Choosing the Right CRM for Your Glazing Business
The CRM market is crowded, and every vendor promises to transform your business. But for a glazing company, the wrong choice can cost you months of wasted implementation time and thousands in subscription fees for features you'll never use.
The Key Questions to Ask
1. Was It Built for Glazing?
This is the single most important question. A CRM designed for glazing companies will have:
- Promoter management as a core feature
- Lead source tracking that matches how you actually generate business
- Branch hierarchies that mirror your organisation
- Appointment and diary management for field-based sales teams
- Reporting that speaks your language (pitch rates, close rates, AOV)
A generic CRM will require weeks of configuration to achieve half of this — and it still won't feel right.
2. Can Your Team Actually Use It?
The most feature-rich CRM in the world is worthless if your sales reps won't use it. Look for:
- Clean, intuitive interface that new starters can learn in a day
- Mobile app that works well for reps on the road
- Fast data entry — if logging a lead takes more than 30 seconds, adoption will suffer
3. How Does It Handle Multiple Branches?
If you have or plan to have multiple branches, this is critical:
- Can each branch manager see only their data by default?
- Can regional managers see a group of branches?
- Does head office get a full overview?
- Can leads be transferred between branches easily?
4. What's the Real Cost?
Look beyond the headline price:
- Per-user pricing can escalate quickly when you add promoters and admin staff
- Implementation and training costs
- Data migration fees
- Are there additional charges for support?
5. What's the Support Like?
When something goes wrong at 4pm on a Friday and you have 30 appointments booked for Monday, you need responsive support:
- UK-based support team
- Phone support, not just email tickets
- Support team that understands the glazing industry
Red Flags to Watch For
- Requiring a consultant to set up basic workflows — if it's truly built for glazing, it should work out of the box
- No free trial — you should be able to test it with real data before committing
- Long contract lock-ins — monthly rolling contracts show confidence in their product
- Vague pricing — if you can't see the price on the website, it's usually expensive
Making the Switch
If you're currently using another system, the migration process matters:
- Can they import your existing lead and customer data?
- Is there a parallel running period?
- How quickly can your team be trained?
- What happens to your historical data?
The best CRM providers make switching as painless as possible because they know that once you're up and running, the value speaks for itself.