Systems we build and run
Bespoke CRM systems
Every customer, enquiry, quote and conversation on one record, in the words your business uses, joined to the jobs and the invoices rather than sitting beside them. A custom CRM built for how a small firm actually sells and keeps its customers.
What it is, and where it fits
Where this kind of system fits
- Trades, installers and contractors quoting from enquiries
- Hire, waste and haulage firms with regular trade accounts
- Clinics, salons and studios with repeat customers
- Agents, brokers and professional firms
- Wholesale and distribution with a sales team on the road
A CRM is the record of who your customers are, what they have asked for, what you said, and what happened next. A bespoke one holds that the way your business thinks about it, and sits on the same system as the quotes, the jobs and the invoices.
The off the shelf ones are built for a sales team working a pipeline of deals. Most small firms don't sell like that. They take an enquiry, quote it, do the work and hope the customer comes back, and what they want to see is all of that on one screen with the phone number at the top.
A first version, customers and enquiries with the history and the follow-ups, is weeks. Quoting from the record, jobs raised from the quote, and messages sent from the system are the natural next pieces, built the same way.
What it usually grew out of
A spreadsheet of customers, an inbox full of enquiries, and the knowledge of who said what to whom living in two people's heads.
The spreadsheet has a row per customer and a column that says "called 14/9, send quote". The quote is in a Word file somewhere. The follow-up is a note on a desk. When the customer rings back, whoever answers asks them to start from the beginning, and the customer can tell.
Some firms have bought a CRM package and found that it wants them to think in deals and stages that don't fit, that it charges for every person who needs a login, and that it still knows nothing about the job once the sale is won. The spreadsheet comes back.
A bespoke CRM starts from the record you already keep and the questions you actually ask: who is this, what have they had from us, what did we last promise them, and who needs chasing this week.
What it does
One record per customer
Contacts, sites, account terms, notes and every enquiry, quote, job and invoice they have ever had, in one place, with a search that finds them by name, postcode, phone number or job.
Enquiries that don't go cold
A web form, an email or a phone call becomes an enquiry with an owner and a next action. The ones nobody has touched for a week come to the top on their own.
Quotes from the record
A quote raised against the customer with their prices, their sites and their history already filled in, sent from the system and marked when it's opened. Won or lost, with the reason, so you learn something either way.
Every conversation kept
Emails, texts and WhatsApp messages sent from the record stay on it, so anyone who picks up the phone can see what was last said. More on customer messaging.
Follow-ups that happen
Chase the quote on Thursday, ring about the service in March, ask for the review a week after the job. Set on the record, shown to the right person on the right day, and done from the same screen.
Joined to the work
A won quote becomes a job in the job tracking system without retyping. The invoice goes to the accounts package. The customer's record shows the lot.
The numbers you actually want
Enquiries this month and where they came from, quotes out and their value, win rate by type of work, customers who haven't ordered in six months. Reports built once, right every time.
On the road as well as in the office
The customer's record, the last conversation and the quote on the phone of whoever is standing in front of them, with the visit notes typed or dictated there and then.
Where it saves time, we build in AI features too: an enquiry email read into a draft record, a call summarised onto the customer's history, or a suggested follow-up list for the morning. More on AI and automation.
Usually built alongside quoting systems, job tracking, customer messaging or a customer portal. The rest are on the services page.
How it gets built, and how it gets run
| Fixed price | Scope, price and dates in writing before anything starts, with what isn't included written as plainly as what is. It doesn't move because the job turned out harder than we thought. |
|---|---|
| Timescale | Customers, enquiries and follow-ups are usually live in weeks. Quoting, messaging and the join to jobs and accounts follow in pieces, each one useful on its own. |
| Your existing data | The spreadsheet, the accounts package's customer list and the old CRM's export come across before go-live, cleaned on the way, so day one starts with the history rather than an empty screen. |
| Training | In your office with your own customers on the screen, for the office and for anyone on the road, with a written guide they keep. |
| Hosted in the UK | UK infrastructure, backed up nightly to somewhere that isn't the machine running it, kept thirty days, and checked every few minutes that it's up and answering. |
| Changes | A new field, a new report, a new type of follow-up. What that covers is agreed at the start, so nobody works it out on the day. |
Free Business Systems Assessment
An hour with whoever runs the day to day. Clear recommendations to act on.
We look at how the work actually runs and what it runs on, then send you a list of what we would change, what each change would do for the business, and what it would take. In person or online, whichever suits you. Nothing to pay, nothing to sign.
- One hour
- In person or online
- Recommendations we talk you through
Honest answers
- What is a bespoke CRM, compared with one we could subscribe to?
- A subscription CRM is one product for everybody, so it is built round the most common way of selling and you adapt to it. A bespoke CRM is built round the way your firm takes an enquiry, quotes it and keeps the customer, and it shares its records with the quoting, the jobs and the invoicing, so there is one history rather than three. You own the data and nobody charges you for adding a person.
- How much does a custom CRM cost?
- It depends on three things: how much it has to hold (customers and enquiries only, or quotes and jobs as well), what it has to join to (the accounts package, your website, your phones), and how many screens it needs on the road. We look at the record you keep now and give you a fixed price in writing for a first version that pays for itself, with the next pieces priced separately when you want them. It is usually less than people expect, because we start from what you already have.
- We already use a CRM package. Can you join it up instead?
- Sometimes, and we will say so if that is the better answer. Most of the packages allow another system to read and write their records, so the jobs and the invoices can be joined to it without replacing it. Where the package is the thing getting in the way, replacing it with your own is the cleaner job, and the history comes across.
- Our sales are mostly repeat customers, not a pipeline.
- Then the useful part is the customer record and the follow-ups, not the deal stages. The system shows who hasn't ordered for a while, whose annual service is due, and who was promised a call, and leaves the pipeline out until you need one.
- What about the data protection side?
- The system holds the lawful basis and the marketing consent against each contact, honours opt-outs across every channel, and lets you export or delete a person's data when they ask. It is hosted in the UK by a Cyber Essentials certified firm, and who in your business can see what is set by role.
- How long does it take?
- A first system is weeks rather than months, and bigger ones go live in pieces so the useful part arrives early, usually the customer record and the follow-ups first. Scope, price and dates are agreed in writing before anything starts.
Talk to us
Tell us how an enquiry becomes a customer in your business now, and what you'd like to be able to see about them. That's usually enough for us to say whether we can help.
Ring, 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and Saturday mornings, or use the form below. Pick what you'd like to keep track of, add a line if you want to, and leave a name and a way to reach you.