Client relationship management (CRM) systems come in a dizzying array of shapes and sizes. How do you know what features you need?
Every business has different priorities for their CRM system. It all comes down to your processes, how your brain works and what your clients need. So, before you dive in, it’s important to decide which features are essential for you.
Bear in mind that a CRM system can be anything from a simple spreadsheet to an all-in-one piece of software that can run your whole business.
This post outlines the key features you’ll find in ready-made CRM software that’s been designed for 1 to 1 client management:
The best way to know what you need for your business is to start with mapping out your onboarding and delivery processes. This will inform the essential features you need. Think about how each piece of the puzzle needs to be sent, stored, and accessed. Once you’ve done that, use this blog post to dig deeper before you go shopping.
Your pipeline and contact management
Your pipeline
A CRM system is often regarded as a sales tool, getting you to the point where the client signs on the dotted line. But I see it as more than that: it’s an invaluable tool for the whole cycle of sales, onboarding, delivering your service and after care. This means the pipeline is the heart of a CRM system.
The pipeline is where you list and track which stage each client or enquiry is at in your process. It’s a useful overview, but it can also be a place to drill down into the detail of what each client needs. This can even include things like the deliverables for each client or a task to ask for a testimonial.
A pipeline can simply be a list, but many CRM systems offer a visual pipeline option too. In these systems you can drag and drop clients between stages of your pipeline, representing stages of your client process.
A calendar view to see your meetings, tasks and deadlines can be a helpful alternative too.
A good pipeline will be customisable to show the steps in your own workflow. And you should also be able to categorise your clients, allowing you to filter for specific groups, for example those you need to follow up, all those receiving a particular service, or those in a particular industry. Sometimes having multiple pipelines can be helpful for different services, client types or contact types too.
Contact management
Not every person you store inside your CRM system will be an active part of your pipeline. You may want to include suppliers or collaborators, as well as whole organisations. Not all your contacts will appear in your pipeline, so it needs to be easy to manage everyone else too.
You should also be able to create custom fields for contacts. This is where you can store additional information about a client. For example, client communication preferences, budget range, or pronouns.
Key features in your CRM system
Now we’ve looked at the critical elements of the pipeline and contact management, we’ll look at the key features you can choose for your CRM system. There’s no right or wrong for which ones you should prioritise. Decide which are your top 2 to 3 essentials, which are your ‘nice to haves’ and which would be over the top for you:
Storing and sending client communications
If you communicate frequently with clients, have a busy inbox, or use multiple communication channels, your CRM system can streamline your client communications. You can pick up conversation threads easily, and reduce the risk of missing messages or failing to reply quickly.
This is also useful if your clients tend to contact you through multiple channels at once. For example, a client might message you on LinkedIn to request a follow-up call, and then sends more information by email. You want to be able to see both messages within your CRM system, allowing you to respond effectively. This ensures you don’t lose the context of the conversation.
You may also want to create and store email templates (which can be sent automatically), for example follow-up or chasing emails.
When you might not need this: If you already have a good way to manage your client communication and expect it to stay manageable, then it could waste your time to store it in your CRM system as well. It could potentially even lead to confusion. It’s all about which is more efficient for you.
Client portals
Another option for client communication is to use a client portal – an online space where you and your client can privately share information and resources. You can choose to share static resources to send information one-way to your clients, or can use dynamic resources inside a client portal where you collaborate together, for example joint task lists or client exercises.
A client portal helps you to share a range of information including onboarding information, assets, contracts, invoices, appointment details or training videos. You can read more about ways you can use a client portal here.
Why you might not need this: While it can be neat and tidy to share things with your clients in one place, your clients may feel frustrated at having yet another system they have to access. So you’ll need to weigh up the benefit that this extra space will bring to you both.
Task, project and calendar management
Some CRM systems can be used as your whole project management tool, adding non-client specific tasks such as ‘Write blog post’ or ‘Set quarterly goals’ alongside your pipeline and client-related tasks. You may also be able to integrate your calendar. This allows you to keep track of everything in one place.
Depending on the system, you’re likely to be able to choose from a variety of ways to view your tasks, such as a simple list, a timeline or a Kanban board (think Trello-style).
When you might not need this: If you’d rather not manage all your client tasks inside your CRM system, then you can automatically export them to your project management tool instead. Or you can choose to be notified about your client tasks by email. This works well if your inbox is the central hub of your business, but can be full-on if you have a lot of tasks. It can also create ‘task blindness’ as it’s easier to put off those tasks by simply deleting the emails.
Time tracking
If you do decide to manage your client projects inside your CRM system and you need to know how long they’re taking, then having a time tracking feature built in is extremely useful. You can calculate how much to invoice on work paid per hour, and you’ll be able to turn this straight into invoices.
When you might not need this: If you never charge per hour, or you manage your client projects outside your CRM system, then you won’t need a built-in time tracking feature.
Proposals, quotes, contracts and invoices
For many business owners, these are a key reason to have a CRM system. You can create templates for proposals, quotes, contracts and invoices, and then adapt them for each client. Some systems allow for proposals and contracts to be signed inside them, making chasing signatures much easier and removing the need for additional signature software.
This lets you send a proposal, then chase a response if necessary, then send a contract – and track progress of the whole thing from within your CRM system.
Similarly, with some CRM systems you can send invoices and take payment directly. This helps avoid overdue invoices, especially if you need to keep track of deposits, part-payments or recurring payments.
Having proposals, quotes and invoices inside your CRM system can give you some very powerful data to use in your sales forecasting.
When you might not need this: If you don’t send many on a regular basis then this feature may not be necessary in your CRM system. Or of course, if you already have a good system for sending and effectively keeping track of proposals, quotes, contracts and invoices.
Booking appointments
Using a CRM system to book appointments can make life easier for you and your clients, especially if you’re currently scheduling all appointments manually. It also allows you to see all your contacts’ appointments in one place, just by looking at their profile.
For instance, if your clients often need to reschedule, then having a calendar booking system can simplify this process and reduce back-and-forth emails. They can choose a new time that suits you. You also have the benefit of automating confirmation and reminder messages to be sent before the session so that neither you nor your client forget to turn up.
There are lots of options to adjust your booking settings. For example, you can choose how far in advance you’re willing to book meetings (so you don’t get any sudden surprise meetings), how many meetings you can book in a day and how long you leave between appointments.
Another useful feature in some CRM systems is the ability to sell packages of appointments, which clients can then book themselves without having to contact you every time.
When you might not need this: If you rarely book appointments, then the booking feature may not be a priority for you.
Forms
You may need contact forms, booking forms, onboarding forms or any number of other forms. An onboarding form is the most commonly used type by 1 to 1 service providers, where you gather information about a new client before you start working with them.
For instance, you could create an onboarding form that includes questions on clients’ goals, preferred communication methods, and service expectations, which are then stored in their profile.
You can get written responses, but you can also gather files, voice notes and links through forms.
Over time, sending forms from your CRM system gives you useful data to analyse and spot patterns. For example, you may realise that you’re attracting people with certain backgrounds or preferences, which could be a clue to use in your marketing.
When you might not need this: If you prefer gathering information through client calls or emails, or if you only need minimal information.
Storing client documents and meeting notes
You may want to keep notes about a client, or notes from calls you have with them, and you want these to be easily accessible within their profile. You could choose to make these notes visible to clients through a client portal too.
There may also be other documents they send you which you want to store with their profile, or even documents you create as you work with them. If you’re going to store multiple documents for each client, you want them to be easy to find and access again.
When you might not need this: If storing client notes on their profile will mean they feel hidden away and not easily accessible to you. Some people prefer pen and paper for client notes, and that doesn’t have to change just because you’re using a CRM system.
Automations
Automations can save you time by handling repetitive tasks and making sure they’re not forgotten. For example, you can automate sending appointment reminders or be prompted to follow up with a potential client.
It’s important not to overdo it though. You can tie yourself in knots with too many automations or lose the personal touch. For example, you could automate moving a client to the next stage of your pipeline when they complete a certain task, like signing a contract. However, if moving them automatically means you forget to do a critical step in the process yourself, then automating this won’t work well for you.
When you might not need this: If you only need to handle a few clients and enquiries at a time or prefer to handle each step manually, then investing time in automations might be unnecessary.
Reports
A CRM system can be a powerful tool for looking at your metrics and analysing your data. You can get a range of reports from different CRM systems, so think about what would be useful for you to know.
For example, do you want to:
- estimate future income from your potential clients?
- see where most of your enquiries come from?
- understand your conversion rate of enquiries to paying clients?
If tracking details of your growth over time is important, or you want to identify which of your services bring in the most business, then you may want to invest in a system with detailed reporting capabilities.
When you might not need this: It’s always useful to analyse your business data, but if you have a small number of clients then this may be easy enough without reports. The cheaper pricing plans for CRM systems tend to have limited reports available so you want to consider if the extra cost is worth the extra information you can get from a higher pricing plan.
Integrations
If you’ve decided to store client communications in your CRM system, which channels do you want to be able to track: email, phone calls, WhatsApp, social media?
What other systems should your CRM system integrate with? Consider how these integrations can streamline your tasks. For example, you might want a CRM system that manages invoicing and payment tracking directly. Alternatively, if you prefer using a separate payment platform, ensure the CRM system you choose integrates smoothly with the payment platform to avoid duplicating your efforts.
Another example is project management tools. Many CRM systems can handle task and project management, but you might prefer integrating your CRM system with another tool you’re already using.
When you might not need this: If you’re just starting out, it can be easier to leave integrations alone for the time being. Just like automations, they can make your client management processes much simpler but they can become daunting and cost more. When looking at integrations, check that they integrate in the particular way you’re hoping for. For example, if you want to copy tasks from one system to another, make sure your task will be placed in the right location for you.
Other factors to consider in your CRM system
Once you’ve decided on your essential elements, there are some other factors to consider, depending on how you choose to run your business:
Access requirements
Some people prefer to leave their CRM system running in the background and receive reminders for tasks in their inbox or project management tool. This way you rarely need to open your CRM system; it can work away happily in the background and you don’t have to feel the mental load of having another app.
On the other hand, you may not want reminders automatically added to your list or cluttering up your inbox (which can become overwhelming if you’ve got lots of tasks), but instead prefer to set times in your week to open your CRM system and focus on the tasks shown inside it.
What access will current or future team members need? Do you need to differentiate between edit and read-only access for some team members?
Lastly, do you want to be able to use a mobile app? If so, consider if you want the full functionality available in the app or if you’re happy with only having access to certain features.
Set-up and support
How easy does your CRM system need to be for you to set up and learn, and how good are the help documents and the customer support? Setting up a new CRM system can be complex (although it isn’t always!), even if you’re tech savvy, so having responsive customer support can make the difference between smooth operations and frustrating delays. Alternatively, do you have the budget to pay someone else to set it up for you and teach you how to use it? And how will you train any future team members on it?
If you’re migrating from one CRM system to another, you likely already have a lot of client data to move. At its simplest, this process can be done by exporting a spreadsheet from your original CRM system and importing it into your new one. However, some client information, tasks, appointments, forms or workflows may not transfer easily if the new CRM system doesn’t have the same functionality as your old one. Moving CRM systems doesn’t have a to be a headache, but looking at how they match up (and what support is available from customer service to transfer them) is something to consider before moving.
Data security
Do you need specific security or data privacy measures in place? This could be due to specific data laws – such as GDPR when working with clients in the EU – or you may be handling sensitive health-related client information and need to comply with HIPAA on medical information privacy.
AI
How much help do you want from AI? It’s now entirely possible for AI to take over most of the work of your client management. But just because it’s possible, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily right for you. Your feelings about AI, and how much help you want from it behind the scenes or front-of-house will affect how much of a feature you want it to be in your CRM system (plus how much progress AI has made since this post was published!)
Choosing the right CRM system isn’t about getting the one with the most features; it’s about finding the system that matches how you work. The right CRM system should simplify your business, not complicate it, and should help you to build strong relationships with clients at every stage of your process.
Finding a CRM system that suits your business workflow will streamline your processes and support growth, without ending up with unnecessary features. Take the time to define your needs clearly, and you’ll find a CRM system that’s a great fit for your business.
And of course if you need help weighing up which features are most important for your CRM system, get in touch for a chat.
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