hello. this is my first time here. My agency is on the fence about switching to chronos CRM. We tested it and I just wanted to make 1 last check before we do. we saw the good side, we liked the features and the prices. But I don’t see a lot of bad comments anywhere . Does anyone have any horror stories or any bad feedback?

I spent years dealing with broken software, overpriced subscriptions, and CRMs that just feel like glorified spreadsheets. I finally hit a breaking point. Instead of paying for a dozen different fragmented tools just to run a business, I decided to build the exact solution I was looking for.

The journey to get here was an absolute grind. I put my head down and focused entirely on the product to build an ecosystem exactly how it needed to be built, doing it completely on my own terms.

The result is the OpenLuxe CRM. I set out to make something that actually works the way founders and operators think, solving the massive pain points that still plague the industry.

Here is how we fixed it:

• A built in AI partner: I didn't want a static database. We built Odysseus, an AI agent that acts as your personal intelligence hub. You can ask it anything about your pipeline, and it extracts structured bullet points to build out ongoing strategy threads for every single contact.
• Automated communication: We baked in configurable AI receptionists that can answer inbound calls, pull CRM data directly from the transcripts, and even auto-reply to inbound SMS messages.
• True consolidation: It connects natively with our Storyline Builder and custom website tools. Your leads flow directly into a customizable deal flow pipeline where you can track close likelihoods, and you can draft and send invoices or secure payment links all in one place.

But we know there are still more problems to solve, and the whole point of this post is that we want to make our CRM even better. I want to hear from you: what are the biggest pain points with your current CRM? What are the problems that nobody seems to be addressing? Tell us what is broken, and we will build the solution for you.

I’ve been looking at how small and mid-sized manufacturers manage their operations, and a common problem seems to be having enquiries, orders, inventory, production and dispatch spread across different tools.

We’ve been exploring what a manufacturing-specific CRM/management system could look like:

Enquiry → Quotation → Order → Inventory → Production → Dispatch → Payment

With inventory tracking, suppliers, production status, order management, invoices and reporting connected in one place.

I’m with GLAD Studio, and we build custom business software, but I’m particularly interested in hearing from manufacturers:

What’s the #1 process in your business you’d want such a system to automate?

Would also be interesting to know what you currently use — Excel, ERP, custom software, or something else?

Seeing a lot of posts here about switching CRMs so I figured I would share what I have learned running migrations across HubSpot, Salesforce and Pipedrive. Most failures are not technical. They are planning gaps. Here is the breakdown.

Where migrations actually go wrong

• Data mapping, not data volume. The problem is rarely "too many records." It is mismatched field types, custom objects with no equivalent in the target system and duplicate or dirty records that get faithfully copied over instead of cleaned.
• Underestimating integration debt. Every Zapier zap, webhook and third-party app connected to your old CRM has to be rebuilt, not just "migrated." Teams find this out mid-project, not during planning.
• No rollback plan. If cutover day goes sideways, you need a way back. Skipping this is the single most common cause of "we migrated but now we are firefighting for two weeks."
• Treating it as an IT project instead of a change management project. The tooling is the easy part. Getting sales and support to actually use the new system with clean habits is the hard part.

Sequence to follow

1. Audit before you map. Inventory every custom field, workflow, and integration in the source system. Flag what is actually used versus legacy clutter. Do not migrate dead weight.
2. Clean at the source. Dedupe and standardize data in the old CRM before export. It is far easier to fix there than after import.
3. Migrate in phases, not all at once. Start with core objects (contacts, deals) in a sandbox, validate, then move workflows and automations, then integrations last.
4. Run parallel for a defined window. Keep both systems live for a set period (one to two weeks typically) so you can catch what broke before fully cutting over.
5. Train on workflows, not features. Do not just show people buttons. Show them how their existing process maps to the new system.

Timeline reality check: for a mid-size team (50-200 users, moderate customization), budget six to twelve weeks. Anyone promising a clean migration in a weekend is either overselling or you have a very simple setup.

This is a weekly post for you to let out about something which happened this week for you in CRM that mattered: features, client requests that were either great or awful this week, and just generally chat CRM / CRM consulting chatter.

No self promo, just a place to share tales from the front-line of CRM!

people kept arguing in here about which sending platform is "the best" and i got tired of opinions so i just... tested it myself.
im the founder of a b2b saas (keeping it vague on purpose, sorry). 5 of us, $73k MRR, i do all outbound personally because we cant afford a dedicated SDR yet. every dollar in my stack comes out of product budget basically so i care a lot about what actually works vs what looks cool in a demo.
the test: same exact campaign, same copy, same list, sent from 3 platforms over 6 weeks. Instantly, Lemlist, and Reply.io. i wanted to know if the platform itself actually matters or if its all just infrastructure and copy.
BEFORE
i was running everything through Instantly because someone in a slack group told me it was the cheapest option for multi-inbox sending. and it is cheap. but my numbers were rough. 1.8% reply rate, open rates hovering around 38-41% depending on the week, and bounce rate sitting at like 4.2% which i now know is way too high. i was also warming up inboxes for only 10 days because i was impatient and wanted to start booking meetings yesterday.
the list was 2,400 contacts. mid-market ops leaders, director level and above. i used Clay to pull the initial list and Prospeo for email finding, then ran everything through ZeroBounce before sending. after verification i had about 2,100 usable contacts so i split them into 3 groups of 700 each.
same subject lines. same 3 step sequence. same sending schedule (8am-11am recipient timezone, weekdays only). only variable was the platform.
AFTER
ok so 6 weeks later here are the actual numbers.
Instantly: 44.1% open rate, 2.9% reply rate, 1.7% bounce rate. this was on 5 inboxes warmed for 21 days this time (learned my lesson from rushing warmup before, cost me 2 domains that got burned). sending 35/day per inbox. the deliverability dashboard in Instantly is honestly the best part of the product. the campaign builder UI is... fine. its fine.
Lemlist: 47.3% open rate, 3.4% reply rate, 1.4% bounce rate. same inboxes warmed for the same duration on Maildoso. lemlist surprised me here. the open rate bump might be noise but the reply rate was consistently higher across all 3 steps of the sequence. the liquid syntax stuff for personalization is nice but i didnt use it for this test since i wanted to keep variables controlled. costs more though, $59/mo per seat vs Instantly at $30/mo for the growth plan.
Reply.io: 41.8% open rate, 2.1% reply rate, 2.3% bounce rate. this one disappointed me. same list, same copy, worse results across the board. the bounce rate being higher on the same verified list is weird and i dont have a great explanation. maybe their sending infrastructure handles throttling differently? i tested it for the full 6 weeks and it never really caught up. the multichannel stuff in Reply.io is cool if you need linkedin + email in one place but for pure cold email it came in last.
so the winner was Lemlist by a decent margin. not massive but 3.4% vs 2.9% vs 2.1% reply rate on 700 contacts each is enough for me to care.
the thing i didnt expect: platform matters less than i assumed. the gap between first and third place was like 1.3 percentage points on reply rate. meanwhile when i fixed my warmup protocol (going from 10 days to 21 days) my reply rate on Instantly alone went from 1.8% to 2.9%. thats a bigger jump than switching platforms entirely. i spent weeks agonizing over which tool to use when the real problem was that i was being lazy about infrastructure.
my total monthly spend for outbound right now is about $280/mo. Lemlist seat, Maildoso for inboxes ($84/mo for 10), ZeroBounce credits, and Clay on the starter plan. thats it. for a company our size thats manageable but i feel it every month.
im sticking with Lemlist for now. the extra $29/mo over Instantly is worth the reply rate difference at my volume. if i was sending 10x more i might think differently because Instantly scales cheaper.
anyway thats basically it. the test took way longer than i wanted and i probably should have been doing product work instead but at least now i know

Been running a gym for a while, changed CRM software a couple of times, you know, checking out different options

So here's the deal. What gets advertised by these software companies isn't really aligning with what gym owners like me truly need on a daily basis.

Stuff I use all the time:

• an easy mobile booking system (if members need to tap 8 times to book, they won’t bother)
• a billing system that isn’t a headache and deals with failed payments by itself
• a simple check-in process, not one that feels like hacking into the Pentagon
• waitlists that automatically bump people up when a spot opens
• a quick way to send messages to attendees of tomorrow’s early class without needing a degree in data extraction

The stuff they pitch to me:

• fancy dashboards fit for big corporations (look, I have around 150 members, I don't need all that serious business tooling)
• links to dozens of other apps that I’ll probably never click on
• branded merchandise stores (really, during a demo with Mindbody this was a big sell, pretty sure none of us need that)

And what’s still missing:

• being able to see who hasn’t shown up for weeks and nudge them with a message directly through the software
• introductory offers that don't take an age to figure out
• a mobile admin interface that doesn’t crash (I mean, I should be able to manage stuff on my phone on-the-go)

Signed up with GloFox about 8 months back, and it’s doing okay for the stuff we do every day. The app works well, payments are smooth, and waitlists manage themselves. Still some features missing for keeping in touch with members, but, hey, it could be worse.

Sometimes I wish these software developers would just sit in a gym for a day to see what we really need, not what a big corporate buyer might want.

If you're a small agency owner and managing multiple clients, companies and deals at the same time, you've probably experienced at least one of these:

• Forgetting to follow up

• Losing track of deal status

• Having contacts scattered across different places

• Not knowing the real value of your pipeline

So I built this Notion CRM to solve those problems.

Problem: Losing track of which deals are active vs closed

Solution: Change one status, everything (companies, contacts, reports) moves automatically between Active/Won/Lost views

Problem: Forgetting to follow up until it's too late

Solution: Health check formula flags deals as On Track, Closing Soon, Late, or Done based on expected date

Problem: Not knowing real pipeline value

Solution: Weighted value formula calculates expected revenue based on deal stage a "New Lead" worth $10k isn't the same as a "Proposal Sent" worth $10k

I’ve spent the last year building a CRM/revenue platform, one thing I’ve realized is that everyone seems to hate something different about the software they already use but is it enough to switch?

Some people complain about data entry.
Others hate moving deals through pipelines.
Some spend hours creating quotes.
Others struggle with the handoff between sales and operations.

Before any useful tools can be built, we need to learn from people who use CRMs every day rather than assume we know the answers.

I personally come from a corporate energy and infrastructure role and the crm was the glue we used to hold our teams together but still each one had lacking capabilities which fostered the current platform I’ve built fortifiers.

So I’m not looking to promote anything but genuinely curious:

What’s the biggest frustration with your current CRM?
What’s one feature you wish existed but doesn’t?
If you could delete one part of your workflow forever, what would it be?
I’m not here to pitch anything. I’m genuinely trying to understand where existing CRMs still fall short. If anyone is interested in seeing what I’m building afterward, I’m happy to share it privately, but I’d value the discussion regardless.

does anyone have resources to study the sla for the on prem version? because Microsoft's documentation is focused on the power platform version (the cloud version)

How do you handle flagging customers who didn’t return? I am building agent/dashboard for my crm and wonder how to do it best.

My problem is that orders have very different notes each time and I thought - maybe to send it to ai on creation to analyze and return json, but that introduces data pollution.

I need to make it possible for operator to see which customer had orders for specific occasion so they can be touched with appropriate reason.

Currently can’t sort on text notes.

Would appreciate any advice!

I'm curious how CRM and lifecycle marketing teams are using enterprise LLMs (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) in their day-to-day work.

I don't mean using AI to write emails.

I'm interested in workflows like:

• Audience segmentation
• Campaign planning
• Journey optimization
• Trigger recommendations
• Offer personalization
• Customer clustering
• Predicting campaign performance
• Automatically generating customer segments from business requests

For teams managing email, SMS or WhatsApp campaigns, where has AI actually made a measurable difference?

Need a reliable Virtual Assistant to help with the tech and admin side of your business?

I’m here to make your day-to-day easier by handling the behind-the-scenes tasks that keep things organized and running smoothly.

Here’s what I can help with:

✅ Admin Support – Data entry, managing emails and calendars, organizing documents, and doing research when needed.

✅ Automation – Setting up workflows in GoHighLevel and cleaning up large spreadsheets so everything flows better.

✅ Website & Funnel Help – Building and updating websites and funnels using WordPress (Elementor), GoHighLevel, or Kajabi.

✅ Graphic Design – Creating posters, flyers, banners, brochures, logos, and social media posts that match your brand.

✅ General Tech Support – Keeping contact lists organized and spreadsheets clean and easy to manage.

I’m detail-oriented, easy to work with, and focused on making things simpler. If you’re looking for someone you can count on, let’s chat!

My team of 3 is looking to move off spreadsheets and upgrade to a lightweight CRM. We’re currently looking closely at folk.app, but I wanted to get some unfiltered feedback from people who have actually used it day-to-day.

Our setup and needs:

• Team size: 3 people working out of a shared workspace.
• Database size: 3,000+ contacts (and growing).
• Core requirements:
  1. Audience Segmentation: Easy ways to tag, filter, and group contacts based on custom properties.
  2. Data Enrichment: A quick way to update missing emails and keep job titles/organizations up to date automatically.
  3. Native Outreach: Sending batch or sequenced emails directly out of connected inboxes (Gmail/Outlook) straight from the platform.

If you’ve used folk for a list of this size:

• How well does it handle performance, segmentation, and deduplication at 3k+ records?
• Is the native contact enrichment reliable, or do you find yourself needing third-party tools (like Apollo, Clay, etc.) anyway?
• How is the native emailing experience (deliverability, limits, custom fields)?

For the last few years I’ve bounced between Notion, a spreadsheet, and an abandoned HubSpot instance trying to keep track of my clients. None of it ever stuck, and I think I finally figured out why: every CRM I tried was built for sales teams running leads through a funnel. That’s just not how consulting works.
I don’t have “leads.” I have 15-20 real relationships — clients, prospects, referral sources — that I need deep context on, not pipeline velocity. I think in engagements and retainers, not deals and contacts. And the stuff that actually matters (what the CFO said about budget in the kickoff, what the sponsor’s concern was last quarter) always ends up scattered across email threads and my own memory instead of living anywhere useful.
So I’ve been building Retainer — a CRM built around how consultants actually think:
• Engagement pipeline that matches the real lifecycle: Prospect → Proposal → Active → Retainer → Renewal, instead of generic sales stages
• AI meeting intelligence — synced to your calendar, it turns your notes (and eventually call transcripts) into structured summaries and action items automatically
• Stakeholder mapping — track sponsors, champions, and blockers within an account, not just “contacts”
• Time tracking + invoicing built in, so winning the client and delivering the work don’t live in two disconnected tools
• Relationship Radar — nudges you before a relationship goes cold, tied to things like renewal windows and budget cycles, not just “it’s been 30 days”
Basically the goal is one flow from first conversation to paid invoice, in language that actually matches how consultants talk, instead of forcing “opportunity” and “deal stage” onto something that isn’t a sales pipeline.
It’s pre-launch right now (targeting Q3 2026), and I’m mostly here to sanity-check the idea with people who’ve actually lived the CRM-for-consultants problem:
• What do you currently use to manage client relationships, and where does it break down?
• Is billing/time-tracking something you want in the CRM, or do you prefer keeping that separate?
• Anyone tried Productive or Dex for this and have thoughts?
Not trying to spam the sub with a pitch — genuinely want the feedback before I lock in the MVP scope. Happy to share more details or a waitlist link if anyone’s curious, but mostly just want to hear how y’all are solving this today.

So I want to use signal house to send text. But they said I can’t upload leads on there I need a crm. I only plan to text 250-500 ppl a day and that’s it I don’t need all the extra calendars etc. what’s a good low cost crm to be able to just upload my leads from Google Sheets to connect it and text ?

Hi folks,

I’m a solopreneur that launched a niche SaaS company 2 years ago. My user base is growing fast and client management is starting to take too much of my weekly time.

I never wanted to use salesforce because I always thought it was too complicated, and too depending on specialized engineers at scale to tailor it for my needs, so no Salesforce or hubspot.

I was looking for an ai-powered CRM, new modern tools I could find in this AI era, and stumble on invice.ai. Honestly, I’m sold from their website but I just don’t understand the difference between it and traditional CRMs. They say you can replace your current CRM or use it on top of it. Talking about a system of action instead of a system of record… I understand it assigns one agent to every client, so instead of reading emails you look at your missions (agents in their jargon) and talk with the agent to approve or instruct the next steps so the agents does 80% of the reply’s and only surfaces the 20% that needs human jugement. This is clear and is exactly what I’m looking for, which to me sounds more like an agentic CRM then an AI CRM (what’s even the difference here???).

I got responses from AI LLM’s which did make since but I haven’t heard any humans talk about it online. If any of you have ever use this tool to manage your clients, how did it go?

I’m starting my free trial next week, so I’m hoping to hear back from other founders, managers or sales people that are more familiar with invice.ai

Keep in mind that I was using an excel sheet automated with zappier but this is not sustainable at scale…

Thanks in advance for your contribution,

Steve from 🇦🇺

If any of you remember, I was self-hosting twenty a few weeks ago, and I happened to self-host on Railway.

The bill that came today was very much unexpected

Now we are back to square one, looking for free or inexpensive CRMs with webhook integrations and enrichment; these two are the most important features for me atp

Any recommendations would be helpful. Thanks in advance :)

I handle data for a b2b sales team and I'm trying to sanity-check our setup before we renew anything.

For context, we've leaned on Apollo and Cognism for a while, and both have the same problem for us, where Apollo's coverage is broad but the emails get shaky once you're past the obvious mid-market accounts, and Cognism is cleaner but wants a full annual contract before you can really tell if it covers your patch.

What we do now is check each contact against a few sources before it goes into the CRM and only keep an email when more than one source returns the same one.

This has cut the bounces down a lot, though it's fiddly to maintain and i'm not convinced we've landed on the best stack for it.

A couple of tools get mentioned a lot whenever i ask around (mainly Bettercontact and FullEnrich), but before we switch anything I'd rather hear from people who've used them than trust another round of marketing.

So what are you using for contact data these days, especially for smaller or non-US companies where the big two get thin, and if you've found something you trust i'd love to know what it is and why?

What is something that you struggled with while working with crms and what features do you wish existed in your crm?

looking for genuine insights here