CRM App Development: How to Build the Right One in 2024

Custom CRM Software Development Process

To fully benefit from custom CRM development services, you must complete a set of actions to get your business ready for the introduction of a tailor-made solution.

Assessing Business Requirements and Objectives

It will be a good idea to start with a clear definition of why your organization needs a tailor-made platform, and you couldn’t settle for one of the readily available solutions. Set clear, measurable, and achievable goals like cutting operational costs by automating business processes, for example. 

The good news is that with custom development, you will obtain full control over the list of features and budget, so you can plan what you need. Speaking of features, before considering what you should include during the custom CRM development process, it will be a good idea to conduct research on how your company interacts with clients on different levels and decide what customer relationships management areas to improve.

Identifying Key Stakeholders and User Personas

Before fully embarking on the development of a custom CRM system, it’s crucial to identify the key stakeholders within the organization who will be involved in the project. This typically includes representatives from various departments such as sales, marketing, customer service, and IT. Each stakeholder brings unique insights and requirements to the table, so it’s essential to involve them early in the process to ensure their needs are addressed.

It is also important to create user personas to represent different types of users who will interact with the CRM system. User personas are fictional characters that embody the characteristics, goals, and pain points of typical users. By understanding the needs and preferences of these personas, CRM developers can design your custom CRM software to be intuitive and user-friendly.

Choosing Your IT Provider

Carefully choose who you want to work with based on reviews on platforms like Clutch.co and IT provider candidates’ proven experience of completed CRM projects. An experienced IT provider could become your advisor in the planning and decision-making process, as well as give you feedback on the technical side and ideas for features. Choosing a CRM software development company with the expertise in your niche will also help you avoid both common and specific mobile and web application development challenges.

Conducting Market Research and Competitor Analysis

Once the development vendor is selected, you have to conduct thorough market research to capture the current trends, challenges, and opportunities in the CRM software market. This research should involve gathering information about the features, functionalities, and pricing models of existing CRM platforms.

It’s also important to analyze customer reviews and feedback to identify common pain points and areas for improvement. By understanding what existing vendors are doing well and where they fall short, you can identify opportunities to maximize the efficiency of your custom CRM system.

Prioritizing CRM App Features

As a large number and excessive complexity of features may take a significant chunk of your budget and extend the development time, it makes sense to focus only on what you really need. As mentioned previously, turnkey solutions have a major drawback — you buy a bundle of features, but you use just a few of them. With a tailor-made solution, you can do some additional research and come up with a list of the features your organization requires and develop this functionality exclusively. Let’s break down the most popular features to help you make the right decisions.

Standard CRM System Features

• Contact Management: Store and manage customer contact information, including names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses.
• Lead Management: Track and manage leads through the sales pipeline, from initial contact to conversion.
• Opportunity Management: Manage sales opportunities, including tracking stages, probabilities, and potential revenue associated with each opportunity.
• Account Management: Organize and manage customer accounts, including company information, contacts, and relationships within the organization.
• Task and Activity Management: Schedule and track tasks, appointments, meetings, and follow-up activities related to customer interactions.
• Email Integration: Integrate with email platforms to track email communications with customers and automate email campaigns.
• Calendar and Reminder Alerts: Maintain a calendar for scheduling appointments and events, with reminder alerts to ensure timely follow-up.
• Reporting and Analytics: Generate standard reports and analytics on sales performance, customer interactions, and pipeline metrics.
• Mobile Access: Provide mobile access to CRM data and functionality through mobile apps or responsive web interfaces.
• Workflow Automation: Automate repetitive tasks and business processes, such as lead assignments, email notifications, and follow-up reminders.
• Document Management: Store and manage documents, contracts, proposals, and other files related to customer interactions.
• Customizable Dashboards: Create personalized dashboards with key metrics, charts, and reports for quick insights into sales performance and pipeline health.
• CRM Integration with Third-Party Applications: Integrate with other business applications and tools, such as marketing automation software, accounting systems, and customer support platforms.
• Security and Access Controls: Implement role-based access controls (RBAC) to restrict access to sensitive data and ensure customer data security and compliance.

Advanced CRM System Features

• AI-Powered Predictive Analytics: Utilize AI and machine learning algorithms to predict customer behavior, identify trends, and recommend personalized actions.
• Social Media Integration: Monitor activity and conduct customer engagement on social media platforms, track social interactions, and analyze social media data for insights.
• Customer Segmentation: Segment customers based on demographics, behavior, purchase history, and other criteria to target marketing efforts more effectively.
• Marketing Automation: Automate targeted marketing campaigns, including email marketing, lead nurturing, and drip campaigns, based on customer interactions and triggers.
• Sales Forecasting: Use historical data and predictive analytics to forecast future sales trends, revenue projections, and pipeline growth.
• Customer Service and Support: Provide omnichannel customer support, including ticketing systems, live chat, knowledge bases, and self-service portals.
• Voice and Speech Analytics: Analyze recorded calls and voicemails using speech analytics to extract insights, sentiment analysis, and customer feedback.
• Gamification: Incorporate gamification elements, such as leaderboards, badges, and rewards, to incentivize and motivate sales teams.
• Customer Journey Mapping: Visualize and analyze the entire customer journey, from initial contact to post-purchase support, to identify touchpoints and opportunities for improvement.
• Advanced Workflow Automation: Design complex workflows and business processes with conditional logic, approvals, and escalations for automated task management and collaboration.

Setting User Roles in Your CRM

From the very beginning, think about the roles in your solution. Determine which level of access and what permissions your different employees and departments will have. For example, there can be a role of an administrator who has full access to all features and functionalities of the CRM system. This role can manage user accounts, assign roles and permissions, and configure system settings. The administrator role is typically assigned to senior management or IT personnel responsible for overseeing the CRM implementation services and maintenance.

On the other hand, sales representatives may have a role, which includes access to customer information, purchase history, and sales pipelines. Sales representatives can be eligible to create and update customer records, log interactions, and track sales activities.

Solution Design and Planning

Before diving into development, it’s imperative to meticulously plan and design the custom CRM solution to align with your business needs and objectives. This phase involves collaborating with your chosen development vendor to translate requirements into a comprehensive solution blueprint. At this stage, the development team designs the architecture of the custom CRM system, based on the requirements review.

This includes defining the system’s structure, components, modules, and integration points to ensure scalability, flexibility, and performance. Also, technical specialists advise on  selecting the appropriate technologies, frameworks, and platforms being guided by the project requirements, scalability needs, and long-term viability. They consider factors such as security, integration capabilities, and compatibility with existing systems.

Development 

Once the solution design and planning phase are complete, the development team begins building the custom CRM system according to the agreed-upon specifications and project plan. As a rule, the development process is built according to an iterative approach, breaking down the project into manageable tasks or sprints. Each iteration focuses on delivering a specific set of features or functionality, allowing for continuous feedback and refinement.  Stakeholder engagement is integral to the development process as well, with ongoing collaboration and feedback sessions to validate requirements, review progress, and address any emerging issues or changes.

QA and Testing 

Throughout the development lifecycle, the QA team collaborates with stakeholders to develop a comprehensive test plan that outlines testing objectives, scope, methodologies, and acceptance criteria. Being guided by this plan, they conduct rigorous QA and testing to identify and address any defects or issues. This includes functional testing, integration testing, performance testing, and user acceptance testing to validate system functionality, usability, and performance. 

Providing Post-Release Support

After the system is implemented, monitor its performance and collect feedback from the users in order to improve the existing features and maybe add something new in the future. You may still need your CRM development team to fine-tune the launched product and add some missing features. This phase should be planned and budgeted beforehand as well.

Planning for Future Growth

If in future you consider turning your system into Software-as-a-Service, you have to prepare a tech background for this move from the first iteration of the product. It would be wise to keep this option possible even if you think that you don’t need it at the moment. Otherwise, some features in your system could not be potentially used in other systems and could not be adaptable for other businesses, when it becomes necessary.