Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is both a strategy and a tool for making that strategy work in your business.
As a strategy, CRM is the strongest and most efficient approach in maintaining and creating relationships with your customers. Once these relationships are created, it becomes easy to identify the actual needs of your customers and serve them more effectively.
A CRM tool can best be defined by Salesforce, the inventor of the CRM tool:
“Customer relationship management (CRM) is a technology for managing all your company’s relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers. The goal is simple: Improve business relationships. A CRM system helps companies stay connected to customers, streamline processes, and improve profitability.”
For the purposes of this article, I’ll be talking about the tool, not the strategy.
Why should I use a CRM?
When I started working in the roofing industry I was shocked by the amount of roofing company owners that didn’t use a CRM. A CRM is an absolute must for any company that has sales. In fact, it’s a requirement for any business owner in today’s age.
Of course, just having a CRM in your business is not enough. Your entire team needs to be able to use the tool efficiently and effectively. A CRM won’t have any impact on your business unless you use it and take advantage of its full capabilities.
CRM’s are useful for one-person businesses. However, if you ever want to hire employees and have even a small sales team, a CRM is a necessity.
Now that we got that out of the way let’s take a look at the two most popular CRMs, JobNimbus and AccuLynx. Please note: this is not meant to be an exhaustive overview of each CRM. It’s meant to provide an introduction and general overview of each tool. If you really want to get a good understanding of each tool, I recommend that you set up a live demo and get a free trial to see which one works best for your company.
JobNimbus
JobNimbus was created with ease of use as its primary goal. While not necessarily as powerful as other options in the space, it’s a solid option for a small business looking to leverage the power of a CRM.
Pros:
JobNimbus has an easy-to-learn and clean interface that allows you to customize your workflow and create automations. It also has an open API which means that it can integrate with almost any software/tool available.
Cons:
JobNimbus lacks many of the more advanced features found in rival products such as AccuLynx. Users have also reported issues such as a lack of functionality with e-signatures, inaccurate reports, and a lack of marketing options.
Major Features:
- Track your jobs and manage production.
- Capture and upload job photos on-site.
- View open tasks across your organization.
- Sync with Google Calendar to view tasks from anywhere.
- Aerial measurements with EagleView
- JobNimbus provides you with the ability to create scrum boards for various areas, including billing, leads, production, work orders, and more. The available mobile app allows you to document photos and even send contracts.
Integrations:
JobNimbus works with almost any accounting software, allowing you to create estimates (including mobile estimates) and invoices, track products and services and even collect payments. Other integrations include:
- Quickbooks
- Beacon
- EagleView
- SalesRabbit
- Zapier
- CompanyCam
- Google Calendar
- Accurence
- NaturalForms
Pricing:
The pricing for JobNimbus ranges from $25/user to $75/user depending on the features you need for your business. They also provide a 14-day free trial to get you started.
Overall Rating:
JobNimbus has been rated on the following software review aggregators:
Capterra: 4.64 / 5 (424 reviews)
G2.com: 4.8 / 5 (44 reviews)
AccuLynx
AccuLynx was founded in 2010 and claims to be the most widely used CRM in the roofing industry.
Pros:
The main objective of AccuLynx is to serve as a business in a box. It’s a more robust and feature-filled CRM, providing all the bells and whistles a company needs to manage your business.
Cons:
AccuyLynx was made with the insurance restoration contractor in mind, not necessarily for those who mostly sell retail. While more expensive than JobNimbus, it is competitive compared to other CRMs. Other issues include the inability to sync the calendar with job files and a steeper learning curve.
AccuLynx uses a closed API, meaning that integrations are limited to the ones the company approves and makes available (much like Apple). An open API allows more customization, especially when paired with tools such as Zapier.
Major Features:
- Track and manage your sales process from an initial lead to a signed contract.
- Order EagleView and SkyMeasure roof measurements reports within the software.
- Capture photos of a job, add annotations, and share them with your crew — no additional photo apps required.
- Build detailed estimates quickly and easily.
- A lead API allowing you to automatically import lead information from the web to lead forms, external websites, and landing pages.
- Manage projects as they move through each milestone.
Integrations:
Unlike JobNimbus, AccuLynx only integrates with Quickbooks on the accounting side to help you manage the financial parts of your business. Other integrations include:
- ABC Supply
- EagleView
- SkyMeasure
- Google Calendar
- Google Maps
- SalesRabbit
- HomeAdvisor
- Spotio
- HailWatch
- CoreLogic Hail Maps
Pricing:
AccuLynx doesn’t provide per-user pricing on its website, instead directing customers to contact their sales team. However, considering the products large list of features and robust functionality, it can be safely assumed that the investment for this software will be greater than JobNimbus
Overall rating:
AccuLynx has been rated on the following review aggregators:
Capterra: 4.5 / 5 (290 reviews)
G2.com: 4.2 / 5 (14 reviews)
Conclusion
Both JobNimbus and AccuLynx offer power features and high ratings among users. Either will provide a much-needed level of control and organization in your sales efforts.
The choice of which to choose comes down to your own use case. JobNimbus is easy to use, but its relative lack of features may be better suited to a smaller business, or one that’s just starting out. AccuLynx provides a robust feature-set, but its closed API means that customization may be limited.
The best way to determine if a particular CRM is right for your business is to take advantage of the trial versions offered by each company. These trial periods usually last 14 days, giving you the opportunity to see how it fits (or doesn’t fit) into your workflow.
In the case of AccuLynx and JobNimbus, here you can find a side by side comparison of their features.
