Best Customer Database Software
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PRODUCTS
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BUYER'S GUIDE
Buyer's Guide
By Payal Tikait, Technical Content Writer at SelectHub
Customer database software, a part of CRM software systems, collates information in a centralized location to boost client communications, scale marketing efforts, improve operational efficiency and increase revenue. Customer data helps create account profiles, buyer personas, customer journey maps, sales funnels and more.
It uncovers customers’ choices and preferences, decision-making factors, barriers and bottlenecks, opportunities and more.
Executive Summary
- Customer database software organizes and maintains customer information.
- Contact management, reports, dashboards and mobility are the solution’s key features.
- The user interface, security, scalability and integration are factors to consider while selecting a solution.
What Is Customer Database Software?
Customer database software is a tool that stores and manages large volumes of customer data, including contact information, demographics, preferences, purchase history, feedback, service tickets, payment modes, membership and more. It provides quick access to information to ensure operational efficiency and maintain seamless relationships.
It allows you to:
- Accelerate sales pipelines.
- Provide leads with offers.
- Segment customers.
- Personalize campaigns and messages.
- Extend customer support.
Primary Benefits
Let’s look at the key benefits of customer database software:
- Chatbot
- Computer Inventory
- Contact Management
- CRM Insurance
- CRM
- Customer Service
- Email Ticketing Systems
- Help Desk
- Help Desk Software For Schools
- Issue Tracking
- Knowledge Base
- Lead Management
- Live Chat
- Marketing Analytics Software Tools
- Remote Desktop
- Retail CRM
- Sales Force Automation
- Service Request
- Ticketing
- Understand Customer Preferences: Understanding customers’ needs, preferences and behavior help you curate effective products and services. It also lets you develop robust marketing strategies and communication techniques to boost customer satisfaction while increasing revenue.
- Boost Retention: Implement specific strategies and initiatives to reach the target audience. Fetch customer browsing history and communication details to facilitate interactions during crucial phases of the sales cycle. It leads to repeat purchases, forges long-term relationships and increases customer retention.
- Offer Better Service: Monitor customers’ activities to anticipate needs. Analyze their satisfaction with products and services while tracking your responses to inquiries and feedback. Address questions and concerns immediately for excellent customer service.
- Gain Customer Loyalty: Segment and identify lucrative customers based on their purchase patterns. Send discount coupons and offers to encourage repeat purchases while they spread positive word of mouth.
- Foster Communication: Record and gauge customer interactions throughout the buying cycle. Ensure consistency in all your communication to encourage a sense of trust and integrity.
Key Features & Functionality
Contact Management | Store customer contact information in a centralized location. Obtain a complete picture of customer conversations throughout the sales cycle. Resolve queries and address concerns quickly. |
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Deal Management | Track, monitor and prioritize deals in the pipeline. Focus on those with higher chances of closure. Leverage advanced filters and sort functions to find deals based on specific criteria for driving quick actions. |
Lead Management | Segregate quality leads from the incoming pool and nurture them for faster conversion by assigning specific scores. Create workflow rules for allocating leads to sales reps based on geography, product or department. |
Dashboards and Reports | View metrics such as the number of deals in the pipeline, conversions, email clickthrough rates, form completion and more. Track sales reports by month, week or day and view how they compare to previous periods. |
Mobility | Stay in touch with leads, log and access critical information, track KPIs and make data-driven decisions on the go. Manage schedule, track sales visits, share insights and monitor customer communication from a single interface. |
Software Comparison Strategy
Consider the following factors while selecting a customer database software:
- User Interface: How intuitive is the interface for different users, be they marketing professionals, database managers or IT executives? Many systems offer drag-and-drop capabilities for feeding customer information and creating workflow rules to facilitate ease of use and efficiency.
- Visualizations and Reports: Create intuitive data visualizations to display key customer metrics. Ensure the dashboards are customizable to modify/create metrics as the need arises. Your team should be able to log in and view KPIs on easy-to-understand charts and graphs and collaborate on insights.
- Security: Ensure the system employs robust security measures and protocols to protect business-sensitive data from unauthorized access.
- Scalability: Your data storage needs might not be huge right now, but they’ll increase with time. You will likely store and update the database frequently as your clientele grow. The system should be scalable to accommodate dynamic business requirements.
- Integration: Does the solution integrate with email marketing and help desk software? Make sure it offers integrations with relevant modules to boost productivity and efficiency.
Cost & Pricing Considerations
Common pricing models include:
- Monthly: It’s for cloud-based systems with fixed pricing schemes. You should pay a monthly fee to use the product. Most customers opt for yearly subscriptions rather than monthly payments to save money.
- Annual: Some providers offer annual licenses, which users pay for at the year's onset. The major drawback is that you pay a year in advance, and if you choose to go for another vendor during the year, you will lose money. But if you stick with one provider, you will save money in the long run.
- Single-payment: Some vendors offer a lifetime license that transfers the onus of updating and maintaining the system to the user. It’s an affordable option for large enterprises compared to monthly or annual payments for premium suites. The cost comes down to several dollars depending on your desired functionalities and the company size.
The Most Popular Customer Database Software
Let’s look at popular customer database software.
Pipedrive
Store customer contact information, emails and communication history at a centralized location. See where your contacts stay with Google Maps integration and filter them by city, state or country. Use a contact timeline, a visual representation of activities with your contacts, to follow up.
Send and receive emails to engage prospects. Manage and sign quotes, proposals and contracts to close deals quickly.
Manage and optimize the sales pipeline.
Salesforce Sales Cloud
Store critical information, including key contacts, communication history and more, to get a complete picture of customers. Use social listening to understand customers' views and feedback about products and services. Discover valuable insights into customer problems and issues while providing relevant solutions.
Configure an automatic lead scoring system to ensure sales reps follow up on lucrative leads. Track campaigns across all channels to make data-driven decisions. Leverage drag-and-drop abilities, filters and groupings to get a real-time view of metrics.
Track all customer communications from a single interface.
Zoho CRM
View a complete picture of all customer conversations from a single interface. Respond to Twitter threads, engage website visitors through live chat, call leads and manage all communications within the solution. Respond to queries instantly to provide a seamless experience.
Focus on deals that have higher chances of closure. Customize sales processes by creating different pipelines. Create comprehensive reports about closing deals, daily revenue, sales stages and more.
Create in-depth reports to view critical metrics.
Questions To Ask
Use these questions as a starting point for internal conversations:
- Who will use the system?
- What capabilities do you need to accomplish business objectives?
- Will you need to integrate your system with other solutions?
- What is your budget?
- Do you need a scalable solution?
Use these questions as a starting point for conversations with vendors:
- How intuitive is the user interface – navigation, screen layout, accessibility, hierarchies?
- What support type do you provide?
- Do you offer training to support user adoption?
- How often do you release updates and enhancements?
- What security protocols do you employ to prevent unauthorized access?
In Conclusion
Selecting a customer database software that allows you to follow up on lucrative leads and build seamless customer relationships is critical. The right solution offers you countless opportunities and benefits, so it’s important to select exactly what you need. This guide serves as a robust repository to start with the software selection process.
Product Comparisons
- Zoho vs. Salesforce vs. Act: Which CRM is the winner?
- Pipedrive vs Zoho CRM
- Pipedrive vs Salesforce Sales Cloud
Additional Resources
Products found for Customer Database Software
Pipedrive
Pipedrive supports sales professionals in managing every phase of the sales process, from lead generation to customer contact. Forecasting enables sales reps to close more deals, and visual pipelines clarify what stage a lead is in and what action is required. Users can simplify and streamline tasks with automation and AI capabilities. It offers integrations and an open API, so companies can plug in third-party apps to further extend its capabilities.
Salesforce Sales Cloud
Suitable for companies of any size, Salesforce Sales Cloud delivers sales and customer service capabilities for both the B2B and B2C domains. It helps businesses work more efficiently, easily surface key metrics and share business data via integration. Capabilities include real-time tracking, visual workflows, forecasting, marketing tools and reports.Equipped with a mobile app for iOS and Android devices and deployed in the cloud, it enables unrestricted access so users can work from anywhere.
Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM enables an organization’s sales force to work more effectively and close more deals. It incorporates lead management, marketing automation, contact management, multichannel forecasting, territory management, and a host of other capabilities.Built with conversational AI, it supports users by predicting lead and deal success, offering a voice assistant, and suggesting activities to automate based on behavior analysis. Users can leverage workflow automation to streamline manual tasks and stay on top of performance with real-time reporting and analytics.
Dynamics 365 CRM
Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM (formerly known as Microsoft Dynamics CRM) offers a suite of customer-focused capabilities to facilitate marketing, sales and customer service activities. Organizations can implement the products separately for specific business cases or together for a unified ecosystem. Field service and project service automation can be included if desired. It includes social media features, an onboarding dashboard and APIs that support modifying campaign elements. Visual editors enable creating and deploying mobile and web apps without the need for code. It’s available both in the cloud and on-premise. Features like Power BI and PowerApps are included only in the cloud version.
Streak CRM
Streak CRM is built into Gmail, allowing users to manage common sales tasks directly from their inbox. It facilitates pipeline management so users can track leads, follow up, collaborate and close deals. Three different pricing tiers make it useful for both individuals who need basic functions and companies that require more advanced capabilities. In addition to managing a pipeline, users can also leverage it to manage projects, foster business relationships, run fundraisers, provide customer support and execute other projects that require tracking details.
Insightly
Insightly is a cloud-based platform with tools that support every phase of the customer lifecycle. The solution’s capabilities allow organizations to accomplish sales activities, nurture customer relationships and manage projects to deliver on customer orders. The software is best suited for small businesses, although several larger companies have had success with the product as well.
HubSpot CRM
HubSpot CRM provides a full suite of capabilities that aid smart teamwork and allow companies to track, organize and close sales seamlessly. It’s entirely free of charge and provides automated contact management, customized tracking and reporting.App marketplace integrations let users expand performance capability based on their needs to achieve optimum business growth. Additionally, users can increase traffic, generate revenue, connect and manage leads all from one panel. The option to connect with the marketing, sales, service and CMS hubs allows companies to receive even greater functionality.
Infusionsoft
Infusionsoft by Keap is a comprehensive software platform designed to help small businesses save time and grow revenue. Rated as a top sales product for SMBs in 2019, this vendor brings automation and organization to sales and marketing activities. The available toolkit allows small businesses to gain extensive control over their efforts to help form personal, lasting connections with their customers. This product is suitable for individual business owners or small teams looking to scale and handle an increasing task load. The implementation includes a required kickstart package (available in three different price tiers) that helps users get set up with the program and positions them for success.
Freshsales
Freshsales is a cloud solution suitable for small and medium businesses across different industry verticals. Being one of the sales management and customer engagement offerings from Freshworks, it provides comprehensive features for managing leads and deals. Capabilities include a chronological timeline view of customer journey, AI-based lead scoring, built-in one-click phone, and native mobile apps for Android and iOS devices.
Spiro
Spiro employs native AI capabilities to help companies proactively manage leads and customers. It can be leveraged for common tasks like lead management and activity tracking, as well as more advanced functions such as sales enablement and analytics.It helps evaluate sales data and assists sales teams by sending reminders to update contacts, change pipeline status, correct inconsistencies and more.
Agile CRM
Agile CRM is an all-in-one cloud platform that enables companies to handle all activities and tasks across the customer lifecycle. With integrated modules for marketing, sales and service, it provides capabilities such as contact management, a deal pipeline, lead scoring, project management, email marketing and campaigns, service automation, and live chat.Targeted primarily at small businesses, it allows users to maintain visibility into contacts, boost results with sales enablement, engage web users and deliver comprehensive support. Free and premium versions are available.
Bloomerang
Bloomerang is a complete system allowing nonprofit organizations to manage donor relationships, events and fundraising. Its emphasis on donor engagement and retention supports company growth.Capabilities include email marketing, online giving, grant tracking, donor surveys, data segmentation, dashboards, reporting and prospect research. Deployment via Amazon Cloud Services provides security and scalability. It’s available to both U.S. and Canadian organizations.
Bitrix24
Bitrix24 facilitates the execution of the customer journey. It supplies organizations with tools for marketing, sales and customer service activities such as lead generation, marketing automation, campaign management and call center support.It comes with a free edition for companies with less advanced needs or a smaller budget. Deployment is available in the cloud and on-premise. It’s suitable for smaller businesses as well as enterprises with up to 50,000 employees.
Top Producer
Top Producer offers a set of cloud-based solutions tailored for the real estate industry, enabling brokers and agents to be more effective with their marketing and sales efforts. A tiered pricing model provides flexibility based on an agency’s needs.It’s mainly used by small businesses but can support larger companies as well. Capabilities include a client database, contact profiles, website builder, lead generation, automated email marketing, reports, lead management and integrations.
Less Annoying CRM
Less Annoying CRM is designed to help small businesses make it simple and efficient to handle activities surrounding leads and customers. It gives companies an easy-to-use, cloud-based platform for storing contacts, tracking leads and managing tasks to help close more deals.
Sugar Sell
Sugar Sell, formerly SugarCRM, is a sales automation solution suitable for small, medium and large businesses. It offers contact, call and email management, dashboards, reporting, integrations, customer journey management, sales forecasting, and business process management (BPM) capabilities.It consolidates customer data into a central location for sales professionals to gain visibility into the conversations, actions and emails related to each contact or account. Cloud deployment is available, and on-premise deployment comes with the Sugar Enterprise edition.
Nimble CRM
Nimble is a one-stop solution for managing and organizing contacts, setting reminders, building and maintaining relationships, finding opportunities, and meeting goals. It provides complete information on the customer's history and their deal status. Users can set up a structured to-do list for teams.It allows users to engage and interact with prospects and customers on a personalized level, enabling them to stay connected across the entire customer journey.
LionDesk
LionDesk delivers cloud-based marketing and sales tools tailored to professionals in the real estate industry. Suitable for individuals, teams and brokerages, it provides a single place to manage client relationships.It helps import leads from other sources, organize information, manage processes, connect with clients, boost closed deals and track tasks. Capabilities include contact management, property management, video emails and texts, pipeline management, automation, and marketing campaigns.
Nutshell CRM
Nutshell is a cloud-based platform that helps organize operations and reporting processes. It provides customization options that can cater to specific industry needs. The user-friendly interface allows users to make changes and adapt quickly irrespective of technical skill. Features include contact management, email campaigns, a mobile app, pipelines and unlimited storage.
kvCORE
Designed for the real estate industry, kvCORE is a cloud-based, all-in-one platform equipped with smart relationship management, a lead engine, web and IDX, transactions, listings, a marketing autopilot feature and business analytics. It allows users to generate leads from different sources and shortlist them. The K+Team offering provides lead acquisition and relationship management features that help drive business.
DonorPerfect
DonorPerfect is a comprehensive fundraising solution that helps non-profits nurture donor relationships. It helps manage donations, receipts, contacts, emails and fundraising initiatives from a single system. Capabilities include integrated online donation forms, automatic monthly giving, standard and custom reports, auction management, Constant Contact email and a network of integrated partner products. It helps save time and offers pricing packages to meet any budget.
ZoomInfo
ZoomInfo provides a detailed contact directory for simplified marketing outreach. It supports lead generation, sales management and revenue tracking, and helps improve productivity by systematizing work. Users can leverage analytics and prioritize marketing efforts, sales prospects and align teams for effective outcomes. The ability to locate and align required contacts from desired domains reduces anonymity rates. Data-driven, it helps businesses make insightful strategies, connect with the right audience, boost business growth and provide custom solutions.
ClientLook
ClientLook is a cloud-based solution that helps users by combining contact management, deal tracking and client collaboration with a property module to organize real estate operations. Other key features include pipeline tracking, email marketing and listing management. It also helps back-office assistants with data entry, online lead capture and listing administration, along with an option to leverage a free team of virtual assistants to save time and operational costs. It was acquired by Lightbox in January 2020.
Act! CRM
Act! is a contact and client management tool built by Swiftpage that helps manage a central repository of information related to prospects, leads, opportunities and clients. It stores contact details, account history, interactions, notes and activities.Available both on-premise and with cloud hosting, it offers sales and marketing automation to support business growth through sales, engagement and retention.
Vtiger
Vtiger is a cloud-based suite of marketing, sales and help desk offerings, which can be deployed separately or as an integrated, all-in-one ecosystem. It enables companies to eliminate silos and improve connections with customers.Though designed to serve small and mid-sized businesses, it’s capable of handling the needs of Fortune 500 organizations. It’s accessible on Android and iOS devices, enabling work from anywhere.
GreenRope
GreenRope, a cloud-based CRM software, consolidates and optimizes email marketing, social media, sales, event and project management simultaneously. It bridges the gap between sales and marketing to make data and processes easily accessible and transparent. Its all-in-one operations modules simplify business processes to deliver optimized omnichannel customer experiences.
Capsule CRM
Capsule CRM is a cloud-based solution for small to medium businesses. It helps foster customer relationships with features like email marketing, website personalization, social media service, automated reminders and more. Organizations can enter basic contact information, pipelines, goals and budgets and start building an in-depth, personalized pipeline with full access to customer details.
Copper CRM
Designed to integrate with Gmail and other Google Apps, Copper (formerly ProsperWorks) is a comprehensive and easy-to-use platform. It helps small and medium-sized businesses automate core operations; manage leads, sources and opportunities; streamline sales processes; uncover actionable insights; and nurture customer relationships. It enables users to check email threads and past interactions. It also acts as an alternative for goal setting and forecast management, as it converts sales bottlenecks into visible opportunities.
Follow Up Boss
Follow Up Boss is a cloud-based software suite that helps users automate real estate lead conversion and sales follow up. Its inclusions let users close more deals and grow their business in an organized manner. It aggregates leads from various sources and automates workflows and communication using rule-based engines and pre-formatted templates to support the entire customer lifecycle.
GoldMine
Suitable for businesses of all sizes, GoldMine Premium CRM offers a central platform to manage customer and prospect relationships efficiently. It ensures improved productivity and streamlined operations, and helps save money. Users can leverage it for contact management and customer support. They can also manage marketing programs and sales pipelines. A database is available at several tiered levels for organizations with different requirements. Capabilities include sales automation, a help desk and call center and CTI applications, along with enhanced features like easy-to-use interface, marketing automation, web self-service, channel management, knowledge management and analytics.
Siebel
Siebel CRM supports marketing, sales, service and other key areas of customer interaction via a suite of more than 35 products. It helps businesses of all sizes enhance customer experiences and automate processes. Implement as many or as few of the individual modules as desired for a highly flexible environment.
Realvolve
Designed to help real estate agents and teams, Realvolve’s cloud-based platform helps automate workflows and handle communications efficiently. It helps manage information such as property listings, clients, documents, escrow correspondence, events and tasks. Users can leverage it to customize marketing campaigns for clients on anniversaries and birthdays based on personal and professional details. It also allows sending emails and SMSs about new deals.
HoneyBook
Designed for entrepreneurs and small business owners, HoneyBook helps simplify business processes. It lets users manage projects, book clients and accept payments through a comprehensive platform. Users can automate workflows, create contracts, invoices and proposals, and manage contact forms and leads to save time and money. It offers a free trial.
Redtail CRM
Redtail CRM is a web-based system that enables financial professionals to manage prospects and clients. It helps track client data, automate time-consuming tasks, organize records and more. Capabilities include contact management, email, reports, seminar management and integrations.
Neon CRM
Neon CRM is a cloud-based solution built by Neon One that helps nonprofit organizations streamline day to day processes for more efficiency and manage fundraising events, memberships and volunteers through automation. Users can leverage it to build nonprofit websites while facilitating real-time credit card processing and recurring payments. These inclusions help enhance online donations while reducing manual work.
PipelineDeals
Designed to serve small and midsize businesses, PipelineDeals is equipped with sales-focused features, enabling sales teams to automate redundant tasks and nurture relationships with customers. With an intuitive user interface, it helps set up scalable processes, resulting in improved productivity and increased profitability. Deal management and sales acceleration tools expedite the sales cycle, and help set and track targets. A sales dashboard offers a 360-degree view of performance status, while lead management capabilities help streamline lead generation and nurturing. Customizations ensure enhanced experience and expanded functionality.
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