A CRM for a trades business should do four jobs without you having to think about it: catch every enquiry, get quotes out and followed up, keep your diary of jobs straight, and get you paid. Anything that does not help with one of those four is a nice extra at best. This guide sets out what to look for in each area, the questions worth asking before you sign up, and the features that sound impressive but rarely matter to a plumber, electrician, roofer or builder.
Trades need a CRM built around the van, not the desk. Most CRMs were designed for office sales teams who sit in front of a screen all day and manage a pipeline of deals. A trades business works the other way round: the owner is usually the one doing the work, enquiries arrive by phone while their hands are full, and the paperwork happens in the evening or not at all.
That changes what good looks like. A trades CRM has to work well on a phone, capture the enquiries you could not answer, and do the follow-up on its own. If it relies on you remembering to log in and update records, it will be out of date within a fortnight.
This is the first thing to check, because a missed call is often a lost job. When you are on a roof or under a floor you cannot answer, and many callers will not leave a voicemail for a business they have never used. They ring the next number instead. We look at what to do about it in how to turn missed calls into booked jobs.
Look for:
You should be able to send a clear, branded quote from your phone while you are still on site, and the system should chase it for you if the customer goes quiet. Quotes that are never followed up are one of the biggest leaks in a trades business. Most customers who do not reply have not said no. They have got busy, or they are waiting on other prices.
Check whether follow-ups go out on their own on a schedule you set, whether you can see which quotes have been opened, and how easily an accepted quote turns into a booked job. Our simple quote follow-up routine explains the timing that tends to work.
A trades CRM should show you, in one place, what you are doing today, where you are going and what each customer is expecting. Look for job booking that syncs both ways with the calendar you already use, such as Google Calendar or Outlook, so you are not keeping two diaries.
Other things worth checking:
A good trades CRM turns a finished job into an invoice in a couple of taps and then chases the payment so you do not have to. Late payment is a cash flow problem for any small firm, and chasing customers yourself is awkward. Look for payment links that let customers pay by card or direct debit, automatic reminders for overdue invoices, and a connection to your accounting software, such as Xero or QuickBooks, so you are not typing everything twice.
For the chasing side in more detail, see how to chase unpaid invoices without the awkward phone call.
Plenty of CRM features are built for sales teams and add little for a trades business. Complicated sales pipelines with many stages, lead scoring, forecasting dashboards and marketing automation for thousands of contacts all look good in a demo, but they rarely earn their keep when the business is one to five people. Every extra screen is something to learn and something to keep up to date.
Be wary too of anything that needs a developer or a consultant to set up. If you cannot get it working yourself in an evening, it is probably more than you need.
Unavoidable CRM was built for small UK service businesses, with trades in mind from the start. It answers calls with an AI receptionist, texts back missed callers, sends quotes that follow themselves up, books jobs into your diary and turns quotes into invoices that are chased until they are paid. Calls, texts, WhatsApp and email sit together on each customer's record.
The best way to judge it is to run it on your own jobs. There is a 14-day free trial with no card needed. See how it works day to day on our trades page, check the plans on the pricing page, or browse more guides on the blog.
Try Unavoidable CRM free for 14 days, with no card needed.
Start free trial →