Banking CRMs in 2024

Introduction

The financial and banking sector has a high-touch sales model with distinct customer needs, so it’s only right that institutions leverage a customer relationship management platform for their customer engagement needs.

Banking Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems act as unified platforms that store all client information in a centralized location while offering extensive automation, engagement, and customization features. An advanced system should offer both robust lead management and a unified view of current clients to keep a steady stream of new business rolling in while building stronger relationships within the bank’s existing clientele.

What is a banking CRM?

A banking CRM system is a specialized software platform designed to help financial institutions manage and nurture their relationships with customers more effectively. 

These systems consolidate client data from various touchpoints, such as in-person interactions, phone calls, emails, chat, SMS and social media interactions. By centralizing customer data, banking CRM software provides a comprehensive view of each client's profile and services availed. This enables relationship managers to tailor their interactions to further convince the client to avail new services from the bank.

Benefits of using a CRM for banking

The advantages of implementing a CRM system within your institution’s infrastructure are specific to a bank’s sales needs. For instance, if you’re struggling to tailor communication to sell your insurance product, the CRM’s profiling, lead qualification, and email personalization capabilities can enable you to target the right set of policy buyers.

In general, some of the key advantages experienced by banking establishments include:

Generate leads

A major benefit of CRM systems is their ability to track a potential client’s interactions across different digital channels like website, web app, social media handles, etc. By identifying potential buying signals in these communication channels, banks can proactively engage with prospects and nurture them through the buy process. 

For instance, if a CRM system detects that a lead has been browsing mortgage calculators on the bank's website, it can follow up with tailored emails or offers related to mortgage offerings.

Integrate with other tools

Financial institutions should integrate their CRM software with existing IT infrastructure to ensure data synchronization and frictionless communication between systems.

Connection with the core banking system is vital, as it houses essential customer account data, transaction records, and financial information. By integrating with core banking systems, CRM platforms can access real-time account details, allowing client servicing teams to provide more personalized service and track client interactions across channels.

Refined sales pipeline

CRM systems enable banks to capture leads from various sources, such as website inquiries, marketing campaigns, referrals, and customer interactions.

With them, potential clients are categorized, scored, and prioritized based on predefined criteria, allowing sales teams to focus their efforts on the most promising customers. For instance, a CRM platform that’s integrated with a credit reporting agency can automatically evaluate a potential client’s credit score to assess whether or not they’re an ideal candidate for a loan or credit card.

Enhanced customer relationships

When utilizing CRM software, banks can examine in-depth analytics to measure customer satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty. 

By analyzing client feedback, Net Promoter Scores (NPS), and other metrics, financial institutions can identify areas for improvement and prioritize initiatives to enhance customer satisfaction. These platforms also enable targeted marketing campaigns based on client preferences and behaviors, allowing banks to deliver relevant communications to unique segments. 

Key features to look for in banking CRMs

To identify which features you require in a banking CRM system, you’ll want to conduct a thorough assessment of your business operations to identify pain points and organizational objectives. Once you’ve done this, perform extensive research on CRM providers, looking for a platform that offers specific solutions that address your unique challenges.

Streamlined communication

Through integration with various communication channels, CRM software ensures that bank representatives possess a unified view of all interactions with each client. 

This enables seamless omni-channel interactions, allowing the sales teams to offer a consistent service regardless of the channel used. By eliminating silos, CRM software streamlines communication processes, reduces duplication of efforts, enhances collaboration among team members and ensures the banks provide a consistent customer experience.

Customization

Banking CRMs offer advanced customization features for modules, automation, workflows, and integrations to help tailor them to fit their unique business needs. 

Institutions can create custom modules to manage retail and corporate banking, configure automated workflows to expedite routine tasks, trigger follow-up actions, and enforce rules based on predefined criteria. For instance, if a client interacts with an agent about setting up a new savings account, a follow-up email can be triggered with detailed resources on annual percentage yields (APYs) and how to manage their new account, with a link to provide feedback included as well.

AI capabilities

With an AI-powered banking CRM, financial institutions can personalize their sales outreach efforts, gain deep insights about their clients, go after high-value deals and ensure faster conversion.

Additionally, the vast majority of customer communication can be handled by chatbots, as it’s estimated that AI can now deflect up to 90% of all financial interactions.

Strong data analytics 

CRM systems offer comprehensive reporting capabilities to help visualize key performance indicators (KPIs). CRM analytics dashboards provide interactive visualizations such as charts, graphs, and heatmaps to highlight trends and opportunities.

Another crucial component of the software’s insight capacity is its predictive analytics. By leveraging advanced statistical techniques, CRM platforms can analyze historical data to forecast future customer behavior and preferences. This preemptive approach can assist banks in anticipating client churn, identifying cross-selling opportunities, and mitigating risks such as fraud or default. 

10 best CRMs for banking

Freshsales

Freshsales is an AI-powered, easy-to-use banking CRM that provides a 360-degree view of client profiles, friendly customization features, intuitive pipeline management and advanced automation capabilities. With Freshsales CRM, banks can understand their client requirements better, go after high-quality prospects, increase sales productivity, and drive more revenue. 

Moreover, Freshsales offers multichannel engagement capability including in-built phone, email, SMS, and chat that ensures your client relationship team interact more contextually and provide impressive customer service. 

Key features:

• Custom modules to create and manage both retail and corporate banking clients

• Workflows to configure sales process automation like sending follow up emails, setting up reminders, and assigning leads to relevant sales teams.

• Freddy AI-powered contact scoring and deal insights identify and convert high-intent leads helping them save hours of data analysis

• Freddy AI Copilot assists with crafting personalized emails for customer outreach 

• Freddy AI-powered chatbot can deflect a high number of routine banking inquiries to free up time for human assets

• IntelliAssign feature automatically routes interactions to the most appropriate representative – this can be particularly valuable for time-sensitive financial concerns like fraud

• Extensive role-based permissions can safeguard sensitive banking information from unauthorized access

• Multi-currency and -language capabilities make it easy to cater to a global client base dealing with distinct currencies

• Robust API access and Marketplace enable easy integration with existing IT infrastructure and third-party applications

• Sales sequences tool facilitates the implementation of outreach campaigns with predetermined triggers for better prospecting

Pros

• Table, list and Kanban views improve visualization and workflow

• Rich APIs and 100+ third-party application integrations

• Omni-channel capabilities via email, live chat, phone, messenger, and more

• Wide-ranging mobile capacity + offline mode available

• AI-driven deal insights can predict closures based off historical activity

• 24x5 dedicated email, phone, and chat support

Price-

• Starts at $9/user/month and offers more plans based on a bank’s growing business needs

Why customers love Freshsales:

Our clients rave about Freshsales’ unmatched flexibility, enabling it to be utilized in any industry, including banking. Features such as Freddy AI, sales forecasting, and onboarding assistance optimize internal operations, while clients will appreciate personalized communication, 24/7 availability, and the option to reach your business on any platform. One of our many satisfied clients on G2 praises Freshsales’ intuitive interface and wealth of tools, saying, “Freshsales is incredibly user friendly compared to other CRMs available; of all those I've used, Freshsales has enabled the greatest speed to confidence. Combining ease of use with an abundance of features has made it possible to shape Freshsales into a CRM that fits exactly what we need.”

Zendesk

Zendesk is a comprehensive sales engagement solution used globally by businesses of all sizes. Its features include multi-channel communication, a ticketing system, data management, collaboration tools, and more.

Key features

• Bulk email feature allows establishments to distribute mass messaging to segmented groups of clients; merge tags can automatically pull in their info from CRM database

• Customized sales triggers reduce manual workload by automating specific parts of agents’ workflows

• Sales forecasting evaluates client data and behaviors to evaluate the probability of winning a deal and when closure is most likely to occur

Pros

• Functional mobile app and API access enable availability from anywhere while ensuring connection with existing systems

• Activity reporting, performance metrics, and custom dashboards verify that institutions possess enhanced visibility of valuable data

• Connects particularly well with email, auto-populating personalized emails and providing insights into when a prospect opens, clicks, or replies to a message

Cons

• Excessive amount of features can be overwhelming for those seeking to use the platform in a specific way

• Starter plan is pricey compared to other similar solutions

• No ability to leave comments within tickets, resulting in lack of context and disconnect between different channels

Price

Starts at $55 per user per month, while you’ll need to contact Zendesk directly for a quote on their top-tier Suite Enterprise package

Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a sales-focused CRM platform that offers enhanced flexibility to meet the needs of organizations in nearly any industry. Its tunnel vision on optimizing processes for sales teams specifically may result in it falling short in other CRM capabilities.

Key features:

• Recurring revenue allows establishments to identify repeat customers to craft personalized communications and send specialized offers

• Lead-generation chatbots engage with website visitors 24/7 to help drive conversion

• AI-driven sales assistant provides behavior-based cards with performance tips, recommended features, app integrations, and more

Pros:

• Smart contact data provides valuable customer information from across the web and consolidates it into a single location

• Easily import data from other software within minutes

• Extensive automation capacity can create a deal when a new contact is added, transfer ownership as a deal progresses, and more

Cons:

• Restrictive email synchronization – only a limited number of accounts can connect on most plans

• Limited customization in fields, analytics, and task management

• Mobile app is error-prone and offers fewer features compared to desktop version

Price:

Begins at $14 per user per month, up to $99 per user per month

Monday sales CRM

Monday is a highly flexible CRM platform and sales tool used to help collect, nurture, and convert qualified leads. Once a deal is won, all post-sales activities can be managed directly from Monday’s platform as well.

Key features

• Team goals feature allows for unambiguous objective-setting, while managing teams’ quota attainment, deal wins, and individual benchmarks

• Call logging tool records extensive data on voice communications, while automatically providing a summary screen and suggesting prebuilt responses

• Real-time dashboard enhances visibility by providing up-to-the-minute deal progress, sales figures, and team performance

Pros

• Extensive no-code customization makes it an ideal choice for non-tech-savvy teams

• Offers over 500 third-party integrations to unify workflows

• Robust email features including seamless synchronization, mass distribution, and AI-assisted composition

Cons

• Difficult to track time and expenses to determine if resource allocation is optimal

• Task view can be both limited and confusing, potentially causing some duties to slip through the cracks

• Limited dashboard customization makes it challenging to mold to individual agents’ preferences

Price

Begins at $12 per user per month, while you’ll need to contact Monday directly for a quote on their higher-tier Enterprise plan

Salesforce

Salesforce is a well-rounded CRM software for sellers, sales leaders, and operations professionals aimed at boosting engagement and enhancing productivity. It’s fully customizable and consolidates all contact information in a unified platform that incorporates marketing, sales, customer service, and more.

Key features:

• Self-Service Experience empowers clients to resolve to routine issues autonomously

• AI-powered chatbots can instantaneously reply to customer inquiries with personalized communication

• Customer Signals utilizes Einstein Conversation Insights (ECI) to automatically analyze interactions to enhance visibility into competitors, objections, or questions asked

Pros:

• Wide-ranging customization features are ideal for fast-growing establishments

• Automated proactive messaging can distribute payment reminders and personalized offers

• Extensive lead management and scoring tools assist in zeroing in on high-quality prospects

Cons:

• Higher-tiered plans are expensive when compared to similar providers

• Reports are challenging to create and manage, as well as slow to load

• Small and medium-sized financial institutions may find the overabundance of tools to be unnecessary, particularly considering the cost

Price:

Begins at $25 per user per month, up to $165 per user per month

SugarCRM

SugarCRM optimizes customer relationship management processes, allowing banks to focus on engaging with their clients and enhancing sales operations. It offers an abundance of tools to help drive revenue, increase efficiency, and shorten sales cycles.

Key features

• Cross-selling and upselling suggestions create opportunities to offer additional products or services that may be useful for clients

• Predictive AI offers reliable next-step advice so that representatives can take appropriate actions to move potential clients further down the sales funnel

• Sales intelligence insights help identify the opportunities most likely to close, assisting in allocating resources and accelerating deal life cycles

Pros

• AI-powered autopilot can automate business rules, email templates, monitoring, and more

• Time-bound data helps measure KPIs over specific periods to compare past performance against current progress

• Wide-ranging omnichannel capacity that retains context between channels for enhanced transparency

Cons

• Non-intuitive interface may present challenges for some users

• Forced updates alter the system whether you want it or not

• Most of the useful AI-based tools are reserved for most expensive package

Price

From $19 per user per month, up to $135 per user per month

Creatio

Creatio provides a no-code platform to automate workflows while offering maximum personalization. It provides independent modules focused on sales, marketing, and service operations to enhance customer journey management from beginning to end. 

Key features:

• Guided selling tools offer intelligent recommendations, sales playbooks, and decision paths to drive clients to purchase

• Loyalty and reward features provide automated reward bonus programs and management of multiple loyalty solutions in one location.

• Sales performance analysis provides KPIs as well as historical analysis to help identify areas for improvement and refine strategies

Pros:

• Banking-specific attributes like loan application management and debt collection make it a relevant selection for financial institutions

• AI-powered reminders to follow up on client interactions

• Robust project management capacity for both internal and external projects

Cons:

• Marketplace offers limited integration with useful third-party applications

• Communication with clients can become jumbled and difficult to follow across channels

• Many features are aimed at product-based businesses, so institutions, like banks, will have to integrate with third-party apps for more-service-focused tools

Price:

From $25 per user per month, up to $85 per user per month

Vymo

Vymo is a leading sales engagement platform specifically aimed at financial institutions, improving sales productivity and engagement effectiveness. It leverages AI-enabled technology to manage leads by categorizing opportunities and suggesting meeting times.

Key features

• Nudge and Intervention features recommend next best actions and coach agents based on what’s working for the top 10% of sellers

• Auto-detection assesses the suitability of potential clients based on risk profiles, recommending engagement actions or suggesting manager intervention

• Intelligently connects clients to the best-matched advisors, assessing activity levels to plan calls per day and visits per week

Pros

• Automated engagement planning that can identify upselling and cross-selling opportunities

• Ability to automate compliance and reduce costs through timely interventions

• Real-time activity allocation can direct tasks to sellers that are in proximity to the sales activity

Cons

• Constant bugs sometimes render the platform unresponsive

• User reviews mention that updates aren’t in real-time and occasionally take days to refresh

• Lack of features can leave much to be desired for institutions seeking to utilize the platform in a specific manner

Price

You’ll need to contact Vymo directly to receive a custom quote for your specific establishment’s needs

HubSpot

HubSpot is a powerful CRM system that includes sales engagement tools and sales analytics for growing teams. HubSpot’s suite of software includes sales, marketing, operations, and customer service solutions.

Key features:

• Client feedback surveys allow for the straightforward creation and distribution of forms to gather feedback and improve operations

• Custom Report Builder provides easy-to-understand visualizations of all CRM information, enabling businesses to employ data-driven strategy adjustments

• Playbooks tool empowers sales teams with scripts, competitor information, and positioning guides 

Pros:

• Robust knowledge base capacity empowers staff and allows customers to help themselves

• Contact management provides an overview of customer lifecycles

• Facebook and Instagram lead ads automatically capture contact information and sync with your HubSpot account

Cons:

• Restricted personalization which may not be ideal for organizations with unique needs

• Pricing structure can be prohibitive for smaller businesses

• Steep learning curve that may require assistance from a technical expert

Price:

Starts at $90 per user per month, up to $150 per user per month

Nextiva

Nextiva is a CXM company that specializes in voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) services. From a single AI-powered communication hub, institutions can engage with clients via voice video, chat, social media, and email.

Key features

• Call Pop feature instantly displays important client details like sentiment, survey responses, and account value for enhanced personalization

• Robust sales pipeline breaks down which team members are working on which projects, tracks deals in real-time, and manages deadlines and tasks

• Natural language processing (NLP) capacity automatically analyzes conversations and helps sales teams interpret client needs to take appropriate actions

Pros

• Highest-priced package is affordable compared to providers with similar offerings

• Shared contact management provides all team members with access to client history, interactions, and call transcriptions

• Easily send automated welcome messages, surveys, campaigns, and more to ensure clients have a positive first impression of your establishment

Cons

• Heavily focused on VoIP at the expense of other digital channels

• Only one-way syncing available – adjustments made in Nextiva are not reflected in online contacts directory

• Limited management features that restrict its scalability

Price

Begins at $18.95 per user per month, up to $32.95 per user per month

Meet your banking CRM needs with Freshsales

Freshsales serves as a full-feature sales CRM that offers financial institutions all the tools they’ll need to enhance lead generation while keeping current clients satisfied.

With Freshsales, enjoy access to features like contact scoring, deal insights, and weighted pipelines to keep potential clients rolling in, while utilizing attributes such as auto-profile enrichment, IntelliAssign, and custom chatbots to personalize interactions and improve availability for both existing customers and leads alike.

Freshsales’ unmatched flexibility makes it a suitable solution for however you plan to utilize it. Sign up for a free trial or request a demo to experience the Freshsales advantage for yourself today!