[CONTACT] customer management

Not everything needs Salesforce

Customer records built around your data and the way you work.

What CRM Means to Us

CRM is about knowing who you are dealing with and why: who they are, what they bought or asked for, who spoke to them last and what happens next. In a lot of small businesses that knowledge lives in an inbox, a spreadsheet and somebody’s head, which works until that person is on holiday.

Big CRM platforms can do all of this, but they charge per user, per month, for features you will never open, and ask you to change how you work to suit them. A focused system built for you does the few things you need, the way you already do them.

Left: one made-up customer's details scattered across a spreadsheet, an inbox and a colleague's memory, with that colleague on holiday. Right: one record answering who they are, what they bought, who spoke last and what happens next.
A made-up example.

Typical CRM Features

[01]
Contact records

People and organisations, linked properly.

[02]
Search and segmentation

Find everyone who bought X last spring.

[03]
Notes and history

Every call, email and job in one timeline.

[04]
Communication tracking

Who said what, and when.

[05]
Integration with email and SMS

Send from the record, and log it automatically.

Focused systems outperform bloated platforms.

An Example

We built Contact Carers, a contact management database and reporting system for carer charities and organisations (see our portfolio). It stores contact details and contact history, gives an administrator a carer’s case history at a glance from a laptop or a phone, and produces the reports and figures needed for funding applications.

A made-up carer's case history on a laptop, the same record on a phone, and a small report of contacts by type for funding applications, as in the Contact Carers example.
A made-up example, drawn from Contact Carers.

Who It Suits and What It Costs

Businesses that have outgrown a spreadsheet of customers, or pay for a large platform and only use a corner of it. Quoted on what it needs to do; we usually start with the one part that would help most and build from there. You get the price before we start. Systems like this run on our Professional or bespoke hosting.

Common Questions

Can you bring in our existing data?

Yes. Spreadsheets, old databases and exports from other systems can usually be cleaned and imported.

Is a bespoke CRM more expensive than a subscription?

Up front, usually. Over a few years, often not, especially with several users. We can set out the numbers so you can compare them.

Can it connect to our email and website?

Yes. Website enquiries can land as records, and emails can be logged against the right person.

Describe the contacts you manage.

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