Keap CRM: Extensive CRM Automation for Small Businesses
Content
Updated On: October 1st, 2024
For entrepreneurs looking to automate and streamline processes, one American-based CRM company promises exactly that. Keap, originally founded in 2001, has carved out a niche in the CRM landscape, focusing specifically on small business owners and entrepreneurs who are looking for a simplified yet powerful solution to manage their customer interactions, sales, and marketing efforts.
In this review, we'll delve into the various features, strengths, and potential downsides of this CRM solution while also taking a look at what existing customers have to say about them. Whether you're a small business owner or an entrepreneur searching for a tool to simplify your daily operations, continue reading to find out if they’re the right solution for your needs!
Pros
Cons
Content
Quick Stats
Keap CRM Overview
Keap, formerly known as Infusionsoft, is a customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing/sales automation platform designed specifically for small businesses. Established in 2001, the company is headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, and has built a reputation for helping entrepreneurs and small business owners streamline their sales and marketing processes through powerful automation tools. Over the years, they have served over 200 thousand users across various industries, including consultants, marketing agencies, coaches, startups, and other growth-focused small businesses.
The platform offers a range of features that make it an ideal choice for small e-commerce businesses and service providers looking to automate essential business processes. These features include customer and lead management, email marketing, customizable sales pipelines, and tools for quotes, invoicing, and payment processing. One of the platform's standout features is its ability to integrate payment processing directly into the CRM, enabling businesses to manage their transactions and increase conversion rates through built-in checkout cart functionalities. Their easy-to-use automations reportedly save users up to 10 hours per week by eliminating repetitive manual tasks, such as sending follow-up emails and recording new leads after they complete forms on landing pages or social media platforms.
To protect accounts and secure sensitive data, the company provides user controls with various user roles, including admin, limited admin, manager, and staff. The platform also offers two-factor authentication (2FA) to add an extra layer of security. For their higher-tier clients, they can create custom user access and controls, ensuring that businesses can manage permissions according to their needs. They are also HIPAA-compliant, making them a secure option for industries like healthcare.
The platform takes privacy and data protection seriously, adhering to important laws such as the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and the e-Privacy Directive. These measures help ensure that businesses using their CRM can confidently handle customer data while staying compliant with evolving privacy regulations.
They have built a strong reputation in the industry and are accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB), holding an A+ rating. Additionally, they are recognized for their adaptability to various industries, from financial services and real estate to nonprofits and marketing agencies, making them a popular choice for growth-minded entrepreneurs.
Get a Great Deal On Your CRM Software!
Keap CRM Features & Services
Here, we will explore the key features and services offered by this CRM platform, designed to enhance customer relationship management, improve business workflows, and provide a customizable and intuitive user experience.
- User-friendly interface: The platform offers an intuitive, easy-to-navigate interface designed to minimize the learning curve and improve user productivity. Its drag-and-drop capabilities and customizable dashboards help users personalize the workspace to suit their specific needs
- Lead management: They work to simplify lead management with intuitive tools such as lead capture forms that embed custom forms on your landing pages, automated lead nurturing, lead scoring, and tagging; all to ensure that no opportunity is missed
- Pipeline management: Their drag-and-drop pipeline feature helps businesses track and manage leads efficiently. They also offer customizable pipelines where sales analytics are tracked and followed up with automated tasks and messages that move leads down the sales funnel
- Marketing automation: Some of their marketing automation tools include templates for common tasks, as well as the ability to build sequences that manage customer interactions based on personalized triggers, ensuring you’re always in touch at the right time
- Sales automation: The point behind their sales automation service is to make it easier to move leads through the pipeline while enhancing visibility into sales performance. That also includes automated lead follow-ups, the option to have multiple pipelines, as well as lead scoring in order to identify potential customers with the highest buying intent
- Lifecycle automation: They offer an end-to-end framework for small businesses to manage the complete customer lifecycle through funneling leads from landing pages or forms into the CRM, to ensuring a smooth onboarding process through consistent communications, follow-up texts, and professional emails. The platfrom also automates referral generation, feedback collection, and consistent communications
- Email marketing: Their email marketing features include automating emails based on client behavior, creating professional-looking emails, and A/B testing
- Text marketing: As for engaging customers through text marketing, they offer the feature of sending automated text messages based on customer actions, such as reminders for appointments or payment confirmations. This feature also includes customer segmentation and text notifications
- Reporting and analytics: They have advanced reporting tools to track every aspect of your sales and marketing efforts, including conversion tracking, campaign performance evaluation, and providing key metrics like total sales, quotes sent, and payments received in real time
- Integrations: The CRM can connect with over 5,000 apps via Zapier, allowing businesses to extend their automation strategies across multiple platforms. Some integrations include e-Commerce, lead generation, and workflow tools
- Business line: This feature provides a business number, automated replies, and voicemail customization. Their users have reported a 40% increase in clients after using the business line feature
- Invoicing and payment processing: This includes promo codes and upsell, payment integration with payment providers like Stripe, PayPal, and Eway, while their own Keap Pay system enables seamless transactions.
- Scheduling: This feature eliminates the need to use additional tools by syncing directly with Google and Outlook calendars. It also allows users to tailor their availability and details, automate reminders, and synch both mobile and desktop apps
- Keap for franchises: This is ideal for franchisors and franchisees which includes consolidation tools to manage sales and marketing in one place across multiple franchise locations, as well as campaign sharing and brand consistency across locations with templates and standardized marketing strategies
Keap CRM Plans & Prices
They offer a 14-day free trial—no credit card required—to allow new users to test the platform and decide if it’s the right solution for them. As for their paid plans, they have three main pricing plans designed to accommodate businesses of different sizes and operational needs.
- Max plan: This plan’s costs start at $249 per month, billed annually, or $299 on a monthly basis, which supports 1,500 contacts for 2 users. To add other users, you will need to pay $29 each. The plan’s features include email marketing, lead capture, landing pages, and invoicing management, and it’s ideal for small businesses just getting started with CRM and automation tools
- Plus plan: Costs start at $329 per month, billed annually, or $399 a month if billed monthly, which supports 2,500 contacts for 3 users. Additional users cost $29 each. This plan offers all the features in the max plan, plus lead optimization, eCommerce tools, and advanced reporting. It is suitable for growing businesses that need more sophisticated sales and marketing tools
- Ultimate plan: Costs for this plan start at $499 per month when billed annually, or $599 per month if billed monthly, which supports 2,500 contacts for 2 users. Extra users can be added for $29 each. The Scale plan includes everything in the plus plan, along with advanced marketing tools, user access controls, and enhanced reporting features. This plan is designed for larger businesses requiring more advanced automation and user management
Get a Great Deal On Your CRM Software!
Advantages of Keap CRM
- Intuitive interface: The user-friendly design of the CRM’s interface makes it easy for businesses to navigate the platform. Its intuitive layout reduces the learning curve, which is particularly beneficial for smaller businesses with limited technical expertise. This results in faster adoption of the CRM tools, thereby improving efficiency
- Extensive automation solutions: They excel in providing extensive automation tools that simplify business processes like marketing automation, sales automation, and holistic lifecycle automation. This advantage allows businesses to save time by automating repetitive tasks, freeing up resources to focus on growth
- Built-in payment processing: Their platform includes an integrated payment processor, Keap Pay, which simplifies the invoicing and payment collection process. This built-in feature eliminates the need for third-party payment tools, despite their availability, allowing businesses to streamline financial operations and track payments within the CRM platform itself
- 24/7 chat support and dedicated customer manager: They provide round-the-clock chat support, ensuring that users can get assistance whenever they encounter issues. Additionally, each business is assigned a dedicated customer success manager, providing a personalized approach to customer service. This level of support helps businesses resolve problems faster and optimizes the implementation of the CRM system to meet their unique needs
Possible Disadvantages of Keap CRM
- Expensive compared to competitors: Their pricing plans are significantly higher than many competing CRM platforms. While their feature set is robust, the high cost may deter small businesses or startups with limited budgets. For businesses looking to scale rapidly, the price can become a major hurdle, especially as the number of contacts grows
- Contact-based pricing: The pricing model is based on the number of contacts, meaning that costs can increase sharply as a business expands its customer base. This can make the software increasingly expensive over time, especially for companies experiencing rapid growth or handling large customer lists. Users must carefully monitor the number of contacts to avoid unexpected price hikes
- Additional fees: While they offer numerous third-party integrations, many of these require additional fees. This can drive up costs, especially for businesses that need to integrate with multiple tools. The extra expense could become burdensome for companies looking to maximize their software’s capabilities without exceeding their budget
- No free plan: Unlike some other CRM providers, they do not offer a free-for-life plan. While the platform includes a free trial, there is no long-term free option, limiting its appeal to businesses that need cost-effective, entry-level solutions. Many competitors provide free-tier services, giving them an edge for businesses that aren’t ready to commit to a paid plan right away
Keap CRM Customer Experience
Their customer experience receives mixed reviews across several popular platforms. On G2, they scored an impressive 4.2 out of 5 stars, with a similar score on Capterra of 4.1 out of 5 stars, and on TrustRadius, they received a score of 7.9 out of 10. However, Trustpilot users rate them much lower at 1.8 out of 5 stars. Their BBB rating is 3.7 out of 5, reflecting a balance of positive and negative experiences.
Positive feedback
Many users spoke highly of the company’s ability to integrate data across the platform. Customers appreciated the customizable workflows, which streamline operations and help small businesses effectively manage email campaigns, sales processes, and contact lists. Additionally, their automation features received praise for their flexibility, allowing businesses to easily create and manage complex marketing workflows. Users also frequently mentioned the helpfulness of the customer service team, particularly when resolving minor issues, and the intuitive nature of the campaign builder. This combination of flexibility and support helped businesses focus on their core activities while automating administrative tasks.
Critical feedback
Despite the positive feedback, the company has faced some criticism, particularly regarding their customer support and billing practices. Common complaints included unexpected charges, with customers reporting difficulties in canceling subscriptions or encountering hidden fees. Many users expressed frustration with poor communication from support teams when handling these issues, often describing long wait times for responses. Additionally, some users felt that the learning curve was steep, with many reporting challenges in understanding the platform’s features, particularly when first onboarding. A few customers also mentioned performance issues and bugs that interfere with their daily business activities, compounding their dissatisfaction with customer service responses.
Keap CRM Customer Support
They have several options for clients to reach their sales and customer support team. Below are few of these:
- For customer support: You can reach them by phone by calling 1-866-800-0004, extension 2, from Monday to Friday, 6 AM to 7 PM MST. Live chat support is available 24/7 inside the Keap app
- For sales inquiries: You can schedule a demo with a sales representative or watch a quick 5-minute self-guided demo to explore the CRM’s functionalities. You can also book a consultation to learn how the platform may serve your business. You can reach the sales team at 1-866-800-0004, extension 1, from Monday to Friday, 6 AM to 4 PM MST
For more detailed contact information, you can visit their Contact Us page. The company also provides educational resources through their help center, Keap Academy, community, and wide range of blogs.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, Keap CRM stands out with their focus on streamlining customer relationship management and enhancing operational efficiency for small businesses. The CRM’s robust capabilities, such as integrated payment processing, intuitive lead, and pipeline management, and extensive automation tools, provide businesses with the flexibility they need to optimize their sales and marketing processes across various platforms.
The advantages of their CRM software, such as its user-friendly interface and 24/7 customer support, further enhance their appeal. For instance, the built-in payment processing feature simplifies financial transactions, allowing businesses to manage invoicing and payments directly within the CRM. This is a significant advantage over competitors that require additional third-party integrations. Additionally, the extensive automation capabilities help businesses reduce repetitive tasks, enhancing both operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
However, it's essential to acknowledge some drawbacks and customer complaints. While they do offer many features, their pricing is on the higher side compared to other CRM solutions, which may deter their target segment of smaller businesses and startups. Moreover, the contact-based pricing model can lead to steep costs as customer bases grow. Some users have also reported issues with unexpected charges and long wait times for customer support, which can hinder the overall user experience.
Get a Great Deal On Your CRM Software!
Regardless of your business type and size, choosing CRM software tailored to your unique needs can be challenging. It’s crucial to explore all available options before making a decision. To help, our website provides a reviews page where you can learn more about reliable and user-friendly CRM software providers. Additionally, you can use our comparison tool to compare your top picks and find the perfect fit for your business needs. If you're interested in learning more about CRM tools and their characteristics, visit our blog for informative articles that can guide you throughout the decision-making process.
Save Big on CRM Software
Fill out a quick form to claim special offers on CRM Software