Customer database software
Tracking and managing customers effectively is important for a business to grow and succeed. Customer database software helps with customer relationships and ultimately helps drive sales.
A guide to the best customer database software
Última actualización en July 12, 2023
For any business, client data is worth its weight in gold—but only when you can organize and use it to its full potential. That’s where customer database software comes in.
Whether you want to let your customers know about a new product promotion or to surpass your monthly sales goals, it all starts with an organized system. In this article, we’ll tell you exactly what to look for in a customer information database and introduce the top-rated solutions of 2023.
In this article, we will cover:
What is customer database software?
Customer database software is a tool that captures and automates customer and prospect communication and engagement across sales, support, and other departments.
Customer database software capabilities are often built into customer relationship software, or a CRM. A customer database platform generally functions by collecting customer information, and then a CRM organizes it along with customer engagement data.
Customer database software allows:
Teams to view and manage all their leads, contacts, and account information in one centralized location
Sales and support teams to keep track of customer analytics like client history and activities
While you could use spreadsheets to manually document information about each of your clients, no one wants to do that. It may not even be feasible to do so because spreadsheets:
May require a lot of time and labor to stay up to date
Have data and storage limitations
Can cause devices with insufficient RAM to slow to a halt
Don’t include built-in security features to protect confidential customer data
Show too much data at once and have fewer sorting capabilities
Are less efficient at populating accurate results using a quick search or filters
Don’t include data validation for more accurate client records
Client database software takes in everything you want to record about a customer and syncs that to a profile in the system. Any time you correspond with that customer, the interaction gets recorded.
Comparison chart of the 10 best customer database software
Here’s how our top 10 picks stack up against one another at a glance:
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The 10 best customer database software
You can find several customer information database programs on the market today. Some are better for small businesses and startups, while others work best for large companies and enterprises.
Here are our top 10 customer database software solutions.
1. Zendesk Sell
Zendesk Sell offers a complete CRM and customer database solution for businesses of all sizes.
Zendesk Sell is specifically designed to:
Reduce friction between teams and increase efficiency
Provide a complete view of prospect and customer interactions
Deliver better customer experiences by eliminating information silos across sales and service
Offer agents context about where customers are in the buying journey
Gone are the days of wading through pages of outdated spreadsheets. With Zendesk Sell, you can eliminate spreadsheets and:
Analyze prospect and customer sales data
Ensure no lead or prospect falls through the cracks with sales pipeline management
Eliminate repetitive tasks to focus on the customer with workflow automations
Leverage integrated communication channels to meet customers where they are
This helps your business deliver better customer experiences that ultimately close more deals.
If switching to customer data management software has you worried about an IT nightmare, there’s no need—Zendesk Sell works right out of the box. You won’t need to deal with major interruptions or to call in IT to upgrade your system. Our software integrations work seamlessly with your other tools and expand to accommodate your business sales.
Zendesk Sell is a full-service CRM. You can use it to build leads, automate outreach, boost your productivity, and close more deals. Features include advanced sales analytics, integrated communication channels like email, text, and voice, smart lists, and more. You can also boost engagement even more with built-in sales engagement tools. The best part is the CRM integrates with the rest of Zendesk, so you can bring key sales and service data together to create a fuller customer profile.
The Zendesk customer database software handles 4.6 million interactions between companies and their clients every day. And with our free library of customer experience resources, you can learn best practices from over 50,000 organizations—including businesses in your field.
Features:
Robust sales pipeline management mobile CRM app for on-the-go access
Sales automations and triggers
Advanced sales reporting, analytics, and forecasting
Support integration
Pricing:
Team: $19 per user/month
Growth: $55 per user/month
Professional: $115 per user/month
Enterprise: Contact sales
Free trial: 14 days
Learn more about Zendesk Sell.
2. Zoho
Zoho offers a host of SaaS products, and its CRM was its original offering back in 2005. If you already use other apps in the Zoho ecosystem, you can sign up for CRM Plus, a nine-product bundle, for an easy transition. Zoho offers a full-service CRM solution that caters to businesses of all sizes while offering plenty of customization options for setting up workflows.
SMBs can use Zoho CRM to:
Manage leads
Forecast sales
Automate workflows
Manage lead documentation
The dashboard is simple and helps sales staff focus on their tasks. The free version limits the customer database to 100,000 records, while higher tiers allow unlimited records. One neat feature is Zoho’s AI assistant, Zia, who can help sales staff search through CRM data.
Features:
Omnichannel solution
Sales pipeline automation
Sales process builder
Native + API integrations
Gamification
Lead and contact management
Pricing:
Standard: $14 per user/month
Professional: $23 per user/month
Enterprise: $40 per user/month
Ultimate: $52 per user/month
Free trial: 15 days
Learn more about the Zendesk app for Zoho.
3. HubSpot
Since its founding in 2004, HubSpot has grown to become a popular marketing and sales platform for many businesses. The platform helps separate departments work together with a single set of tools for:
Marketing
Customer service
Sales
Content management
HubSpot Sales Hub is geared toward small and midsize businesses and has enough features for these types of organizations.
With HubSpot, you can organize your sales process and contact leads right in the client database software. HubSpot Sales CRM is a free option, but it’s limited to 15 calling minutes, 200 notifications, five email templates, and five documents per user per month. Higher plans boost limits and add features like sales analytics, call transcriptions, and sales playbooks.
Features:
Deal pipeline
Sales automation
Analytics and reporting
Sales content management and tracking
AI-powered conversation insights
Call tracking
Contact management
Pricing:
HubSpot CRM offers a free plan and paid pricing tiers:
HubSpot Sales CRM: Free with limited features
Starter: Starting at $18 per month
Starter CRM Suite: Starting at $29.97 per month
Professional: Starting at $500 per month
Enterprise: Starting at $1,200 per month
Free trial: 14-days
Learn more about the Zendesk app for HubSpot.
4. Freshworks
Freshworks’ CRM, Freshsales, attracts small businesses for its easy-to-use interface.
Freshsales focuses on SMBs that want to keep things simple. It might not have as many customization options as some of its competitors, but customers appreciate that Freshsales is ready to go right out of the box. The clean interface promotes focus, and the program has plenty of features for tracking leads, engaging prospects, and managing sales pipelines.
One nice feature is that Freshsales will automatically populate a lead’s file with their social media account information when available. This can give you insight into what the lead is interested in. Freshsales also offers an AI assistant named Freddy that can highlight at-risk contacts and analyze sales data.
Features:
Behavioral segmentation
Contact scoring
AI chatbots
Visitor information capture
Track and document visitor intent
Cross-channel contact management and communication
Customer conversation tracking
Pricing:
Growth: $15 per user/month
Pro: $39 per user/month
Enterprise: $69 per user/month
Free trial: 21 days
Learn more about how Zendesk integrates with Freshworks.
5. Salesforce
Salesforce created its first CRM product in 1999—back when you couldn’t use the phone and the internet simultaneously. Today, Salesforce provides top-of-the-line customer database software with a host of back-office apps for business. The CRM product is called Salesforce Sales Cloud, and it offers everything you’d expect from an enterprise-level sales platform.
From contact management and marketing tools to sales reporting and customized workflows, businesses can get a lot of use out of Salesforce. In fact, almost everything is customizable, including the home screen. Some users may find it takes a lot of work to get up and running, which is why there are many online courses for using Salesforce.
Features:
Lead, contact, and data management
Reports and dashboards
Mobile app
Email integration
Sales forecasting
Custom workflows
Sales process automation
Pricing:
Essentials: $25 per user/month
Professional: $75 per user/month
Enterprise: $150 per user/month
Unlimited: $300 per user/month
Free trial: 30 days
Learn more about the Salesforce app integration with Zendesk.
6. Bitrix24
Bitrix24 is a customer database solution for smaller sales teams. Bitrix24 has been around since 2012 and offers a full business communication platform that includes:
CRM
File sharing
Scheduling
Project management
The CRM is fairly extensive and offers a range of useful features. The free version still has other limits associated with storage, tasks, and communications.
Features include outreach automation, unlimited leads, a Kanban board view, and custom pipelines. Bitrix24 also offers a self-hosted option if you want to install its open-source software on your own hardware—that is, if you’re comfortable with handling upgrades, updates, and server maintenance yourself.
Features:
Online storage (cloud or self-hosted)
Live chat software
API and native integrations
Reports and analytics
Call tracking and email integration
Unlimited customer records
Free mobile CRM
Pricing:
Free: $0 per month for limited features for unlimited users
Basic: $61 per month for unlimited users
Standard: $124 per month for unlimited users
Professional: $249 per month for unlimited users
Enterprise: $499 per month for 250 users
The monthly cost of Bitrix24’s customer management software may go down if you pay for a year upfront.
Free trial: 30 days
Learn more about the Zendesk integration with Bitrix24.
7. Pipedrive
Pipedrive began in 2010 with a CRM system designed to make it easy for sales professionals to do their work. Since Pipedrive focuses solely on CRM, it's simple to set up and integrates natively with a number of other apps to expand functionality. Pipedrive offers four main plans, plus two add-ons for lead generation and web analytics.
The customer data software includes:
Deal management
Product catalog
Customizable pipeline
Email integration
As with most CRM tools, you can automate various tasks to make the sales process more efficient. Overall, Pipedrive can be a useful tool for SMBs looking for a standalone CRM option.
Features:
Custom chatbot and web forms
Purchase and contact history tracking
Reporting and insights
Mobile app
Activity reminders
Visual sales pipeline
Contact management
Pricing:
Essential: $14.90 per user/month
Advanced: $24.90 per user/month
Professional: $49.90 per user/month
Enterprise: $99 per user/month
Please note that Pipedrive bills users annually.
Free trial: 14 days
Learn about the Zendesk app for Pipedrive.
8. Apptivo
Founded in 2009, Apptivo has grown to provide a suite of apps centered around contact management, project management, invoicing, and communication. One thing that makes Apptivo different is that it offers a basic contact manager without a pipeline or invoicing. This option is a simple solution for small businesses that just need to track customer interactions.
Beyond that, Apptivo’s customer service database can accommodate larger businesses and enterprise companies with:
Customized workflows
Multiple pipelines
Email automation
Data management
The system can generate leads through a web form, a direct email, a CSV import, and manual entry. Apptivo also offers an array of customer relationship management apps to boost functionality.
Features:
Custom chatbot and web forms
Contact history tracking
Custom reports and insights
Mobile app
Data management
Sales task automation
Activity tracking and reminders
Pricing:
Lite: $10 per user/month
Premium: $15 per user/month
Ultimate: $25 per user/month
Enterprise: Custom pricing based on needs
Free trial: 30 days
9. Keap
Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) is a suite of tools centered around CRM and marketing. The company's philosophy is that sales and marketing departments can perform well when they work closely together.
Using one platform for both can increase efficiency. A Keap customer database software subscription includes access to CRM, marketing automation, payment processing, email marketing, and sales pipeline management. Keap features an attractive interface and an easy drag-and-drop system for building workflows and pipelines, too.
Keap’s entry-level plan is specifically geared toward solopreneurs and new businesses. What used to be Infusionsoft is now known as Keap Max Classic, and it’s an enterprise-level offering.
Features:
Visual sales pipeline
CRM and marketing automation
Payment processing
Mobile app
SMS messages and phone calls
Reporting and analytics
Appointment scheduling
Pricing:
Classic: $149 per month
Max: $199 per month
Max Classic: Custom pricing based on needs
Keap’s doesn’t price per user, however, each plan comes with a predetermined number of seats.
Free trial: 14 days
10. monday.com
If you just want basic client database functionality in an easy-to-use platform instead of opting for an entire CDP, monday.com could do the trick. The company is more well-known for its teamwork features, but the CRM system can be enough for SMBs to manage leads and customer information.
Monday.com provides customized forms for capturing leads on your website and landing pages, and you can use automation to save time on repetitive tasks. One nice thing is that the designs for the sales pipeline, contact management, and deals boards are similar to the scheduling layout design. So if you’re familiar with using monday.com for task management, you’ll be able to find your way around its customer data platform easily.
Features:
Sales pipeline
Contact management
Lead capturing
Customer projects
Marketing activities
Order management
Customer support
Price:
Individual: $0 for up to two seats
Basic: $8 per seat/month
Standard: $10 per seat/month
Pro: $16 per seat/month
Enterprise: Custom pricing based on needs
Free trial: 14 days
Learn about the Zendesk app for monday.com.
Features of client database software
You can find a wide range of features in CRM software. But some of the top customer database software features you should look for include:
Sales engagement tools: Easily build lists of qualified prospects and automate outreach for seamless touchpoints. Engagement tools allow your salespeople to orchestrate top-of-the-line customer experiences and close deals faster by reducing the need for manual labor.
Sales triggers: Automate sales workflows with unique triggers for your representatives. Once a trigger condition is met, the CRM will elicit an action, whether that’s notifying your team about a client update or scheduling a demo to ensure accuracy and boost productivity.
Reporting and analytics: Good customer data platform (CDP) solutions will allow you to view and export a variety of reports, analyze analytics, track metrics, and create sales forecasts. This means your team has the information they need to make smart decisions, consult with customers, and more.
Unified customer view: Client database software can provide any number of native integrations along with API access for you to build your own sales and support integrations. The ability to streamline sales and support ensures each team has access to customer data and can provide high-level customer service at any time.
Mobile app: Outfit field sales reps with important customer data by implementing a mobile app into your technology arsenal. Mobile CRM apps allow representatives to update client data on the go, so their team always has the most current information.
Benefits of customer information software
The difference between managing customer information in spreadsheets and using a CRM is like the difference between walking and driving a sports car. Think of customer service software as adding a set of wheels to your sales operation.
You can go much farther in the same amount of time when you have a customer data system on your side. Here are a few main benefits of customer database software:
Boost sales productivity: Help your reps close deals quickly by limiting unnecessary tasks with automated workflows.
Improve the customer experience: Use customer data to create a better buyer journey and customize conversations.
Accelerate revenue: Use client data to capitalize on opportunities and resolve pain points early, increasing customer retention and profits.
Increase pipeline visibility: Create accurate sales forecasts and monitor your pipeline to win more deals.
What to look for in CRM database software
Here’s what to look for in a customer database software solution.
Total cost of ownership (TCO): Strive to keep setup and maintenance costs of your new database low to maximize ROI. Be sure any new software you’re considering fits within your budget and makes sense for your business by assessing the cost to purchase, deploy, use, and stop use.
Unified data: Use a customer service database to help your sales and support teams improve efficiency when building customer relationships and closing deals. Your client database software should facilitate the automatic and easy transfer of information within the platform and between integrated apps.
Modern and easy to use: Select a customer database program with a user-friendly interface, simple triggers and workflow automation, and informational resources so your team is equipped to hit the ground running.
Frequently asked questions
Here are the answers to the most common questions about customer database software.
Sign up for a free customer database software trial
The right CRM platform can mean the difference between barely reaching your sales goals or blasting them out of the water. With client database software, you can keep track of new customers and improve the overall customer experience.
So, say goodbye to aimless spreadsheets and hello to a well-organized customer database with Zendesk client database software. Your business will increase its speed and efficiency, and you’ll have access to our free library of best practices from over 50,000 organizations. Get ready to manage your customers better. Start your free trial of Zendesk today.
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