Industry-specific CRM or General Use CRM: Which to Use in 2022?

Customer relationship management (CRM) software generally provides businesses with a centralized location to input, store, and manage leads and customer interactions. Industry-specific CRMs offer more niche and specialized tools to help particular business types, including insurance, healthcare, real estate, and hospitality, and move customers and prospects through sales cycles more quickly.

In this article, we examine the differences between general-purpose CRMs versus industry-specific CRMs, helping users determine if a niche CRM is suitable for them. We also discuss in detail the most popular types of industry-specific CRMs, as well as top providers for each.

General-purpose CRM vs Industry-specific CRM

If you want to understand whether your business will benefit from an industry-specific CRM or if you are better off with a general-purpose one, check out our quick comparison below between the two types of CRMs.

Visual representations of the comparison between General-purpose CRM and Industry-specific CRM.

General-purpose CRMs

General-purpose CRMs offer various features and functionalities that can be used by a wide range of companies. They typically offer universal sales, marketing, and service tools that different users can customize or use no matter what industry they serve. Due to its nature, general-purpose CRMs can be integrated with a wide range of third-party applications, including customer service, social media, and accounting software.

General-purpose CRMs range from simple ones that provide users with basic features, including lead, contact, and opportunity management. Meanwhile, advanced ones offer users sophisticated functionalities, including extensive customization options, sales and revenue prediction tools, and analytics.

Industry-specific CRMs

Industry-specific CRMs offer niche and specialized features and are designed with a specific industry’s business needs in mind. Industries with specialized CRMs include companies focusing on insurance, healthcare, real estate, hospitality, mortgage, call centers, and construction.

CRMs specifically designed for these industries typically have processes and ready-made tools that need minor customizations. For example, a CRM for the construction industry will usually have features for bidding proposal and cost estimation development, job site photo sharing, contract building, and document management. Industry-specific CRM providers are also able to provide specialized training and onboarding for industry professionals.

How to Find a Specialized CRM for Your Industry

Have you tried using general-purpose CRMs and didn’t think that it was the right fit for your business or just didn’t have the specific features you need? If you work for industries like insurance, healthcare, real estate, hospitality, mortgage, call centers, and construction, read on as we provide overviews of the most popular industry-specific CRMs. We also included links to the guide articles, including our top choices for each industry.

Accounting

CRMs for accounting professionals are designed to help accountants, bookkeepers, and finance staff manage invoicing and billing in a centralized platform. Fundamental features include invoice creation, payment processing, tax computations, access to open balances, subscription management, payment reminders, and financial report generation.

Zoho CRM is a robust CRM that provides features specifically helpful for accountants and bookkeepers. It has tools that enable users to generate quotes, invoices, and purchase orders. It also allows users to create product inventories and manage subscriptions for repeat customers.

Zoho CRM’s invoice generation feature lets users easily create and send invoices directly from the platform. (Source: Zoho CRM)

Looking for CRMs that are specifically helpful for accounting and finance professionals? Read our guide on the best CRMs for accountants and bookkeepers.

Property Management

CRMs for property management make it easy for landlords and property management firms to manage multiple properties in their portfolio, as well as their occupants and tenants. Some of its most essential features include payment collection, lease contract management, and lead generation for finding potential residents.

Bitrix24 offers property management firms and professionals an all-around solution to manage their various properties and leads. Its features include recurring invoices for rental payments and document management tools that generate, file, and track lease contracts. It also offers a web form creator to capture potential resident leads.

Bitrix's documents revision history shows the three actions on managing the documents.

Bitrix24’s document management tools allow users to save lease contract drafts in the software. (Source: Bitrix24)

Looking for CRMs to help you manage properties and tenants? Read our guide on the best property management CRMs.

Call Center

CRMs for the call center industry offer robust telephony functionalities for tracking and making business calls, as well as tools for contact and lead management. Essential features include VoIP-level in-app calling, call recording and routing, workflow automation, contact management, contact profile enrichment, and call analytics and reports.

Freshsales is an intuitive CRM with cloud-based, call center-specific tools, including a feature-rich in-app caller, call recording, and call masking. It allows users to purchase local and toll-free numbers based on their location. It also has a “smart escalation” feature that lets users configure a sequence of conditions and rules to route calls to the most appropriate agent or team.

Freshsales’ telephone features include an in-app caller, call notes, and analytics. (Source: Freshsales)

Looking for CRMs specific to the call center industry? Read our guide on the best CRM call center software.

HIPAA-compliant

HIPAA-compliant CRMs adhere to regulations that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) has put in place to set forth privacy and security standards for those providing health or wellness services. Apart from this, HIPAA-compliant CRMs also include tools to manage healthcare operations, such as patient record management and patient service support.

Caspio offers HIPAA-compliant database applications that can be made using point-and-click tools, as well as tools that allow users to build a system for medical equipment management and inventory tracking. It also has HIPAA-compliant appointment scheduling and reminder applications and features an easy-to-use business process automation design.

Caspio's point-and-click HIPAA-compliant apps.

HIPAA-compliant database applications can be made using point-and-click tools within Caspio. (Source: Caspio)

Are you working in the healthcare industry and are looking for HIPAA-compliant CRMs? Read our guide on the best HIPAA-compliant CRMs.

Real Estate

CRMs made for real estate professionals, including brokers and real estate firms, provide tools for managing property transactions, generating homebuying leads, and monitoring listings. It also offers marketing features that allow businesses to market to their leads via email, phone, online advertising, and social media.

Pipedrive, while commonly used as a general-purpose CRM, offers solutions that are particularly useful for real estate professionals. These include document management tools, email marketing functionality, and integrations with real estate platforms like Zillow, PropertyRadar, and Trulia.

Animated graphic that shows the Smart Data Search button feature of Pipedrive.

Pipedrive’s Smart Contact Data feature enables users to gain valuable insight into prospective buyers. (Source: Pipedrive)

Looking for the best CRM to manage various aspects of your real estate business? Read our guide on the best real estate CRM software.

Construction

CRMs for construction or contract labor businesses provide tools to manage contract leads, bids, and construction projects. They usually cover general contracting and specialty trades business operations, such as carpentry, demolition, plumbing, electric work, restoration, and welding.

JobNimbus offers general contractors easy-to-use templates for work estimates and work order conversion, as well tools for proposal building, job site picture sharing, and e-signatures. It also integrates with QuickBooks for invoicing, payment processing, and budgeting automation.

Material order information template from Job Nimbus.

JobNimbus has a work order builder that lets users easily input the details of their construction projects. (Source: JobNimbus)

Looking for the best CRM for the construction industry? Check out our guide on the best contractor and construction CRM software.

Insurance

CRMs made for the insurance industry can be used by independent insurance agents, brokers, and insurance firms. It typically includes tools to help insurance professionals prospect and nurture leads, track new deals and goals, and manage policies and plans. It also logs activities like emails and meeting interactions between agents and their customers into the system.

Radiusbob is an insurance-industry-specific CRM that offers voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) and call center features in addition to lead and sales management tools common to CRMs. It also features lead and pipeline automation tools, including automated workflows, lead distribution, and relationship nurturing.

Radius' lead information page that shows the "Notes & Conversations" form and past communication logs.

Radiusbob’s lead management page displays all pertinent information about a customer, including contact information and past communication logs. (Source: Radiusbob)

Looking for the best CRM for insurance professionals? Check out our guide on the best insurance CRM software.

Customer Service

CRMs designed for customer service focus on improving the quality of users’ customer service activities to increase retention and satisfaction. It allows users to communicate through multiple channels, build a unified team, and create a centralized database for customer interactions. It is typically a part of an integrated CRM system that also covers sales and marketing activities.

HubSpot’s Service Hub, which can be purchased on top of its free CRM, offers a wide range of customer service tools, such as chatbots, team email, canned snippets, and email templates. It provides various customer service-related reports, including tickets closed reports, agent rep productivity reports, and time-to-close reports.

HubSpot Service Hub inbox demo that shows create ticket form on the right side.

HubSpot Service Hub lets users create tickets from inquiries and complaints sent by the customers, so any agent can easily track its progress and view its history. (Source: HubSpot)

Nonprofit Organizations

CRMs for nonprofit organizations help charities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) raise funds, manage donor campaigns, and build volunteer relationships. Its common features include a centralized database for contact and donor information, communications history, and financial transactions. It must be able to pull and mine data to understand trends and use that information to attract prospective donors.

NeonCRM is a full-featured CRM for nonprofits that offers fundraising, donor management, and grant management tools. It has features for event planning and membership management, as well as tools for reporting and analytics. Its built-in email platform allows users to create and track mass email campaigns to both existing and prospective donors.

Fundraising KPIs from NeonCRM that show donations reporting and analytics.

NeonCRM offers helpful fundraising tools that include donation pages and forms, donation tracking, and reporting. (Source: NeonCRM)

Looking for the best CRM to manage the various aspects of your nonprofit organization? Read our guide on the best CRMs for nonprofits.

Mortgage

CRMs for businesses in mortgage sales offer a centralized platform to manage broker real estate properties and sell mortgage loans. It includes essential features to help users generate leads, market their product offerings, and automate clerical tasks. A robust mortgage CRM should also integrate with various loan origination software (LOS) for managing customer applications.

Jungo is a CRM for mortgage providers that integrates with LOS, like Encompass, Calyx, and Byte, to manage and approve loan applications on the mortgage side. It has a built-in customer review database where brokers can look up previous successes based on factors like interest rate and date of purchase for mortgage review presentations.

The contact management page from Jungo that shows all customer-related information.

Jungo’s lead and contact management page shows all customer-related information, including files, communication history, and existing contracts. (Source: Jungo)

Looking for the best CRM to manage the various aspects of your mortgage sales business? Check out our guide on the best mortgage CRM software.

Hospitality

CRMs for businesses engaged in hospitality services, such as restaurants, event planners, and hotels, provide tools to engage potential customers, schedule reservations or bookings, and manage event-based projects. It could also include marketing tools to promote sales through promotions or generate leads through online webforms and advertisements.

CaterZen is a CRM specifically designed for catering and restaurant businesses. It lets users manage delivery services through driver tracking, delivery schedule reporting, and the ability to obtain orders through a customizable, online ordering interface. It also lets users generate leads through webforms and email campaigns, and design systems for referral generation and loyalty programs.

An Online ordering tool from CaterZen that helps process and monitor customer orders.

CaterZen offers online ordering tools to help users easily process and monitor customer orders. (Source: CaterZen)

Looking for the best CRM to manage your business in hospitality? Read our guide on the best hospitality and hotel CRM software.

When to Use an Industry-specific CRM

Industry-specific CRMs are designed to address specific business needs, helping sales teams perform better. If you’ve tried using a general-purpose CRM before, but think it didn’t meet your expectations, consider switching to an industry-specific system. Below are some instances when you should consider subscribing to one:

You’re Looking for Highly Specialized Features

While some niche businesses benefit from using general-purpose CRMs, there are others that require highly specialized features due to their industry’s specific processes and workflows, such as hospitality and construction.

For example, hospitality CRMs built for restaurant businesses typically offer features like delivery schedule reporting, online order tracking, and management of reservations and bookings. Construction CRMs, on the other hand, offer features for proposal building and work order management.

You Are in a Highly Regulated Industry

One of the benefits of using an industry-specific CRM is that it is designed to address specific needs and challenges of particular industries. Hence, it doesn’t only offer niche features, but also designs the system to be compliant with specific regulations an industry might have. For example, healthcare CRMs are designed to be HIPAA-compliant and include features and restrictions that ensure and protect patient record privacy.

When Not to Use an Industry-specific CRM

While it offers features designed specifically for certain industries, using an industry-specific CRM should not always be the default choice. Below are some instances when you should consider using a general-purpose CRM instead:

You Mostly Need Fundamental Lead & Contact Management Tools

Some users belonging to niche industries who mostly use basic lead and contact management tools, pipeline tracking, and email marketing are better off with a general-purpose CRM. Unless you require highly specialized features, it’s not a cost-efficient business decision to subscribe to an industry-specific option. You may potentially end up not maximizing the niche tools included and would spend more on expensive subscription costs.

You Use a Specific Business Tool for Your Industry

If you have existing software, such as accounting software, then you do not need to subscribe to an industry-specific CRM. What you can consider is to purchase a general-purpose CRM and integrate it with your existing industry software. For example, if you’re using a construction management software like Procore, you can integrate it with a general-purpose CRM, such as Salesforce.

You Have a Limited Budget

Industry-specific CRMs typically cost more than general-purpose CRMs due to the specialized features they offer. A handful of general-purpose CRMs can cost as low as $10 to $15 per user, per month, and already come with robust sales and marketing features. Meanwhile, industry-specific CRM costs often start around $25 per user, per month for basic plans and reach enterprise-level pricing depending on the features needed.

Bottom Line

Industry-specific CRMs offer features extremely helpful for specific types of businesses. They address needs and challenges that general-purpose CRMs may not be able to answer, especially those in highly regulated industries. However, if your team mostly uses basic, fundamental CRM features, such as lead management and pipeline tracking, then you may be better off with a general-purpose CRM.