If you’re a business looking for a tool to help pump up those sales numbers and maybe even enhance customer interactions, Close CRM is surely up there on your shortlist. But is it the best option for you? That’s what we’re here to help you out with.
This article will help you understand where Close CRM really shines, its primary use cases and shortcomings, as well as a great complementary tool with native integration for Close CRM that will light a new path toward customer success.
TL;DR
- Close CRM is a powerful tool for managing customer relationships. However, it’s designed for sales teams, not for handling the complete customer success lifecycle.
- For CSMs, Close CRM can fall short when it comes to proactive customer success management, such as monitoring customer health, automating customer journey touchpoints, or preventing churn.
- How a CSP like Custify can be an essential addition to your CRM and tech stack to handle complex tasks.
Read on to discover how Close CRM works and if it can help your CS strategy.
What is Close CRM?
Launched back in 2013 as Close.io, Close is a sales engagement CRM that helps startups and small businesses turn more leads into revenue. So, what makes it stand out?
Speed is one thing. Close understood that the typical learning curve for traditional CRMs was way too steep. So, they acted accordingly. As a result, they’re proud of how easy and fast it is to get started using their platform (‘up to 50% faster than other CRMs’).
The next differentiator is the platform’s ease of use. Those who use Close don’t have weeks to waste on configuring their CRM. No, they’re teams who need to jump in, learn the basics as fast as possible, and start closing deals right away.
Who Uses It?
Close CRM seems to have found its sweet spot among fast-moving sales teams that need to hit the ground running. Think ambitious startups or growing SMBs where reps are simultaneously juggling multiple leads and deals.
Those who use it appreciate its versatility. Whether you’re an SDR( sales development representative) qualifying leads, an account executive managing their pipeline, or a sales manager tracking team performance, Close adapts to how modern sales teams work.
Features Overview
This is where things start getting interesting. We have to hand it to Close CRM, their feature set packs quite a punch for sales teams. Let’s break it down and see why.
Lead Tracking That Makes Sense
Have you ever considered how difficult it must have been for sales reps in the past? Having to put everything down in writing and ensure each sheet of paper ends up in the right folder or file. Constantly stacking through stacks of notes to find crucial client details. Every phone call and follow up needing to be tracked down by hand.
Sheesh…
Luckily, Close lets you organize leads in a way that reflects how sales reps think. You’ll find every interaction, every detail, and every touchpoint about your prospects stacked together in one place. You can even customize your leads view to match your team’s unique workflow. This makes it way easier to prioritize and follow up with the right prospects at the right time.
Pipeline Management That Flows
Once again, Close really hits the spot when it comes to understanding how sales work. The pipeline view isn’t just a Kanban board – it’s purposefully designed to let reps drag and drop between stages, forecast revenue, and anticipate bottlenecks before they become real nuisances.
Another aspect to highlight is how Close offers a bird’s-eye view on the entire sales pipeline while also letting teams deep-dive into individual opportunities with just one click.
Email and Calling That Save Time
Here’s the part where Close really flexes its muscles. Because their email and calling features are built-in, you don’t have to constantly switch between tools. Besides calls and emails, you’ve also got SMS, Zoom, as well as calendar integrations to bring you ‘All-in-one selling’.
So, go ahead and fire some personalized emails, SMS campaigns, or calls, and log everything automatically without ever leaving your CRM platform.
Sales Workflow Automation That Works
There’s no denying it – workflow automation makes our lives easier. What we don’t like, is when they start to feel too robotic, stripping away the human touch that’s essential in sales. Close understands this. As such, their automation features handle repetitive tasks such as logging activities and sending follow-ups, while allowing sales reps to focus on building relationships and closing deals.
Source: Close CRM
Close lets you set up your own workflows that trigger based on specific actions or time delays, thus making sure no lead falls through the cracks.
Why Close CRM Is Useful for CSMs
So far, all we’ve discussed is the synergy between Close CRM and sales teams. But does it also transfer to Customer Success Managers?
Seeing how closely-knit sales and customer success are in today’s customer-centric business landscape, our answer is a resounding YES.
And here’s why…
Benefit #1: Shared Database
One of the biggest headaches for CSMs is piecing together the customer’s journey from scattered information. It’s a nerve-racking experience. One that Close CRM makes sure you never get to experience. The platform acts as the one source of truth for both sales and CS teams.
As soon as someone transitions from prospect to client, their entire history – from those warm-up conversations to closing calls – tags along. And that alone is golden to CSMs.
Think about it: now that you’ve got a silo where you can see all the promises made, the challenges discussed, and the opportunities identified, it’s way easier to pick up the conversation exactly where the sales team left off.
Benefit #2: Tasks and Activity Tracking
Sure, Close’s activity tracking was designed around sales cycles. But does that make it unusable for customer success workflows? It absolutely does not.
Just as sales teams log in their specific activities, CSMs can do the same. Whether it’s logging customer interactions. Scheduling check-ins, or setting reminders for key milestones, Close is a great tool to help CMSs better organize themselves.
And let’s not forget about the fact that Close allows CSMs to create and assign follow-up tasks to ensure no customer falls through the cracks – especially during those critical onboarding or renewal periods.
Benefit #3: Deal Management
Ooooh, this is where things get spicy. While deal management features from Close were built mainly for new businesses, savvy CSMs can use them to track expansion opportunities within their existing accounts. Be it an upgrade discussion, an add-on possibility, or a potential new department adoption, these tools help CSMs present upsells and cross-sells with the same systematic approach that made the initial sale successful.
This benefit trifecta makes Close CRM a solid ally for CSMs looking to maintain strong customer relationships. However, let’s address the elephant in the room. Close was not designed with customer success in mind. Sure, it does a fair job at it, but so does a screwdriver for prying open a paint can – it works, but there are far better tools to get the job done.
Benefit #4: Smooth Integration with Custify for Seamless Handoffs and Customizable CS Workflows
Close CRM’s seamless integration with Custify takes things a step further by bridging sales and customer success in a way that’s both flexible and highly practical for CSMs. With Custify’s customer success platform designed to adapt to each customer’s journey, teams gain the ability to hand over information from sales to CS smoothly—no data falling through the cracks.
For CSMs, this integration means they can set up health scores, onboarding flows, and even tailored customer journeys right from day one. As new clients move from initial sales engagement to onboarding, CSMs can prebuild workflows in Custify that track engagement, anticipate needs, and keep teams in sync with real-time health scores.
This integration keeps the momentum going from sales to customer success, offering CSMs all the customization and proactive insights they need to build lasting relationships—all with Close CRM and Custify working in tandem.
Limitations of Close CRM for Customer Success Management
When all is said and done, it becomes clear that customer success requires specialized tools that go beyond CRM capabilities. Let’s see where Close CRM falls short when it comes to customer success management.
No Customer Health Monitoring
Think of Close CRM’s deal tracking as a solid tool for tracking sales activity—but it’s just not built for the ongoing customer health checks that CSMs rely on to manage relationships post-sale. While Close CRM keeps tabs on deals, a Customer Success Platform like Custify actively monitors customer engagement and satisfaction through health scores, trends and alerts.
Imagine tracking not just if a customer is using the product, but how often, which features, and whether their usage patterns are slipping. With Custify, if a customer’s engagement takes a dip, it can automatically trigger an alert or assign a task for a check-in, letting you step in before small issues turn into full-blown churn risks.
Unlike Close, which helps you organize deals, a CSP like Custify keeps an eye on the whole customer relationship, proactively signaling any potential “red flags”, so you’re not left guessing. It’s like having an early warning system for customer success, giving you that extra insight Close CRM simply wasn’t built to provide.
No Automated Playbooks for Retention
Sales and retention are two different beasts. While Close CRM’s automation handles sales tasks—like lead outreach and follow-ups—its workflows are designed for sales, not the complex needs of Customer Success. A customer success platform’s automations, on the other hand, are built specifically for CSMs, focusing on retention, churn prevention, and re-engagement.
For example, with a CSP like Custify, you can set up a playbook that triggers when a customer hasn’t logged in for 30 days. This playbook might include:
- Day 1: Send a friendly check-in email.
- Day 3: Queue up a follow-up task for the CSM to review the account’s health.
- Day 5: If there’s still no response, send an email showcasing underused features.
- Day 7: Escalate to a call if there’s no engagement.
Source: Custify CSP
Close CRM’s automation focuses on moving leads through the sales funnel, while Custify’s automation helps CSMs proactively manage and strengthen customer relationships at every stage of the journey.
Missing Customer Lifecycle Analytics
Here’s where Close’s sales-first design is truly glaring. Sure, Close tracks sales activities down to the smallest detail, but when it comes to seeing the full customer lifecycle post-sale, it leaves CSMs guessing.
For a CSM, the journey doesn’t stop at closing a deal. To drive true success, you need insights into feature adoption rates, product usage patterns, and engagement trends across the customer base. Close gives you great analytics for the sales pipeline, but it draws the line right there.
Custify, on the other hand, picks up where Close leaves off, tracking every stage of the customer lifecycle—from onboarding to expansion and renewal.
Custify’s lifecycle analytics don’t just show you the numbers—they give you a real-time picture of where each customer stands, whether they’re in the early onboarding stages, deep into product adoption, or primed for an upsell.
Imagine seeing usage metrics that trigger alerts when engagement dips, or data points indicating when a customer is ready for more advanced features. These kinds of signals simply aren’t available in a sales-focused CRM like Close.
Without lifecycle analytics, you’re flying blind after the sale. But with Custify, each stage is mapped and managed, ensuring that you’re not only winning customers but actively supporting their growth, success, and loyalty.
Not Focused On Customer Onboarding
Not long ago, most businesses would close a deal and immediately shift their focus to securing the next one. Those newly acquired customers would have to figure out how to get the most out of their product or service without guidance or support.
As a result, some would miss out on crucial features that could have enhanced their overall experience significantly. Considering this, is it shocking that poor onboarding is the 3rd most important churn factor (behind wrong product fit and lack of engagement)?
Luckily, things are different today. The moment a deal closes, it’s the CSM’s turn to step in and ensure new users are fully supported.
A successful onboarding needs clear processes, milestone tracking, and customer training management. And, once again, Close CRM’s toolkit lacks the necessary functions to guide customers through their post-sale journey.
Let’s stop for a second and put ourselves in the customer’s shoes. So far, the interactions with the salespeople have been wonderful. Users have high hopes that your product or service will help them move the needle right where it matters most. However, once they sign the deal, it’s operational silence.
That’s like having a great GPS that stops working right when you reach the most complicated part of your route. Needless to say, no one wants this.
However, we can’t fault Close CRM for any of these limitations. As we said, the tool was not designed for customer success. Yet, one can’t deny that these limitations highlight the need for purpose-built customer success tools.
Customer Success Platforms: A Match-Made-In-Heaven for CSMs
So, if sales teams have Close CRM to make their lives easier, what’s the equivalent for Customer Success Managers?
Enter Customer Success Platforms – such as Custify.
What is a CSP?
One way to think of a Customer Success Platform is to imagine it as your command center for everything that goes on after the sale. If Close CRM excels at getting people through the door, CSPs are here to ensure they stay and thrive.
A CSP is like a one-man orchestra. The tool is capable of handling every aspect of your client relationships. It’s there to onboard them. It’s there to monitor their interactions, spot issues, and help you solve them in a way that fits your customer’s needs. It facilitates renewals and presents upsell opportunities. A CSP is to Customer Success Managers what Alfred is to Batman. What J.A.R.V.I.S. is to Iron Man. You catch the drift.
Here’s the deal — managing customer success with just a CRM is like cooking the perfect dinner without any seasonings. It might look great on the plate, but anyone who eats it will immediately notice something is missing
Customer Success isn’t about managing data – it’s about working with real individuals, cultivating relationships, predicting needs, and proactively driving value.
Irina Vatafu, Head of CS at Custify
If you’ve been paying attention, you know that a CRM doesn’t have the tools to help with any of these aspects. It won’t track health scores or product usage. Nor will it automate engagement based on product usage patterns. And it definitely won’t inform you of the actual value your customers are getting from your product.
These aren’t nice-to-have features. They’re essential capabilities that directly impact your ability to retain and even grow your customer base.
And that’s exactly what a Customer Success Platform gets you. A platform with specialized tools designed for one purpose and one purpose only – to ensure your customers thrive and your business thrives with them.
Why a Customer Success Platform is the Perfect Addition to Close CRM
Now that we’ve explored the importance and benefits of a Customer Success Platform, let’s discuss how it complements Close CRM.
A CSP isn’t here to replace Close CRM but to serve as the ideal counterpart, filling in the gaps we’ve outlined above. Together, they provide a robust pre-revenue engine with essential post-sale support, ensuring a seamless experience across the entire customer lifecycle.
Now, let’s dive into the key features that make Custify the ideal companion for your Close CRM setup.
Customer Health Scoring: Your Early Warning System
If you’ve found it difficult to keep track of the status of your retention or growth goals, then, our wild guess is you haven’t been using customer health scores. By tying these metrics with KPIs or product features, you’ll find it much easier to monitor and identify customers in danger of churning.
For example, based on the health scores you want to track—such as product usage, support tickets, or product feedback—you can use Custify to create playbooks or signals that automatically trigger a range of actions when a customer’s health score falls into a critical range. Maybe you want an experienced CSM to take over those problematic customers. Or, perhaps you want to reach out to those customers who manifest low engagement to understand what’s causing this issue.
Customer health scores are just one of those tools that replace guessing or working reactively with proactive, engagement-boosting efforts. With them in place, you’ll find reaching your retention and growth goals feels less like an uphill battle and more like a well-planned strategy.
What happens to health scores when a CSP and CRM are connected?
Integrating Close CRM with Custify gives you access to a crucial layer of product usage and engagement metrics you’d otherwise be missing out on. We’re talking about metrics such as:
- Feature adoption rates across different user segments
- Time-to-value for new customers
- Usage patterns that correlate with long-term retention
- Early warning signs of potential churn
- Customer journey progression and milestone completion
Now, you may be wondering why access to this type of data is so important. The best way to demonstrate its usefulness is to start by imagining the following scenario:
Let’s say your CSM team noticed a pattern: customers who don’t activate a specific integration within the first 30 days are 60% more likely to churn. Without comprehensive health analytics, insights like this might go unnoticed until it’s too late. However, with Custify’s analytics integrated with your Close CRM data, instead of sitting idle and wondering why things are going wrong, you can proactively address the issue
Automated Workflows and Playbooks: Customer Success on Autopilot
We’ve touched on these briefly above, now it’s time to dive deeper into how Custify’s playbooks can transform your customer success operations.
First of all: what are playbooks? In layman’s terms, you can think of them as your emergency first-response team. They’re always on duty, always monitoring, and always ready to blow new life into those customers who you risk losing to churn.
The beauty of these playbooks is their flexibility. Want to set up a series of personalized check-ins during the onboarding phase? Need to trigger a customer review request after successful product adoption? Or maybe you want to kickstart a renewal conversation 90 days before contract expiration? Custify’s playbooks handle all these before you can say ‘churn’.
What’s more, your customer success methodology dictates what your playbooks look like. For instance, some CSMs prefer an approach that addresses product usage drop-offs, while others look for hints that customers are ready for scale-up discussions.
Best of all, these playbook automations free up time so you can focus on what matters most – building meaningful relationships with your user base
How Playbooks improve when Close CRM and a CSP are connected:
Since Custify has a native integration with Close CRM that combines both sales history from Close and real-time data usage from Custify, you can piece together super intelligent and targeted playbooks.
For example, let’s imagine the following scenario: a customer whose health score indicates high product engagement is nearing the renewal period. With Close CRM and Custify working together, you can trigger a playbook that includes preparation tasks for this upcoming renewal.
These preparation tasks can be:
- Setting up automated check-ins to gather feedback on product value
- Triggering alerts to CSMs when certain usage thresholds are met (this could be a telltale sign that the user may be ready for an upsell)
- Generating a renewal risk assessment based on combined engagement data and past interactions
- Creating a custom renewal deck that pulls in usage statistics and success metrics
Your imagination is the limit in terms of how your playbook will look like.
What about upsells? We briefly touched upon this above, now let’s get more specific about what those usage thresholds that might signal an upsell potential could be. For example, Custify may trigger alerts when:
- A customer consistently reaches their user seat limit
- Teams are actively using features that are part of a higher-tier package
- Usage patterns suggest they’ve outgrown their current plan (like hitting API limits or storage capacity)
- Multiple team members are requesting access to premium features
- Engagement metrics show high adoption rates across all current features
As soon as Custify recognizes one of these patterns, an upsell playbook takes the scene. Depending on the scenario and preferences, you could choose to schedule an advanced feature demo, share relevant use case studies, or take a more hands-on approach and ask your CSM to discuss upsell opportunities directly during their next check-in.
The beauty of this integration is that it removes the guesswork from timing. Instead of relying on gut feelings or calendar reminders, you can make data-driven CS decisions on when and how to approach customers for renewals and upsells.
Seamless Integration With Close CRM: The Best of Both Worlds
Seeing Custify and Close CRM work together is a sight for sore eyes. As mentioned earlier, we don’t want to replace Close CRM. Instead, together with it, we aim to enhance your business expansion opportunities.
Custify works closely with Close CRM to pull sales history and customer data and paint a clear image of each customer’s journey. Depending on your preferences, you can choose between two data-importing options: ‘Full’ or ‘Enhance’. The option you pick will determine how Custify will use the data from Close CRM – either as the primary source of truth, or merely enhance it with notes, calls, attributes, and so on.
Using Close CRM together with Custify will not only keep both your sales team and your customer success department happy-happy-happy, but also eliminate data silos and ensure everyone’s working from the same up-to-date information.
Seamless integration = better collaboration = faster decision-making = a unified approach to managing the entire customer journey.
Deep Customer Insights and Segmentation
Basic usage stats from Close CRM are helpful, but Custify provides CSMs with the deep insights needed to truly understand and engage customers. With Custify, you get valuable data such as NPS scores, feedback trends, and behavior-based segmentation, essential for crafting personalized customer experiences.
- NPS Scores and Feedback Trends: Custify doesn’t just track NPS scores; it links feedback directly to customer accounts, helping CSMs respond proactively to dips in satisfaction. For example, if customers in a specific segment show low NPS scores due to a particular feature, Custify can alert CSMs, who can then address these issues with targeted outreach or feedback escalation.
- Behavioral Segmentation: Custify segments customers by engagement level—high adopters, moderate users, or low-engagement customers—allowing CSMs to tailor their approach. For instance, if a segment shows low feature adoption, Custify can signal CSMs to initiate training or personalized campaigns to boost engagement.
These insights allow CSMs to move from reactive support to a proactive, tailored approach for each customer segment.
Task Management Beyond Sales
Close CRM’s task management is great for sales, but Custify’s is tailored specifically for customer success, covering everything from onboarding to renewals.
- Automated Retention and Renewal Workflows: Custify automatically assigns renewal and retention tasks based on customer health scores, so CSMs engage at the right moments. If a renewal is coming up, Custify might prompt actions like a QBR or feature review—steps targeted to keep customers on board.
- Onboarding and Adoption Flows: With Custify, CSMs set up onboarding workflows with milestone tasks, such as guiding customers through essential feature activation in the first 30 days. These tasks ensure a smooth, supportive onboarding experience aligned with customer needs.
- Clear Visibility and Accountability: Custify’s task management provides timelines and responsibilities at a glance, helping CSMs see exactly what’s needed, when, and by whom. This keeps everything on track and ensures proactive follow-through on critical tasks.
Automation of Routine CS Tasks with a CSP connected
Smooth customer success operations require dozens of routine tasks that need to happen consistently. There’s just no way around it. Luckily, that’s nothing a bit of Custify & Close CRM magic can’t help you out with.
Below, you’ll find a list of real-life examples of how you can use Custify’s automations to free up your time.
- Assign CSMs based on customer account priorities.
- Create task lists for immediate issues or escalations.
- Schedule emergency check-ins if a customer health score drops critically low.
- Notify relevant team members via preferred channels when urgent action is needed.
- Trigger training or feature adoption tasks when engagement declines.
- Schedule check-ins if usage metrics show a significant drop.
- Set up success planning tasks for highly engaged customers.
- Generate QBR preparation tasks based on customer milestones.
- Automate onboarding steps and reminders for renewals.
- Create follow-up assignments after meetings or key customer interactions.
- Schedule regular reviews for success plans based on customer lifecycle stages.
With these automations running in the background, you can rest easy knowing that no issues slip through the cracks. This frees you up to focus on tasks that need a human touch—like building stronger relationships with your customers and driving their success.
Close CRM Pricing
Now that we’ve seen how Close CRM and Custify work together, let’s talk numbers. Because, let’s face it, building your customer success tech stack isn’t just about features – it’s also about finding solutions that fit your budget.
At the moment of writing, Close CRM’s pricing starts at $49/month if you opt for annual billing or $59 if you opt for monthly pricing. Their Startup plan includes basic features like built-in calling, texting, and email solutions, a centralized inbox view to see what tasks need your attention and pipeline reporting.
As you can probably tell, even this entry-level price point is on par with other CRMs mid-tier options.
This entry-level price point is an attractive option for growing teams, especially those focused primarily on sales. As you move up the pricing tiers, the price doubles if you want to unlock more sophisticated features such as automated follow-ups and reminders, multiple pipeline views, or call recordings for up to 30 days.
$139/month gets you the plan with all the bells and whistles, but even if you get this it’s important to consider what’s not included in the package. Here, we’re talking about crucial customer success features like health scoring, customer journey tracking, and retention analytics.
Once again, this isn’t a shortcoming of Close CRM. Instead, it should be a reminder that CRM and Customer Success platforms serve different purposes and solve other types of problems.
Think of it this way: investing in just a CRM for customer success work is like buying a great pair of running shoes for a triathlon. While they’re essential, you’ll also need gear for swimming and cycling to complete the race successfully.
Final Argument: The Power of the Perfect Pairing
In today’s super competitive SaaS landscape, customer success is the lifeline of all successful businesses. Nowadays, customer acquisition alone isn’t enough to tilt the scale – the challenge lies in keeping them loyal, growing them, and using them as advocates for your brand.
Industry data says that acquiring a new customer can cost between 5 and 25 times as much as retaining an existing one. Ouch!
With stakes running so high, can you really afford to manage post-sale relationships with tools that aren’t fit for the job?
By adding Custify to your Close CRM setup, you’re not just getting another tool – you’re implementing a proactive strategy for customer retention and growth. Think about it:
- Instead of reacting to churn, you’re preventing it
- Instead of guessing when to upsell, you know exactly when customers are ready
- Instead of hoping customers succeed, you’re actively driving their success
So, when you think about it, the question isn’t ‘Do I need a dedicated customer success platform?’, it’s how long you can compete effectively without one.
If you’re ready to take the reins and transform your customer success strategy, go ahead and book a free demo of Custify’s customer success platform.
