CRM for small companies
Custom CRM development that keeps your follow-up on track
A custom CRM: every enquiry from your site becomes a card, every customer a file with tasks and a log.
Customers who live in your inbox, not in a system
An enquiry comes in through your website. Someone replies, someone else calls back, and three weeks later nobody knows whether a quote went out. The CRM package you once tried had thirty fields nobody filled in, and after two months everything was back in the inbox.
A custom CRM has the fields your company uses and no others. Every enquiry from your website form becomes a card automatically. Whoever follows it up gets a task with a date. Every call, email and quote lands in that customer's log.
Everyone in the office sees the same thing: which customers are waiting, what was agreed and whose turn it is. Even when the colleague who knows the customer is on leave. And because a bespoke CRM can live in the same system as your files, planning or portal, it also knows what happens after the sale. We build it from Ghent, Belgium, in English, for companies across Europe.
An enquiry that moves along with your follow-up
New
- Peeters Garage
Contacted
- Studio Noor
- Linde Brewery
Quote
- Salon Mira
Customer
- Korenaar Bakery
Vermeulen Interiors
Form on your site
- Enquiry in, card created
- Called by Lien, call back Friday
- Quote sent
- Agreed, file opened
Example with made-up names. Every enquiry from your site becomes a card like this, with who follows it up and what already happened.
Each step of follow-up, and what your own CRM does
A CRM earns its keep when it takes over the follow-up that now sits in heads and inboxes. This is what custom CRM software does per step.
| Process | Today | With a custom CRM | What you gain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enquiry arrives | An email in a shared inbox | A card with the form data and who follows it up | No enquiry falls between two inboxes |
| First contact | Whoever sees it first calls, or nobody | A task with a date, and an alert when it sits too long | A faster answer, which raises the chance of a customer |
| Quote | A Word file in a folder | The quote with the customer, with its status | You know which quotes are open and what they are worth |
| Follow-up | A sticky note | Reminders on the right day, for the right person | No quote quietly forgotten |
| Customer file | Spread over emails, spreadsheets and heads | Contacts, agreements, documents and a log in one place | A colleague takes over without phoning around |
| After the sale | Another system, or none | The same customer in your planning, portal or invoicing | You see what a customer is really worth |
The difference between a CRM and an ERP is set out in CRM vs ERP and in the glossary entry for CRM. How to get more enquiries to follow up is covered by SEO and Google Ads. If customers should log in to see their own file, a client portal comes with it; for an accounting firm it looked like software for accounting firms, and if your CRM grows into the system your whole company runs on, that is custom ERP development. An AI agent that researches a new enquiry and fills in the card is on AI agent development; why a team in Belgium can build it for you is on nearshore software development.
A CRM package against a custom CRM
A package starts fast. Custom fits better when your follow-up has steps of its own.
- Fields and steps
- CRM packageThe package's, adjustable within limits
- Custom CRMYour company's, nothing extra
- Enquiries from your site
- CRM packageThrough an integration or a plug-in
- Custom CRMStraight in as a card, with the form data
- Price
- CRM packagePer user per month, every year again
- Custom CRMA build price and hosting, no licence per user
- Together with your other work
- CRM packageA separate system next to your planning or files
- Custom CRMIn the same system as your files, planning or portal
- Your data
- CRM packageWith the vendor
- Custom CRMOn your own server in the EU
A company with a standard sales process is better off with a package. A company that follows up customers in a way that belongs to its industry is better off having it built.
A CRM log nobody has to keep
In the platforms we built for Business Centrum and DA Logistics, every change is logged: who, when, what, and what it was before and after. Nobody fills it in; the system writes it itself.
For a CRM that means you see what happened with every customer, even when you were not there. And when a customer asks under the GDPR what data you hold on them, the answer is already there.
Package prices, and what a missed enquiry costs
First the packages, excluding VAT and billed yearly. For 10 users:
| Package | Price | 10 users per year |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot | Free CRM tools for up to 2 users; Sales Hub Professional from 90 dollars per user per month plus 1,500 dollars onboarding | 0 euros to over 10,000 dollars |
| Pipedrive Growth | 39 euros per user per month | 4,680 euros |
| Teamleader Focus GROW | 33 euros per user per month, half price from the sixth user | 2,970 euros |
| monday CRM Standard | 17 euros per user per month | 2,040 euros |
| Custom CRM | The build, then hosting and maintenance | A price after a call, then a few hundred euros a month |
A package is cheap to start with. The question is what an enquiry that slips through costs you. A worked example with assumed figures: your site brings 40 enquiries a month. One in ten is followed up late or not at all: 4 a month. If one in four of those would have become a customer, at an average job of 3,000 euros, you lose 3,000 euros of revenue a month, or 36,000 euros a year. For the licence side of that sum, see CRM cost per month and HubSpot pricing.
On top of that, time: five people each spending two hours a week searching for enquiries, quotes and notes add up to 460 hours a year, worth 20,700 euros at an assumed 45 euros an hour. A CRM that halves both is worth over 28,000 euros a year. Whether a package or a custom build gets you there depends on how particular your follow-up is. The alternatives are compared in Teamleader alternatives and build vs buy software.
Customer data in a CRM: the GDPR rules
A CRM is a register of personal data. This is what the GDPR asks of it, in every EU country, and what the system must be able to do.
| Rule | What it asks | What your CRM must do |
|---|---|---|
| Lawful basis | You process data for a contract, a legal duty or a legitimate interest | Record per contact why they are in your system |
| Consent for email marketing | A newsletter to a consumer usually needs prior consent | Keep consent with date and source, and an unsubscribe that works at once |
| Right of access and erasure | A customer may ask what you hold and ask you to delete it | Show everything about one person at once, and delete where no retention duty applies |
| Retention | No longer than needed | Clean up old enquiries that never became customers automatically |
| Security | Appropriate measures | Rights per user, encryption of sensitive fields, an audit log |
That is why we put every CRM on a server in the EU, with rights per role and a log that writes itself. How to ask consent on your site is covered on do I need a cookie banner? and do I need a privacy policy?
Custom CRM in four steps
- Your follow-up on paperTogether we map how an enquiry runs today, from form to customer, and where it gets stuck.
- Bringing your customers alongWe import your spreadsheet, mailing list or old package, with a report of duplicates and gaps.
- A first version with your form on itYour site sends enquiries straight into the CRM. Your team works in it and tells us what is missing.
- Extending where it paysQuotes, a customer portal, a link to your invoicing or a dashboard with your sales.
Enquiries that already flow in, and a file per customer
The customer file with tabs and the log come from the management platform of Business Centrum, which replaces their spreadsheet. The contact forms of eleven client domains run through our own form service on AWS, with a spam filter that stopped a spam wave at Business Centrum: that is the front end of a CRM, where every enquiry becomes a card. And for Park & Wash we built a site with two routes to an enquiry: consumers through WhatsApp, companies with a fleet through a form of their own.
What we do for your follow-up:
- We start with your form and your inbox, and map how an enquiry runs today.
- We build only the fields and steps you use, and connect your site directly.
- Your customers come along, from a spreadsheet or an old package.
- You own it, on a server in the EU, in line with the GDPR.
We build a custom CRM as a web application. Show us how you follow up customers today: book a call.
What business owners ask about a custom CRM
Can my website form feed straight into the CRM?
Yes. Every enquiry becomes a card with the form data, and whoever follows it up gets an alert.
Can we bring our customers from a spreadsheet or another package?
Yes. We import them and show what is duplicated or missing, as we did with the Business Centrum spreadsheet.
Does it work with our email and calendar?
An email or appointment can land in the customer's log. How far that goes depends on your mail provider; we look at it in the first call.
Can we make quotes from the CRM?
Yes. A quote from the customer's data, with your own template and VAT per line, and its status in the follow-up. How AI can draft a first version is on the AI quote generator page.
Is a custom CRM not more expensive than HubSpot or Pipedrive?
In the first year usually yes. Over several years and with many users often not, because no licence per user comes on top. If a package will do, we say so.
What does custom CRM development cost?
It depends on the steps in your follow-up, the number of users and the integrations. Once we have mapped your follow-up together, you get a price for the first version.
Web application
How VBS helps you with this
We build software in the browser for your whole team, on every computer and phone, around the way you work.
- Roles and permissions per person
- Links to your accounting and your email
- Releases without downtime, with backup and rollback
How we approach it is on our page about Web application.
No more enquiries falling between two inboxes?
Show us how you follow up customers today. We will sketch a CRM that does exactly that.
Rather get in touch right away?