The success of your agency–whether you deal with marketing, recruitment, or web design–depends on how skilfully you can manage your incoming, recurring, and returning clients. A good customer relationship management (CRM) system is crucial for helping you to keep track of all these connections, ensuring you never drown in overwhelm.
Among the many CRMs out there, you may be wondering if you should use an agency-specific CRM – software that, theoretically, would suit your business model more than a general-purpose one. But just because it’s geared towards agencies, does it make it the best fit for your business?
Keep reading to explore the pros and cons of agency-specific versus general-purpose CRMs, so you can make an informed decision.
An agency-specific CRM is specialized software with features that are targeted for agencies hoping to manage their customer relationships and close more deals. Industry-specific CRM features are more likely to help an agency deal with day-to-day activities such as managing client accounts, meeting deadlines, and dealing with client requests and updates as they come.
Advantages of using agency-specific CRMs
There are many benefits to using an agency-specific CRM, with major reasons including:
An interface that aligns with your agency business model
Features tailored to an agency
Higher chance of faster implementation and adoption
Let’s look at each advantage in more detail.
Need a user-friendly CRM to boost sales and team efficiency?
Take our guided tour to explore Nutshell’s incredible features!
CRM interface that aligns with the agency business model
Industry-specific CRMs–as the name implies–are built with a specific industry in mind. In the case of an agency, an agency-specific CRM will likely have an interface that makes the software easier to navigate for agency employees.
The best way to get your team to warm up quickly to a new technology is to make it as familiar as possible. Thus an agency CRM interface will include industry-specific terms and allow your team to easily follow industry-specific practices in the sales cycle.
The ideal CRM is the one your team actually uses, so an agency-specific CRM could be an advantage for teams who are usually wary of new tech.
Agency-focused CRM features
Since this kind of CRM is tailored to agencies, it’ll have a smaller suite of features. The vendors are cutting the fat, and only keeping what’s necessary for your business model. And most of the time, they’re correct.
These features would help agencies solve industry-specific problems. For example automating email notifications and messages to clients for project updates, overdue invoices, and review requests.
A general-purpose CRM, on the other hand, can help you achieve these goals as well, but with extra features that you may use to expand in the future.
Faster setup time
Since the industry-specific CRM is tailored to make the CRM implementation journey as smooth as possible, it makes sense that the time to set up your system would be faster than that with a general-purpose CRM.
The key factor to look out for when choosing your agency-specific CRM is how much support you’ll get in the onboarding process. Support such as white-glove data importing and training webinars is key to making the set up and adoption process as seamless as possible.
What is a general-purpose CRM?
A general-purpose CRM is built for a general audience. No matter the industry or company size, a general CRM can be customized to whatever the needs and preferences of the business are. They come with the features you can customize to your industry, company size, and preferences.
Advantages of using general-purpose CRMs
Why would you choose a general CRM over an agency-specific CRM as an agency? Well, there are certain advantages that general-purpose CRMs have over industry-specific ones, including:
Wide range of integration options
Customizability
Affordability
Let’s examine each benefit more closely.
Wide variety of available software integrations
A general-purpose CRM is built with a wide range of industries in mind. So it makes sense that these CRMs come with an extensive range of integration options, since different industries use different software tools.
While an agency-specific CRM may come with some integration options, the list of available software is much smaller than the options that come with a general-purpose CRM.
Highly customizable to your needs
Since general-purpose CRMs are designed with a broader audience in mind, they are more customizable than industry-specific software. With a general CRM, you can adjust the interface to meet the needs of your agency. But with an industry-specific CRM, there’ll be less flexibility.
In addition, you may find as your agency grows, your software needs will expand. A general-purpose CRM is built with this growth in mind, and many offer plans and add-ons to upgrade your software and ensure your CRM doesn’t hold you back.
Affordable and more flexible pricing plans
Depending on the platform you choose, a general purpose CRM could cost you much less in the long run than an industry-specific one.
An agency-specific CRM may have an initial cheaper cost, but they tend to be more rigid in their pricing. Whereas with general CRM, you’ll have access to choose different baseline plans which come with the features you need, and the option to add extra features at a nominal fee.
Should I use an agency-specific CRM or a general-purpose CRM?
Now that you understand the difference between agency-specific CRMs and general-purpose ones, it should be easier to make a decision.
To summarize, an agency-specific CRM gives you a more linear CRM experience at the cost of flexibility and growth, while a general-purpose CRM may take longer to set up, but offers your agency space and features to grow over time.
So, if you need a short-term CRM solution that your team will adapt to quickly as an agency, then an agency-specific CRM may be the right option for you.
Otherwise, if you’re looking to scale in the long term and are looking to expand your agency’s potential, at the cost of a quicker onboarding experience, then you should consider a general-purpose CRM.
Ultimately, the choice is up to you and what works best for your agency.
Try Nutshell CRM to elevate your agency sales
We hope this article helped you to come to an informed decision on the best type of CRM system for you. While you’re weighing your options, consider Nutshell.
Nutshell is an all-in-one CRM designed to help small businesses close more deals, no matter the industry.
