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All businesses appreciate an affordable, intuitive and beautifully designed CRM platform. However, growing businesses need flexible CRM software with specific features, including customization options. Zoho CRM fits the bill perfectly, providing sales, marketing and customer service functions designed for companies coping with expansion pressures. Zoho’s usability and vast customization options can reduce stress and improve performance across your sales, marketing and customer service teams. It automates many mundane, time-consuming tasks and makes crucial information available to everyone. This supremely usable platform packs a lot of power — and with its targeted AI investment, it will only get better.
9.4 / 10
Growing businesses face unique challenges and pressures. Ramping up employee numbers and boosting revenue while running your business can be difficult. However, marketing and selling efficiently while also growing and sustaining customer relationships is crucial.
Zoho CRM is an easy-to-use, uncluttered customer relationship management system that can help businesses cope with expansion challenges. It’s a scalable solution that will grow with your business. Zoho is easy to learn because of its intuitive user interface, and its built-in AI powers a wide range of tools, from contact and deal management to advanced data analytics. Zoho is also an omnichannel solution, facilitating customer communications.
Setup and training time is minimal — a huge plus for a busy, growing business. Support is there when you need it from Zoho’s reps and an online knowledge base. Additionally, Zoho’s extensive app marketplace means you can connect the platform to many popular business tools.
Access your Google Ads campaign performance via an executive dashboard report within Zoho CRM. Source: Zoho
We were impressed by Zoho’s pleasingly simple interface. Here are a few elements we felt added to the platform’s ease of use:
Personalize your Zoho CRM home page using Zoho Canvas — no code required. Source: Zoho
Zoho has many highly relevant CRM features for growing businesses, along with standard customer relationship management tools. Here are a few features we found particularly notable.
Zoho’s customization options are more extensive than many competitors we reviewed. We appreciate that all Zoho CRM tiers provide customization options, including custom fields and list views. However, we were impressed by the Enterprise level, which gives you the following capabilities:
At the Ultimate level, you also gain a generous number of custom modules and fields, as well as a higher level of customer support.
Zoho CRM’s customizations are plentiful and easy to execute. Source: Zoho
As companies grow, they must become proficient at lead generation and successfully converting leads. Zoho helps new and growing businesses do these things with impressive information-sharing and automation functions.
Zoho CRM makes it easy to automate email marketing campaigns when a lead signs up on your website. Source: Zoho
Many top providers are using AI integration to boost CRM software benefits. Zoho is no exception; it incorporates two AI tools, Zia and Creator. Both AI tools impressed us and compared favorably to competitive CRMs with AI offerings.
Use Zoho’s Zia AI tool to gain insights into your top-performing sales staff. Source: Zoho
Omnichannel communication is a game-changer for businesses that interact with customers via multiple channels. We were impressed with Zoho’s well-executed omnichannel communication options, which compare favorably with other CRM systems we reviewed.
Zoho offers the following omnichannel opportunities:
With Zoho, all communication is presented on a unified interface; there’s no need to open separate apps to communicate with customers. All interactions are stored in the system and attached to the correct contact details. The system’s minimalist interface makes it easy for reps to get the information they need to close a deal, or for a service team to achieve a first-contact resolution. The system will even notify you when someone mentions you on social media or opens your email.
Zoho’s omnichannel abilities are impressive and can create significant business benefits, including new sales opportunities.
With Zoho’s omnichannel functionality, you’ll see all client interactions in one central dashboard. Source: Zoho
We love that Zoho offers abundant CRM metrics and analytics that take the guesswork out of strategic decisions. Custom reports and cohort metrics help business owners examine data from multiple angles by curating information from marketing campaigns, quotes, leads, deals and sales activities.
Here are a few data analytics features that stood out to us:
Unlike many CRM solutions we reviewed, Zoho offers numerous popular CRM features in its entry-level plan. This feature generosity is impressive. Here are the features that standard plan subscribers can access:
Many CRMs we reviewed have app marketplaces. However, none make it easier than Zoho to integrate all your favorite products.
Zoho has one of the biggest marketplaces of any CRM provider, with well over 1,000 extensions and custom apps. Users can access more than 40 in-house apps. They can also use the Zoho Marketplace to select integrations with popular apps like GoToMeeting, Twilio, DocuSign and Eventbrite and essential apps like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Shopify and Mailchimp.
Additional industry-specific solutions are also available, including Zadarma for phone systems and CData Excel, which allows users to change information in Excel and see it reflected in Zoho CRM. The thirteen different app categories include marketing, employee collaboration, analytics and remote working.
Zoho’s vast app options are another reason we chose it as the best CRM for growing businesses. As you grow, you’ll need to add new workflows, extra capacity or additional communication channels. Everything you need is likely already on the Zoho store, ready to integrate seamlessly into the platform. Many integrations are accompanied by quick videos that give an overview of the app’s functionality. We love how these make the integration process much easier.
We’ve reviewed CRMs with mobile apps that offer only basic features, like record and note access. In contrast, we were pleased to see that Zoho CRM’s smartphone app includes crucial functions like analytics dashboards, team collaboration tools, map integration, voice notes and call logging. These features extend the CRM’s usability to remote and mobile workers.
We like that Zoho’s AI-powered assistant, Zia, helps sales professionals complete routine or recurring tasks, including updating records, adding notes, and managing the sales pipeline. We also like that Zoho offers a well-tuned business card scanner (although it must be installed separately). The scanner allows team members to instantly capture lead information and add it to the Zoho CRM whenever and wherever they receive a business card.
Zoho CRM’s mobile app keeps a detailed record of each contact’s sales activities. Source: Zoho
Zoho CRM has four subscription tiers and two payment options. For each tier — except the highest one, Ultimate — users can pay monthly, rather than annually, for a slightly higher per-user cost. Some small businesses may want to consider paying monthly if they are wary of committing to an annual plan.
We really like that businesses can take advantage of the vendor’s free edition — a completely cost- and obligation-free way to get a sense of what this CRM can do for your company. It allows up to three users and offers basic contact and deal management, email marketing, standard reports and one web form.
All prices below apply when billed annually:
On the Standard, Professional and Enterprise tiers, you can take advantage of a 15-day trial. Zoho does not charge setup fees for its service.
We appreciate that Zoho’s CRM implementation process is quick and easy, thanks to detailed instructions on the company’s website and the provided sample data. A large knowledge base and an active user community can help if you run into any snags. You can also contact Zoho’s customer support via email, phone or live chat. Upper-tier plans include onboarding and remote screen-sharing assistance, help configuring personalized settings and a dedicated account manager.
Despite its many advanced tools, Zoho’s desktop application is remarkably easy to learn, which removes a familiar challenge of CRM adoption.
There are a few deployment steps required before the CRM is ready to use:
Most of these steps can be completed in a few days, but customization options may require additional tweaking as needs become more clearly defined.
Zoho CRM supports dozens of add-ons and integrations with the best business phone systems, tools to boost productivity, the top cloud storage providers, and more. Note that integrations and add-ons will add to your onboarding time (some integrations require paid licenses).
Zoho CRM offers four support levels:
While Basic and Classic are free, the others come at an additional cost of 20 percent and 25 percent of the license fee, respectively. However, they include perks like remote assistance, product onboarding and reduced response time.
In our customer service testing with the company, we initially found it difficult to get a clear understanding of the features included in each plan. When we reached out a second time, we had a better experience. The representative was very patient and knowledgeable and even set up a time to discuss the platform further.
One support area where Zoho shines is digital documentation. You can find a wealth of instructions and documentation online, as well as detailed tutorials, training videos and live and on-demand webinars.
Zoho has many impressive features and upsides. However, we found a few drawbacks.
Zoho CRM is an alternative to high-cost, implementation-heavy products, so don’t expect it to perform like one. As long as Zoho’s features meet your needs, the software is a safe bet — especially if you prioritize mobile usability. But if you want a powerhouse system, consider opting for a heavier-duty product like the Salesforce CRM. Read our in-depth Salesforce CRM review and Salesforce comparison to learn about this solution’s extensive features.
When evaluating the best CRM software, we conducted in-depth comparative research of dozens of solutions. Our product review process included customer support team communication, product functionality evaluations, attending live webinars, and assessing numerous tutorials and support materials. We also considered pricing. When looking for the best CRM for growing businesses specifically, we examined mobile app functionality, contact and deal management, sales automation, reporting and analytics, customization options, and available integrations. Our goal is to help you find the right CRM for your business.
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Nadia Reckmann contributed to this article.