CRM for construction means much more than keeping track of customers and personalizing the sales experience. Evaluating the value to their customers is another way how CRM can help construction businesses.
The competitive nature of the construction industry brings the need to stand out among competitors. Moreover, especially after the last couple of years, with the impact of the pandemic, the new world order requires them to bring operations into an online state.
So, for those who seek to make a difference in their construction companies, CRM services are the best option.
What Does CRM Stand For in Construction?
As in other fields, CRM for construction stands for managing customer relationships. CRM is an online tool to keep all essential information and details for each customer. It allows the professionals to collect all the relevant data about their customers in one portal where everyone from their institution can have access and add, remove, or update the data.
Trust and customer relationships for the construction businesses mean a lot. They are even the core of their business models.
The customers decide to work with a construction company or not depending on:
- How trustable the construction company is
- How much customer care do they receive
- What previous projects they have had with the client and
- Whether the company has the full knowledge of customers’ past preferences.
It would not be impactful enough to use Excel or similar, more straightforward tools to collect all the data in a pool and make it accessible to all employees.
Instead, a fully-functional CRM for the construction industry would be the ideal solution.
What Are the Benefits of CRM Tools for the Construction Industry?
There are plenty of benefits of CRM tools for most industries. However, unlike most other businesses, the sales process is in three main stages for the construction.
The contractors’ reputation becomes leads; leads bring sales opportunities, and after proposals and the bids finally result in projects.
Some of the benefits of using a construction-centric CRM could be:
More Improved Data
CRM for construction enterprises offers more improved data for the customers or potential customers. CRM tools provide well-supported, detailed data to be entered and followed by contractors. Unlike traditional methods, CRM for small construction businesses and CRM for contractors allows them to follow up on the entire customer preferences and customer history.
Time Efficiency
CRM for small construction companies tracks the time and effort spent on each project, goal, or task. Using a CRM for construction can help businesses track the time spent in the process of selling a project. It allows calculating the time and effort, allowing them to decide how profitable to approach a client in that specific way. Eventually, CRM will enable them to grow their business for possible prospects.
Optimized Communication
CRM allows the contractors to meet their customers on time to close deals. Thanks to using a CRM tool, construction companies can see the customer contact data and contact them immediately. It could be via a phone call or their social media channels. It reduces the time spent finding their communication means by collecting all means of communication in a centralized platform.
How to Choose the Right CRM for Construction Industry?
Considering the benefits of using CRM, construction companies may struggle to find the best possible one. There are many CRM products offered in the market. So how can a construction industry business choose the right product for them?
You can start sorting them out by making priorities in CRM features.
Market Popularity
No matter how classical it may sound, market popularity and recognition of a CRM could be the most critical aspect when deciding the best for a company. CRM construction reviews will tell a lot about a product when checked with your needs for your business.
Function
A CRM tool meant to help and grow companies in the construction industry should offer a CRM platform designed to have suitable functionalities. In addition, the right CRM tool for the business should provide specific features for contractors.
A well-known CRM product could have many features, and many successful businesses could use it from various industries. Still, this alone should not necessarily mean it would be the best choice for the construction.
Cost
Commonly, the cost of a product may indicate its quality of it. However, it is not always the case. For example, the best CRM for your construction business could be expensive or ridiculously inexpensive. Therefore, even though considering the cost is always a good idea, it should not be the most prominent decision-maker when choosing the best CRM for your business.
Best CRM Tools for the Construction Industry
CRM tools have a wide variety of choices. Some of them could apply to different areas, while some are tailored for specific industries.
Here are some of the best tools for construction;
- Copper
- Pipedrive
- HubSpot CRM
- Zoho CRM
- monday.com
- Archdesk
Copper CRM
Copper is a San Francisco-based CRM software company with millions of users worldwide.
The software offers CRM solutions to technology companies, real estate agencies, consulting firms, corporate development companies, and real estate businesses. Construction business people especially prefer them for their experience in the field.
What they offer for the construction business is that no matter how big or small your business is, you will be able to chase the projects and the contracts having little chance to win and follow up the ones that are about to fail because they lack information.
Pipedrive
After many years of experience working with different companies, the founders of Pipedrive saw the gap in the CRM market and decided to create their own tool to put the needs of the salespeople first.
Pipedrive was created based on an approach to scheduling, completing, and tracking the activities of businesses.
They work with various industries, from education to real estate and construction. As a result, they have customized tools and functions for different sectors, including building, which is why many contractors choose to use their CRM platform.
HubSpot CRM
Founded by two MIT graduates, HubSpot CRM aims to help customers instead of being bothered by the marketing and the salespeople.
They noticed the change in how customers ignore or decide to buy a product. So their tool is developed to help businesses have a healthy relationship with their potential or existing clients.
HubSpot offers many features, from pipeline management tools to marketing analysis. Some of its functions are offered for free for everyone. They also provide many valuable tools and components for the construction industry.
Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is an improving CRM company whose motto is ‘CRM for every business, every industry.’
They are not specifying their tools and services to limited industries, but they offer CRM solutions to all businesses out in the market. Zoho CRM is mostly known for its being very straightforward to use. This strain is actually why some smaller business owners prefer to use it so that the employees won’t have a hard time learning it.
It is easy to use and navigate, allowing any employee or business owner to use it daily.
monday.com
Monday.com is a CRM solutions company operating on four continents. Its results-driven approach helps them grow their customers’ businesses and get excellent results.
Their website is localized in several languages, and they have a specific product for construction only.
They allow construction professionals to share documents, real-time updates, mobile functions, and progression reporting. They also help in other industries, although they have specific functions for contractors.
Archdesk
What Archdesk offers to its customers is to plan each project stage in detail and keep track of its budget and progress in one place.
It also offers lead customization, and they are very confident that Archdesk software is easily customized for specific needs. It offers a significant range of functionalities and solutions.
On top of its basic features, it also lets the industries have a sub-contractor management tool that allows businesses to store essential information and the project history of the sub-contractors.
What Problem Does CRM Solve for Small Construction Businesses?
In a world where cloud-based systems are gaining more and more demand and fame every single day, CRM offers numerous benefits and solutions for all types of businesses. As for small construction businesses, the right choice of CRM software could be a kick-starter to growing into a more significant business.
CRM construction, meaning for a small contractor, could be a life-changing opportunity because it will help them gather every detail in one place to get the best leads and the projects.
Especially for small construction businesses where not many employees work, CRM offers a centralized pool of information, and the signs progress to be tracked and collaborated with the team members. Using CRM software minimizes the risk of missing a piece of important information about a prospective customer.
CRM functions are essential to smaller firms because it helps the employees save time and work with total capacity without having to deal with the issues. After all, the software already provides them with the customized assistance they need.
