Freshworks CRM Review

Freshworks
Product:
Vendor:
Founded:
Headquarters:
Freshworks CRM
Freshworks
2010
San Mateo, CA
Ownership:
Customers:
Deployment Model:
Free Trial:
Private
50,000+
Cloud
Yes

Freshworks CRM At A Glance

Good: Freddy AI feature that perform predictive contact scoring and other automated tasks, robust omnichannel communication, choice of scalable plans for both small and large teams.
Bad: Slight learning curve for some users.
Bottom Line: Unified CRM platform that empowers Sales and Marketing teams to engage with prospects, convert leads and close deals.

Product Overview

Freshworks CRM (formerly Freshsales) uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help Sales and Marketing teams personalize customer engagements. It’s built on the Freshworks Neo platform, which offers developer-friendly tools and enterprise scalability. Freshworks CRM’s unique feature is Freddy AI, which helps users achieve their goals with smart automation and personalized insights.

The software has numerous benefits, such as:

  • Built-in email and phone capabilities
  • Integration with over 640 third-party applications via Freshworks Marketplace
  • Multilanguage and multicurrency features
  • Available for all company sizes
  • Scalable pricing plans

Features

Freshworks CRM has robust features. We’ve discussed its key ones below.

Customization – Freshworks CRM offers customization features to fit a company’s unique needs. Users can set up contact lifecycle stages based on their processes, create custom modules to capture additional data and configure specific fields (e.g., date, checklists).

Productivity – There are several features for automating manual tasks. Users can set up specific workflows using a point-and-click interface. There’s also the Sales Sequences feature that automates activity sequences for managing outbound campaigns. It has two types: Classic Sequences (automatic sequence for specific contacts on specific days) and Smart Sequences (custom outreach based on prospects’ activities). Additional productivity features include task management, auto-assignment rules for leads and internal notifications.

Communication – Users can reach out to prospects by phone, email, SMS or chat. The software built-in cloud telephony features, such as virtual phone numbers, click-to-call, call recordings, call notes and coaching. Users can send and receive emails from the software, and the two-way email sync feature automatically maps incoming messages to the respective contact.

Users can add a chat window to their site for qualifying leads and increasing conversions, respond to messages via SMS, WhatsApp and Apple Business Chat, and communicate with other users via Slack.

Pipeline management – Reps can see all stages of the sales funnel on one screen and move deals between different stages. They can also track multiple pipelines. Additional features are goal setting, sales forecasting, the ability to track a product catalog and highlighting rotting deals for reps to focus on.

Marketing automation – Marketers can set up or edit campaign journeys (e.g., nurture events, cart abandonment, upsell) with the journey builder, and they can schedule journey communications and see the journey’s metrics, too.

Marketers can build lists or segments based on criteria like demographics, location or behavior. Freshworks CRM provides web forms for capturing leads. There are two types of web forms: Classic Forms and Smart Forms. Marketers can use Classic Forms for creating new forms or Smart Forms for using existing ones.

Freddy AI – Some Freddy AI features include automatic enrichment of contact profiles, alerts about duplicate leads and out-of-office email detection. The predictive contact scoring feature prioritize contacts for engagement by combing through historical data and assigning scores to contacts. Freddy AI can also serve as a website lead generation tool because it collects information from visitors and gives them recommendations based on relevant context. Lastly, the deals insights feature helps reps close deals faster by giving them a prediction score based on historical data.

Analytics – The software has standard and custom reports, and users can analyze metrics, such as conversions, win-loss and source attribution.

Mobile functionality – Sales reps can use the mobile app to send emails, organize tasks, make calls and record voice notes. They can also book Uber rides for offsite meetings and use the Check-in feature to let their team know they’re offline.

Target Market

Freshworks CRM targets companies of all sizes in various industries, such as retail, education, hospitality, health care and manufacturing. We’ve listed 10 of its customers below.

  • Cisco
  • FabHotels
  • General Electric
  • Grabyo
  • Honda
  • Puma
  • Purdue University
  • Shaw Academy
  • TeamViewer
  • Vice Media Group

Implementation/Integration

Companies that want to enroll in a paid plan can sign up for a 21-day free trial. They can sign up online and begin using the software quickly. At the end of the trial, they can add their credit card information to their account and select a subscription plan. Freshworks also provides implementation support, such as software customization to address a client’s unique requirements.

Freshworks CRM integrates with other Freshworks products and third-party systems, such as project management solutions, Google, Outlook, collaboration tools and marketing automation software.

Customer Service & Support

Freshworks CRM has a knowledge base with how-to guides and articles on best practices. Users can also submit a ticket or contact support 24/5 by email, phone or chat. Enterprise plan users can also contact their account manager.

The Freshworks Academy includes courses for users that want to gain better skills in sales, marketing or customer service.

Pricing

Freshworks CRM has a free startup plan that includes contact management, deal management, website integration, the ability to call and chat with contacts, a mobile app with basic features (e.g., recording voice notes, booking Uber rides, Google Maps, caller ID) and 24/5 support.

There are three plans (billed annually), which are:

  • Growth – The Growth plan costs $15 per user, per month and includes basic segmentation, basic custom features (e.g., custom fields, customer profile avatars, record tags, product catalogs, integration with SMS and Facebook Messenger, predictive contact scoring, visual sales pipelines, rotten deals, integration with Slack, up to 20 workflows, up to 2 GB per user, two-way email sync, up to five sales sequences, a team inbox, default and custom reports and dashboards, integration with Freshworks Marketplace and additional mobile functionality (e.g.,  check-in and automatic call logging).
  • Pro – The Pro plan costs $39 per user, per month and includes all of the features of the Growth plan, plus behavioral segmentation, offline events, custom sales activities, an activity home dashboard, Freddy AI features, integration with WhatsApp and Apple Business Chat, up to 10 multiple sales pipelines, up to 50 workflows, time-based workflows, custom fields, up to 10 sales sequences, up to 50 sales teams, sales goals, territory management, up to 5 GB per user, advanced call queues, Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC), conference calling and offline mode on mobile app.
  • Enterprise – The Enterprise plan costs $69 per user, per month and includes all of the features of the Pro plan, plus auto-profile enrichment, a sales and marketing home dashboard, advanced CRM customization, website and in-app tracking, custom sales activities, 10 custom modules, field-level permissions, up to 100 workflows, up to 100 sales teams, up to 25 sales sequences, 100 GB per user, sales forecasting, forecasting insights, advanced calling features (e.g., warm transfer, holiday routing, queue callback, call recording opt-in/opt-out) and advanced metrics.

Freshworks CRM offers optional features, such as additional workflows ($5 per user, month), additional phone credits (starting at $25 per user, per month) and custom price quotes ($19 per user, per month)

For companies that want to add their marketers to the software, there’s the Freshworks Suite. The free plan accommodates up to 100 marketing contacts and includes contact and account management, built in email, chat and phone, contact lifecycle stages, 24/5 support and a mobile app.

There are three paid plans (billed annually):

  • Growth – The Growth plan costs $15 per user, per month with up to 1,000 marketing contacts and includes all of the features of the free plan, plus predictive contact scoring, a drag-and-drop journey builder, a visual sales pipeline, workflows and custom reports and dashboards.
  • Pro – The Pro plan costs $39 per user, per month with up to 1,000 marketing contacts and includes all of the features of the Growth plan, plus multiple sales pipelines, a product catalog, AI-powered deals insights and next best action, sales teams and territory management and integration with WhatsApp Business.
  • Enterprise – The Enterprise plan costs $69 per user, per month with up to 1,000 marketing contacts and includes all of the features of the Pro plan, plus auto-profile enrichment, custom modules, transactional emails, forecasting insights and a dedicated account manager.

Shortcomings

Some users have experienced a slight learning curve and have found the setup process to be cumbersome.

Screenshots

Freshworks Screenshot 1
Freshworks Screenshot 2
Freshworks Screenshot 3

About

Freshworks’ mission is to provide organizations with an easy-to-use customer engagement solution so that they can build better relationships with customers. It launched in 2011 as a customer service software and has grown its product portfolio since then with Freshworks CRM (2016), Freshworks 360 Multiproduct Suite (2018) and Freshsuccess (2020).

Freshworks has received many accolades, including recognition from Gartner (e.g., 2020 Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Engagement Center, 2019 Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation) and the Forbes‘ 2019 Cloud 100 List. It’s headquartered in San Mateo, CA, and has offices in India, Australia, Germany, France, Singapore, the Netherlands and the U.K.

Send feedback or corrections to feedback@betterbuys.com.

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