2022 Written by Sukanya Awasthi.

Choosing the right CRM or customer relationship management software can enable business owners to conveniently keep track of all correspondence and develop connections with their prospects and customers. This article presents a list of top CRM software in the UK for small businesses.

There are many benefits of CRM software which businesses can use to build a relationship with existing and potential customers

Keeping track of your interactions with customers or potential customers (leads) using spreadsheets and registers can quickly get tiresome. Depending on their business needs and desired results, small to mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) may choose the right CRM system for their small business on the basis of various factors like cost-effectiveness, functionality, usability, or scalability. The top CRM software programmes link with practically every facet of your company, assisting you in keeping track of client contacts, streamlining procedures, and boosting sales, along with many other benefits of CRM software.

What is CRM software?

CRM solutions enable businesses to manage consumer relationships throughout the customer journey—from the initial point of contact through the moment at which a decision to buy is made and all the way through the post-purchase period.

Businesses looking for a CRM system need to take a number of factors into account when making their choice. These factors include the size of the company, the need for remote and mobile access, preferred level of customer engagement, technical proficiency of the staff, and the degree of interoperability between the CRM software and other essential software programmes.

This article offers a curated list of the top three CRM software SMEs can use to build customer relationships. The tools are listed in alphabetical order. The following criteria guided our selection of these software (the detailed methodology is at the end of the article):

  1. Have an overall rating of at least 4.5/5 stars by users
  2. Have at least 30 user reviews between October 2020 and October 2022
  3. Meet the market definition of customer relationship management software
  4. Are either headquartered in the UK or have a local domain

1. Capsule

A sales pipeline shows how prospective customers are followed as they go through the various phases of the sales process.
Capsule’s Sales Pipeline feature, where users can see the overview of various sales aspects. [Source: Software Advice]
  • Overall rating – 4.5/5
  • Value for money – 4.6/5
  • Functionality – 4.3/5
  • Ease of use – 4.6/5
  • Customer support- 4.5/5

Capsule is a cloud-based CRM that enables SMEs to keep track of the individuals and companies, as well as their interactions in the sales funnel. Using Capsule’s sales pipeline, users can view a list of all sales prospects, together with their value and which stage they are inside the pipeline. In the pipeline dashboard, users can view forecasts, conversion rates, and sales pipeline milestones. Additionally, Capsule offers a ticket management feature to aid staff in responding to customer service issues.

Users can view various types of reports in Capsule, like sales analytics, activity reporting, and advanced sales report. All these reports can be exported and filtered on the basis of time periods, prospects, users or teams. The CRM allows users to search the contacts to find any text or phrase within notes, emails or any other place. Moreover, users can also attach relevant documents to the CRM, add the social network profiles of contact, and import contacts to Capture from a spreadsheet, CSV and more. The CRM also offers various third-party integrations and more information on their pricing can be found on their website.

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2.

Campaign overview can help businesses to get a consolidated view of the current and past campaigns.
Gold Vision’s module shows the overview of campaigns along with sales forecasts. [Source: Software Advice]
  • Overall rating – 4.7/5
  • Value for money – 4.5/5
  • Functionality – 4.5/5
  • Ease of use – 4.5/5
  • Customer support- 4.8/5

Gold-Vision CRM is a CRM with features like sales automation, customisable dashboards and lead & pipeline management, among other features. Using Gold Vision, users can customise their dashboards to add the widgets they require the most and use frequently. Moreover, users can also customise the menu option to create their own icons for a better CRM navigation experience. Using this CRM’s contact management, users can manage contact accounts, attach specific tasks with contacts, and track interaction with the contacts.

Lead management and scoring are included in the sales features, wherein leads are automatically assessed depending on consumer interest. Additionally, users may check integrated website metrics and select pre-defined scores. Other features include consolidated prospect and customer data storage that is accessible from a desktop or mobile devices. The tool also offers marketing automation which can analyse sales and marketing data to send targeted campaigns. Other features offered by Gold Vision CRM include sales forecasting, touchpoint scoring, appointment scheduling etc. The CRM offers various third-party integrations and more information on the pricing plan is available on their website. 

3.

Sales dashboard gives an overview of various sales aspects like expenses, timeline, lead-source etc.
OpenCRM’s sales dashboard may help businesses keep track of sales metrics [Source: Software Advice]
  • Overall rating – 4.7/5
  • Value for money – 4.8/5
  • Functionality – 4.6/5
  • Ease of use – 4.6/5
  • Customer support – 4.9/5

OpenCRM is a cloud-based CRM which can run on desktop, mobile devices and tablets. This tool allows businesses to keep track of numbers using digital analytics, manage marketing campaigns and use the reporting and dashboard feature to get an overview of the contacts. Moreover, a dedicated team of consultants offers virtual training to new users to make understanding the software easier for them. Moreover, OpenCRM can also help businesses in managing operational tasks relating to helpdesk, sales, inventories, contacts, and email marketing. 

There are many CRM applications offered by this tool that can be used by businesses to manage task statuses and time spent on them, as well as to report on the team’s progress on various projects. Individual job views can be created by managers who can also delegate responsibilities to workers. OpenCRM, keep users up-to-date with to-dos and provides insight into events on the calendar. Moreover, OpenCRM comes with an automatic emailing feature that enables sales teams to plan communications with their contacts and leads in advance. The tool offers third-party integrations and more information on their pricing plan can be found on their website. 

Looking for CRM software? Check out our catalogue!

Methodology

  • To select the tools for this list, we identified the top products for “CRM software”, which have their headquarters in the UK.
  • The shortlisted products were then assessed against the market definition of CRM software: customer relationship management (CRM) software is a tool that enables businesses to track customer interactions and manage relationships throughout the entire lifecycle from a single, centralised platform. CRM tools are designed to deal with customer support issues, manage leads and the sales pipeline, and oversee long-term relationships with past, current, and potential customers. CRM systems can help integrate marketing, sales and customer service departments, ensuring that organisational processes are coherent and well-aligned. Typical features of CRM platforms include document storage, lead management, communication tracking, calendar coordination, and social media integration. CRM software is related to Contract Management software and Online CRM software.
  • All the above software have the following core features: contact management, interaction tracking, and lead qualification. 
  • Besides that, the tools were further checked against the following criteria:  average overall ratings above 4.5/5 stars, minimum 30 user reviews over the past two years (October 2020 – October 2022), tools either having headquarters in the UK or a local version/local domain specific to the UK.
  • Out of our resultant list, we selected the top three tools with the highest user reviews in the last two years.

This article may refer to products, programs or services that are not available in your country, or that may be restricted under the laws or regulations of your country. We suggest that you consult the software provider directly for information regarding product availability and compliance with local laws.

About the author

Sukanya is a Content Analyst for the UK and India market. Committed to offering insights on technology, emerging trends and software suggestions to SMEs. Café hopper and a dog mom.

Sukanya is a Content Analyst for the UK and India market. Committed to offering insights on technology, emerging trends and software suggestions to SMEs. Café hopper and a dog mom.