I had an argument/discussion with a client about ready-made CRM systems, and custom CRM systems. It went something like this:

Client: why bother develop custom CRM system from scratch when there are so many pre-made crm systems out there already?

Me: Yes, there are so many. And they do a great job of CRM management for the clients. But, eventually, they are ready-made. That means they have been made to be like this, with the set features. So, when you as a business, wants to use this CRM system, you must mould yourself to fit into THAT system, so that you can function usefully. Is that really OK, or it must actually be the other way round?

Case in point, for developing custom CRM systems:

I had a meeting once with the administrators of a carpet company. They basically sell carpets, which is an understatement, but a brief summary. You might think that all they do is let customers choose from the variety of carpets they have, then pack it up and collect the money, right? Wrong!

The procedure is actually much more complicated. They have a pre-viewing session, then customisation stages, then various other stages, BEFORE they collect the money. And that’s not all. The after-sales is a huge story of its own. They even have a workflow to collect back the carpet in case of dissatisfaction.

Whatever I say above is just a summary from my memory. This meeting took place about 3 years ago, when I was discussing with them about a ready-made CRM solution which I developed. And they were complaining to me about the major-brand CRM software which they were already using, which was failing to meet their exact needs.

In fact, this meeting can be said to be one of my push factors for me to go into custom crm development, and might be something that made me a custom crm developer for some time now.

Another case in point:
A vendor selling health supplements. Now, how can someone selling health supplements need any custom CRM system? Health supplements is the product. All they have to do is do their marketing, sell the products and collect the money, right? Wrong!

This meeting took almost half the day. The whole workflow was very complex, starting from their marketing all the way to their after-sales. And that is another beauty of custom crm systems. CRM stands for customer relationship management. But doesn’t mean it should just be used for customer relationship management (yes, it’s ironical). Because a business it not just customer relationship management, but everything from A to Z, from marketing, to sales, to delivery, to customisation, to customer complaints, to after-sales, to refunds, to returns. And that’s just from my layman knowledge outside the industry. So, there must be even more in the whole workflow.

The point of the matter is: I’ve had many meetings with many clients. Seems like almost all have them have different unique workflows, even those who are in the same industry. In fact, I find myself unable to re-use a previous project to a new client most times, so how can a ready-made crm software satisfy all clients?

And that’s the ramblings I have for today.

If you are a business/company who think that you need custom CRM development for your unique business workflow and would like the services of a custom CRM developer, do consider to contact me at my business site.

If you need more convincing about why custom crm systems is better, read this.

• Tags: custom crm systems