Trying to find a CRM that’s simple enough to use daily without feeling like another task to manage. A lot of tools I’ve looked at seem powerful but require a lot of manual input to keep everything updated. I mainly need something to track leads, manage contacts, and stay on top of follow-ups without spending too much time maintaining the system.
If you’ve found something that strikes a good balance between simple and useful, what are you using?
I apologize in advance, this is long. I’m just frustrated right now and feel like I’m bleeding money. I run a small window treatment company. Currently I am handling 100% of sales and installations and my wife handles admin duties and assists with installations when I need another set of hands. When I started my company, I was using Trello, then at some point added CRMBL to my Trello board, but I kept running into limitations with automating follow up communications. I was having to manually open Trello and initiate every phone call or text to a customer myself. I switched to Housecall Pro last year, and also started using Company Cam since they would integrate with each other. I wanted Company Cam to migrate my work photos off of my personal device and give me a photo resource that customers could look at without seeing my random pics in my phone album. While I like Housecall Pro and Company Cam overall, I still feel like there are some limitations, some of which no system may be able to overcome, but the main issue I’m having currently is cost for HCP. I have the Essentials plan, which is $189 a month, Sales Proposal tool is $40 a month, Pipeline is $50 a month, and I have HCP Voice so I can call/text right from the app, at $49 a month. That’s just HCP at $328 a month. Company Cam is on a yearly subscription that renews in June at $1548 for the year. I’m spending $457 a month for CRM and photo storage. Are there any options that allow you to fine tune what features you do and don’t have that don’t require constant fiddling? That was my biggest issue with Trello, I constantly felt like something needed to be tweaked, but I couldn’t tweak it and apply it across the board, I had to tweak every card manually. The only window treatment specific CRM I have found is MyBlindCo, but they are focused on strictly dealer only business, and I have a sell/install contract with one of the big boxes that doesn’t fit into their business model, so I would need a whole separate system to track those customers, which can make calendars messy.
I was in a CRM conference not long ago and some of the developers there were saying they expect really big changes this year with AI inside CRMs.
That made me think… do you guys believe CRM work can actually be almost fully automated at some point?
Like follow ups, lead scoring, updating contacts, pipeline moves, reminders, emails, sales forecasts, all that stuff.
Or do you think there will always be a need for a real person managing the process and the relationship side?
I’m just curious because it feels like every CRM is adding AI features now, but I’m not sure if that means real automation or just more “nice to have” tools.
What do you think?Do you guys think CRM will be fully automated with AI soon?
Post:
Anyone who has implemented Dispatch Pro into their business? How's it, pros/cons, honest thoughts??
Hi all,
I’ve been playing around with Claude Code for the past month and building whatever came to my mind. I just wanted to see how powerful it is. I haven’t tried building a CRM specific to my business needs though.
And I wanted to ask if any if you maybe created a CRM with Claude Code? If so, how did it work for you?
Thanks
I’ve built https://leavy.io/ - a simple leave management tool for SMEs.
It came from a common issue I kept seeing: managing time off in Excel works early, but breaks once you hit ~15–20 people (overlaps, no visibility, messy approvals).
I have a couple of teams are using it.
I’m keeping it simple and focused (not another bloated HR tool).
Hi, I'm looking for a CRM suitable for a company that does system integrations and tech solutions. We're based in India, so I was leaning towards Indian CRM software, mainly because of built-in GST and e-invoicing support, and I figured local support would be better too.
Our team consists of 20 people, including technicians, it's an SMB.
The features we wanted are:
Shared team inbox
API
Webhooks
Enquiry
Bill of Quantities
Quotation
Follow up reminders
Ticketing system
Mobile App
Location Tracking
I think many CRM's would not have these many features, and I have to lean to FSM as well. But i wanted to know if there's any software that provides these, would save some money haha.
I've looked at a few CRM options:
Has anyone used any of these? Please leave a review if you have.
Also, are there other Indian CRM alternatives? Non-Indian options are fine too it was just a preference.
I looked at Zoho, but I've heard the implementation cost can be quite high. Is that true?
Thanks.
I’m running a 4-man crew doing resi and light commercial, and I’m hitting a wall with software. Everything I find is either a massive system designed for a 50-truck fleet or a glorified calendar that doesn’t help with the actual workflow. A customer (rightfully) called me out for slow estimates, and I realized it's because I'm re-keying data three times between the field and the invoice. Anyone found a "middle ground" app that actually connects estimates, field updates, and billing without the massive overhead?