CRM for small business
Stop losing orders because nobody followed up in time.
If your customers live in WhatsApp, a notebook and a spreadsheet only you understand, start with one list of who to follow up today.
30 minutes. You choose the day and the time.
- Start from the stages for your trade
- Bring a CSV of up to 2,000 rows
- Daniel TanQuote sent, S$1,350, 2d overdue, Task: chase the quoteActive 6 days ago
- Kopi CornerJob booked, S$180, Today, Meeting, 2pm: job at the cafe
- Mrs RajanPaid, last job in July, Today, Task: ask if she'd like to book againBought from you once
- Ong & Sons OfficeEnquiry, Today, Task: send the yearly contract priceSource: referral
After the first job
The customer who ordered once is the one nobody calls back
Mrs Rajan bought from you in July. She'll need you again by October, and she'll go to whoever reminds her first. In a notebook, her name is on a page you won't turn to. Set her follow-up to In 3 months as the job finishes, and in October she's on your list.
01Today's list
See which customer to chase first.
You have two jobs to get to. Open Next activity due and you see who needs a call today, overdue first, with how late: "2d overdue". The Next line says why: a quote to chase, a job to confirm, a customer who's due again. So the calls you make between jobs are the right ones.
- Overdue ones first, with how late
- Tomorrow, Next week or In 3 months, in one tap
- On the list until you change the date
02When a job comes in
See every order by stage, from enquiry to paid.
An office asks for a yearly contract. The card moves from Enquiry to Quote sent to Job booked, each stage a column named in your own words. A quote that sits 14 days in one stage gets flagged, so the one nobody chased stands out.
- Rename any stage
- Several jobs on one customer
- Flagged after 14 days in one stage
03End of the month
See what's been paid this month, without a calculator.
Month end used to mean adding up bank transfers. Add an Amount paid field and a Date paid field, and the pipeline shows, in S$, what came in this month, how many jobs it was and the average per job, against a yearly goal you set. A finished job with no amount on it is flagged.
- What came in, by month, quarter or year
- Against a yearly goal you set
- Finished jobs with no amount, flagged
04Your staff
Give your staff the same list, without passing your phone around.
Your part-timer picks up a call while you're on a job, and the customer asks about last month's quote. Share the pipeline with your staff to view, use or manage, and they see the quote, the notes and the chats on the customer's record, on their own phone or laptop. When someone leaves, take away their access, and their customers stay with you.
- Each person on their own phone or laptop
- View, use or manage, and download separately
- Customers stay when someone leaves
05Day one
Bring the spreadsheet you keep now, and undo it if it goes wrong.
Your customers are in a sheet only you can read. Save it as a CSV of up to 2,000 rows and import it: columns are matched by name first, and a row that matches someone you already have is merged. Imported the wrong file? Undo it within a day.
- Up to 2,000 rows from a CSV
- Duplicates merged by email, phone or name
- Undo within a day
A week at an aircon firm
One aircon quote, from enquiry to paid
A fictional aircon servicing firm, and one customer through a week.
- Monday, 10:12amDaniel asks on WhatsApp about two new units for his flat.His chat files itself as a new card in Enquiry, with WhatsApp as the source.
- Monday, 4pmYou send him a quote for S$1,350.You move him to Quote sent and set the follow-up to Thursday.
- Thursday, 9amNo reply yet.He's on Next activity due, with "Task: chase the quote for two new units" beside his name.
- Thursday, 11amHe asks if Saturday works.You add the job to his card for Saturday at 10am and move him to Job booked.
- SaturdayThe units go in and he pays by PayNow.Job done, then Paid, with S$1,350 in Amount paid and a follow-up In 3 months for the first servicing.
Stages
Stages that follow a job from enquiry to paid.
Pick your trade when you start, and the board opens with its stages. Home services, cleaning and repairs starts with Enquiry, Quote sent, Job booked, Job done, Paid and Lost, and you can rename any of them in your own words. Eight sets come ready, from general sales and property to tuition, clinics and recruitment.
Goes well with
Ready to see this week's quotes on one list?
Bring the spreadsheet you keep now.
30 minutes. You choose the day and the time.
Before you move your customers in
Too busy serving customers to keep a CRM updated?
The one you'll still keep up in three months. For most small businesses that means it starts from the spreadsheet you have, keeps the WhatsApp chats on the customer's record and opens on who to follow up today. Palby CRM is built around those three.
Mostly as you finish a chat or a call. Pick the next follow-up date, Tomorrow or Next week, and you're done. Customers with no date land in No next step, so you can see who you forgot to plan.
No. Pick your trade, import your sheet and give the customers you're chasing a follow-up date. Your phone's contacts come in as a .vcf file too. The walkthrough covers the rest in 30 minutes.
No. It keeps what each quote is worth on the deal and what each customer has paid. The quote and the bill still go out from wherever you make them now.
Not Palby CRM. It keeps the chats on the record and tells you who to follow up. Answering enquiries for you is a separate Palby product: see how Palby answers WhatsApp enquiries.
There's no price list on the site yet. You'll get the price for your team on the walkthrough, before you commit to anything.