6 of the Best CRM Solutions for Dubai Businesses

Deciding which CRM to use in Dubai can be challenging. Dubai is a unique city, a transient place, with many people coming for a few years and then promptly moving on. While this dynamic is changing, it has given Dubai businesses their own set of challenges which are drastically different from what business owners may face in other major cities.

Customer Relationship Management tools in Dubai bring more power than in other cities. With many of Dubai's residents used to a sub-par level of customer service, implementing a CRM system to nurture customer relationships can help to propel a business far ahead of its competition.

Dubai's key industries like hospitality, healthcare and real estate can benefit immensely from a solid CRM and we've created this handy list for you to review which one would be the best for your business.

What's Needed in a Dubai CRM?

Selecting a CRM in Dubai is not quite as straightforward as it may be in an American or European city, the needs for Dubai businesses are different, pricing is typically not going to be in Dirham, and support is probably going to be offshore. Therefore, it's essential for Dubai businesses to consider the following when looking for their CRM:

Prevalence in Dubai

Getting up to speed and leveraging the tool to its fullest is much easier when local peers and forums are sharing their experiences with the same tool in the same market.

Economical

As it is not likely to find pricing in Dirham, it is worth choosing a CRM option in USD, due to the fact that the Dirham is tagged to the USD. This will help businesses to avoid the fluctuations that can come with paying for services in different currencies.

International or 24-hour support

If a support centre is not 24 hour, it needs to be in a convenient location to suit Dubai's operating hours.

Local support

Local support services are ideal to ensure businesses aren't left in the dark and can get access to set-up, consultations and maintenance.

User-friendly

As Dubai is a small market, most teams are nimble and hands-on. All tools should be user-friendly allowing anyone in the organisation to jump on and navigate with ease.

Business size

The ideal CRM for an SMB (1-1000 employees) will not be the same as the ideal CRM for an enterprise organisation (1000+ employees).

Dubai's Top CRM Options

All of the options below are reliable choices, but of course, they all meet different needs, and it is up to every business leader to consider their unique situation; size, budget and requirements, to determine which option is going to serve them best now and into the future.

HubSpot CRM

HubSpot has an intuitive CRM that is easy to use, is wildly popular across Dubai and is completely free! The platform allows for 1,000,000 contacts and unlimited users while it offers free live support whether users are on the free CRM or have paid for the advanced features.

The free version covers everything from a fully functional CRM to the Sales Hub, with integrations of Gmail and Outlook calendars and email, as well as customisable contact properties, deal stages, pipeline, opportunity tracking, tasks, website chat and bots, email tracking, reporting, meeting scheduling link per user. Upgrading to HubSpot Sales Professional gives users multiple pipelines, and integrating HubSpot Marketing allows businesses to bring campaign management and marketing automation integrations into the CRM.

HubSpot CRM is free but has advanced sales and marketing features which range from $50p/month for HubSpot Sales, Marketing or Service Starter, which removes HubSpot branding and gives salespeople access to email automation sequences, to $400p/month for HubSpot Professional, which includes five licences. They offer free trials so that potential customers can try before they buy.

Salesforce

Salesforce.com is a tried, tested and exceptionally reliable CRM that has been in the market for ages. Salesforce Essentials gives users basic contact management features, along with task and event tracking, Outlook & Gmail integration, mobile app access, a content library, reporting, and Chatter (their internal chat tool).

The number of contacts and data storage depends on the plan selected, as does access to free live support, meaning that smaller businesses or those with a more modest budget, aren't going to get the same value from this CRM.

Pricing starts at $25 user/month for Salesforce Essentials, $100 user/month for Salesforce Lightning Professional, and up to $325 user/month for Lightning Unlimited; all products require an annual contract, and they offer a 30-day free trial so that users can test before committing.

Microsoft Dynamics 365

Microsoft Dynamics is an enterprise-grade platform with loads of features available, depending on your budget. This platform is comprehensive and therefore will need a dedicated person to manage it.

The marketing campaign app allows for 2,000 contacts with 10 or more users of Customer Engagement and Dynamics 365 Plans. Like Salesforce, the number of contacts and data storage depends on the plan selected; the same goes for free live support.

Pricing starts at $115 user/month for the Customer Engagement Plan, and up to $210 user/month for Dynamics 365 Plan, which gives users access to all the apps. As with the others, they have a 30-day free trial.

Zoho CRM

Zoho is an easy to use CRM that includes workflow automation, sales gamification, sales process builder (Zoho Professional), Google AdWords integration (Zoho Professional), and AI sales assistant (Zoho Enterprise). Contacts and data storage depends on the plan.

While they do offer free live support on all plans, there can be wait times of up to 8 hours on support queries. Premium support is available to avoid this but costs 20 per cent of the licence fees and is only available for accounts with 10 or more users.

Pricing starts at $12 user/month for Zoho Standard, $20 user/month for Zoho Professional, $35 user/month for Zoho Enterprise, and goes up to $100 user/month for Zoho Ultimate. Their free trial period is 15 days.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a lightweight, and sales orientated CRM that has intuitive lead management and is easily customisable. They also have an entertaining YouTube channel full of tutorials to make training easy. Pipedrive is suitable for smaller sales teams, with the Gold plan allowing for tracking of emails and logging of conversation history in the CRM.

They offer multiple pipelines and free live support in all of their plans, with the Platinum plan getting access to free over the phone support. Contacts and data storage depends on the plan.

Pricing starts at $15 user/month for Silver, $29 user/month for Gold, and goes up to $75 user/month for Pipedrive Platinum, billed annually. Monthly pricing is higher. They offer a trial period of just 14 days.

Infusionsoft

Infusionsoft is a CRM for small businesses which recently came number one as the best product for sales for small businesses by G2 Crowd. This powerful CRM allows businesses to keep on top of their leads and client needs.

The platform comes with comprehensive plans with data capture, sales and marketing solutions to help small businesses to capture leads, track behaviour and design campaigns, with features like unlimited landing pages, CRM, marketing automation, unlimited emails, invoices and payments, and free customer support.

Their plans start from $119 p/month for the Basic package, including 2,500 contacts, then goes to $299 for the Pro with 5,000 contacts and $399 p/month for the Premier plan with 10,000 contacts. They offer a free 30-day free trial.

All CRMs considered, we would recommend SMEs dig deeper into HubSpot, Zoho and Pipedrive, while enterprise organisations consider Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics.