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January 28th, 2026 21 min read
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Visualization of the Aqua Plus managed service in SMART CRM
How Aqua Plus Doubled Its Customer Base in Just 2 Years — and the Role of CRM
Doubling a customer base sounds like an ambitious goal. But even more challenging is maintaining service quality while growing. Since 2017, the Aqua Plus team has been systematically promoting a culture of conscious water consumption in Ukraine. The business grew around a simple but powerful idea: clean water should be accessible every day. That’s why the company focuses not only on sales but also on installation, service, and modernization of water purification systems, serving everything from private homes to businesses. Today, Aqua Plus is one of the market leaders in water treatment in western Ukraine and an official partner of Ecosoft Scientific and Production Association, one of the leading water filtration system manufacturers. Aqua Plus intentionally invested in digitalizing its processes to sustain growth without compromising service quality. For this purpose, the company implemented SMART business solutions: SMART Order Management and SMART Connector for GMS within the SMART CRM platform. This phase has already been detailed in a separate case study. Now, after these solutions have stood the test of time and real-world scaling, the team shares practical insights from their own experience. During a joint webinar with SMART business, Tetiana Luhovska, co-founder and CEO of Aqua Plus, candidly shared how the CRM system helped streamline and automate processes, enhance the team’s personal approach to clients, and achieve twofold growth in just two years without losing control.

When it became clear that growth required a new CRM — and why SMART business was chosen

As the customer base grew, it became increasingly difficult to keep all processes under control — from current orders to service tasks that require regular reminders. For example, timely cartridge replacements in already installed systems directly affect water quality and customer satisfaction. When dealing with thousands of clients, relying on memory or scattered tools was no longer an option. Collaboration with SMART business began back in 2022, at a time when the company had already reached the limits of its previous CRM. Aqua Plus decided to move away from Bitrix24, which no longer met the real business needs or security requirements. It became clear: the company needed not only a new CRM but also a reliable partner. A key requirement for migration was to preserve all critical data: customer base, interaction history, service completion records, site photos, and more. These requirements were fully met by the SMART business team. In May 2023, the company completed a full migration from Bitrix24 to SMART CRM, and by September 2023, the Aqua Plus team had fully transitioned to working in the new system.
“SMART business took a deep dive into our business processes so that the system wouldn’t disrupt our established way of working but would enhance it. During software implementations, many companies face a situation where the customer and technical specialists seem to speak ‘different languages.’ With SMART business, we experienced a completely different approach: they listened to us and translated every request to the technical team in a way that ensured everything worked exactly as intended. As a result, the outcome today fully aligns with our business goals.”
Tetiana Luhovska
Co-founder and Deputy Director, Aqua Plus

What makes Aqua Plus’s business unique—and what the CRM must support

The specificity of Aqua Plus’s business lies in its service-driven model with a long customer interaction cycle, where a communication error or a forgotten agreement can cost customer trust. In other words, it’s not enough to simply acquire a customer and close a sale. It is crucial not to lose sight of the client a month, six months, or even a year later — when it’s time for maintenance, cartridge replacement, or a new need arises. The company must remember all agreements, send timely service reminders, and preserve the full interaction context — even when different managers, administrators, and engineers are involved in working with the same customer. That is why having a single, unified information space is critical for Aqua Plus — one where the entire history of customer interactions is stored. When data is scattered across notebooks, spreadsheets, and personal notes, retrieving the right information at the right time becomes nearly impossible. A centralized CRM database, by contrast, allows teams to work with any parameter — from required equipment types to the next service date — and quickly restore the full context of cooperation. Another distinct challenge is serving different customer segments. Aqua Plus works with both end consumers (B2C) and businesses and organizations (B2B), including manufacturing companies and educational institutions. Each segment requires a different approach, different data sets, and a different communication logic. SMART CRM enables this personalized approach in a systematic way — not based on intuition, but on structured data. To support this, the system stores the most complete information possible. For legal entities, this includes company details, incorporation documents, and registered addresses required for contract creation. For private customers, every detail matters: where the client lives, who is typically at home during working hours, and more. For example, the person who orders and pays for the service may not be present during the engineer’s visit, while family members often are. This information is captured in SMART CRM by recording trusted contact persons, significantly simplifying future service delivery. An equally important component of SMART CRM is equipment data. Knowing exactly which solution is installed for each customer allows the company to clearly understand what should happen next — scheduled maintenance, component replacement, or a potential upsell. Visual context also plays a critical role. Photos of sites, installation locations, or inspection points are stored directly in the CRM system and used for more than just reporting. In many cases, they make it possible to resolve a customer issue remotely: by reviewing the photos, an engineer can guide the customer over the phone or via voice message without visiting the site. As a result, customers feel supported “here and now,” while the company saves specialists’ time, resources, and costs. This approach creates a shared information environment, where both the team and the customer speak the same language and see the same picture.
“Our cooperation with clients often spans years. Typically, a customer reaches out with an inquiry, receives a consultation, and makes preliminary agreements, but the actual need for equipment installation may arise only after a renovation is completed, a production line is launched, or just before the start of the academic year. If the company reminds the client about itself at the right moment, it is no longer a ‘cold’ sale — it is a continuation of a trusting dialogue. And it is the CRM system that helps us stay in context.”
Tetiana Luhovska
Co-founder and Deputy Director, Aqua Plus
In practice, the CRM consolidates all the information needed to deliver convenient and predictable service. This is especially critical for businesses with long sales cycles. When a deal can take months or even years, a company must remember not only the client, but also the initial agreements that started the relationship. This is exactly how trust in the brand is built. Today, the company actively works with property developers and design studios that recommend installing water purification systems at the early stages of construction or renovation. This approach is logical: systems for both technical and drinking water are far easier to incorporate at the design stage than to retrofit into an already finished interior. Or, for example, a company may record that in a year or two the customer plans to return to the question of an additional filter or expects special terms. For the customer, it is crucial that this conversation does not have to start from scratch — without having to prove anything again or spend time explaining. If a discount or specific terms were promised, they must be honored. That is why all key agreements are recorded in SMART CRM. Even if the technician, manager, or work schedule changes over time, the core agreements remain unchanged. The customer sees that the company remembers its commitments, which directly contributes to long-term trust. Thus, thanks to a unified communication flow, Aqua Plus has full visibility into the entire customer journey — from the first contact to service one or two years later. The CRM records all key activities: managers’ work, technicians’ site visits, agreements, engineers’ comments, and customer feedback. The system also stores all related contacts — those who are actually involved in on-site interactions, even if they are not the formal customers.
“When we were just planning to open our company and build the business, we based our idea on honesty, fairness, responsibility, and a high-quality product — so that, as they say, we could look our customers in the eye with confidence. But to uphold this level of responsibility, strong technological support is essential. And today, SMART CRM is exactly that kind of assistant for us.”
Tetiana Luhovska
Co-founder and Deputy Director, Aqua Plus

How does service maintenance work in CRM from a process perspective?

Water treatment systems require regular maintenance: filter replacement, equipment condition monitoring, and consultations. The company’s task is not to wait until the customer encounters a problem, but to act proactively so that the customer always has stable water quality without interruptions or emergencies. This is where SMART CRM plays a key role. After installation or service work is completed, all information about the site is recorded in the system — including when the customer needs to be reminded about the next filter replacement or maintenance. This data becomes the starting point for the next service cycle. The manager sees the reminder in the system, contacts the customer, agrees on the cost and scope of work, and records the arrangements in the CRM. The process then automatically moves to the next stage: the task is passed to the administrator. The administrator coordinates a convenient date and time for the engineer’s visit with the customer, confirms the on-site contact person, and plans optimal logistics for the team — all within a single, unified information environment. Once the visit date is confirmed, it is immediately displayed in the engineers’ calendars, and the customer automatically receives an SMS notification with the exact date and time of the specialist’s arrival. This eliminates unnecessary follow-ups, calls, and the risk of misunderstandings. An important nuance: information in the system is clearly segmented by roles. The manager completes the full customer and site profile, while the administrator receives a concise, structured summary specifically required to organize the visit and support the engineer’s work. This reduces communication noise and speeds up every stage of the process. After the work is completed, engineers provide photos and results to the administrator. The administrator records the completion, uploads the service completion report to the CRM, and passes the information back to the manager. Having a complete picture of what was done — the condition of the equipment, the engineer’s recommendations, and other details — the manager can close the current order and immediately plan the next steps. If additional consultation is needed, there is potential for an upsell, or a future visit is required, the manager can see all of this without extra calls or time-consuming searches for information. Various scenarios are then possible: scheduling the next contact or setting reminders months in advance. All decisions are made based on actual data, not assumptions.
“Today, service maintenance accounts for more than 50% of Aqua Plus’ total revenue, and this share continues to grow. After all, the goal of the business is not a one-time transaction, but long-term customer care — providing clean water for years and gradually increasing customer lifetime value.”
Tetiana Luhovska
Co-founder and Deputy Director, Aqua Plus

How does SMART CRM support upselling?

A dedicated stage in the company’s workflow is focused on additional sales after the core product has been installed. For example, at the start of a renovation, a customer may have budgeted only for a technical water filtration system. A drinking water filter might have been postponed due to budget constraints, the kitchen not yet being installed, or simply because there was no immediate need. CRM makes it possible to capture this context and return to the customer at the right moment — in a relevant and non-intrusive way. In addition, engineers working directly on-site often learn more about customers: someone has purchased a summer house, someone is planning to expand their home, and someone else is preparing to relocate. This real-time feedback is recorded in the system, and based on it, the company forms relevant, personalized offers. As a result, customers feel genuinely considered, while the business achieves sales growth without aggressive pressure. SMART CRM clearly shows which products the customer is already using, what was installed earlier, and when it makes sense to suggest the next step and execute an upsell. This prevents service from becoming chaotic and sales from being random. Instead, a systematic and predictable interaction model emerges — one in which both sides benefit.

How has automation impacted the Aqua Plus business?

At Aqua Plus, CRM is not perceived as a “magic wand” that transforms the business on its own. A system delivers value only when it is supported by a mature process culture and a team ready to work in a structured way.
“The Aqua Plus case is primarily about the company’s inclination toward process organization and structured work. SMART CRM is just a tool and an assistant. We never aimed to create the illusion that everything was done by the system alone. However, we came to the conclusion that it truly helped and became a contributor to the business’s positive results.”
Denys Shevchuk
Business Development Manager, SMART business
In the current conditions of the Ukrainian market, automation is no longer a matter of convenience — it has become a matter of business resilience. Qualified specialists are literally worth their weight in gold today, so the more processes a company can remove from manual control, the less dependent it becomes on talent shortages. At the same time, the number of errors decreases as well: forgotten agreements, uncoordinated site visits, scheduling conflicts, and similar issues. At Aqua Plus, the implementation of SMART CRM was viewed as an investment in growth. Once a process is properly configured, it continues to work on its own: sending reminders, providing prompts, and synchronizing people and actions across the organization. One important point, however, is that every business requires the system to be adapted to its own operational logic — and it was precisely this flexibility of SMART CRM that became a decisive factor. For example, the administrator interface is configured to simplify the planning of engineers’ site visits. A concise order summary allows the administrator to immediately assess the scope and duration of work, while a convenient schedule view makes it easy to see engineers’ workloads and build optimal routes without chaotic travel from one end of the city to the other. Managers, in turn, can group tasks weeks or months in advance, distribute workloads, and view customers by business area and interaction stage. As a result, every participant in the process — from manager to engineer — plans their time using a single system of reference. For a service company with a large number of site visits, customers, and work types, this is critically important. Without clear organization, even a strong team quickly faces overload. A separate challenge is seasonal and marketing-driven peaks. For example, campaigns such as Black Friday significantly increase the number of initial sales — and, as a result, the workload for engineers. With SMART CRM, Aqua Plus can flexibly manage these sales waves by consciously shifting some service visits by one or two weeks without compromising the customer experience. For customers, this is usually not critical, as most do not track the lifecycle of their filters — the company takes responsibility for this. During seasonal slowdowns or vacation periods, CRM makes it possible to evenly redistribute tasks, focus more actively on service and upselling, and keep engineers busy with other types of work. In this way, the system helps balance workloads throughout the year, instead of forcing the company to operate in a constant state of urgency.
“In essence, automation gave Aqua Plus the most important thing — control. Our business gained the ability not only to grow, but also to maintain service quality even as the number of customers, site visits, and processes increases. And this is where we see the key value of CRM: not to replace people, but to help them work more calmly, accurately, and efficiently — for the benefit of both the customer and the business.”
Tetiana Luhovska
Co-founder and Deputy Director, Aqua Plus

What conclusions can be drawn in numbers, based on quantitative and qualitative results?

Aqua Plus evaluates the impact of automation not only through hard metrics, but also through the quality of customer interactions. However, numbers best illustrate how a systematic approach translates into growth.

Quantitative results

After switching to SMART CRM in 2023, the company recorded a key outcome: the customer base doubled within two years. This growth was not accidental. It has been the result of several fundamental changes in operations:
  • the company stopped “losing” customers — both new ones and those who had already used its services
  • it began systematically tracking CRM metrics instead of relying on intuition
  • managers always see a clear plan for next steps with each customer, rather than operating on a “we’ll get back to it when we have time” principle
In practice, Aqua Plus launched a development spiral:
  1. There is a customer base — it is actively managed.
  2. High-quality work leads to referrals.
  3. The number of customers and orders grows — the company expands its engineering team.
  4. New specialists need to be kept busy — managers must work faster and more precisely.
As a result, every link in the chain benefits: engineers — through stable workloads, managers — through increased sales, and the business — through higher revenue and scalability.

Qualitative changes that are hard to measure, but easy to feel

Starting in 2023, CRM became a foundation of trust between Aqua Plus and its customers, delivering:
  • minimized loss of leads and customers due to human error
  • the elimination of the “broken telephone” effect between sales, service, and field engineers
  • a single information space where everyone involved in the customer journey works with the same data
“In 2022, when we realized that we might be left without a CRM for some time, there was a real fear of chaos. And I’m a person who needs everything to be well organized. That’s why we very quickly started building a new system together with SMART business — step by step, without abrupt moves, but with a clear goal: to achieve what we have today. That is a single information space for sales and service, control over customer commitments, and transparent processes that support business growth rather than slow it down. This is the true ‘magic’ of CRM — the magic of order within your own business. And we were fortunate that SMART business helped us build a tool that made this order possible.”
Tetiana Luhovska
Co-founder and Deputy Director, Aqua Plus
Today, the system clearly reflects cause-and-effect relationships: once a manager records an agreement, it is implemented by the administrator and executed by the engineer. Everyone sees their role in the shared chain and understands that a mistake at any stage will affect the entire process. This is exactly what fosters accountability and internal discipline. CRM functionality helps maintain continuous contact with customers through automated reminders, reports on “lost” customers, and mass communications designed to keep relationships active. Because a broken promise does not mean losing just one customer — it also means losing dozens of potential referrals.

What are the plans, and how is Aqua Plus preparing for the next stage of growth?

Over the past few years, Aqua Plus has grown significantly, and this growth has brought new requirements. While the initial priority was to bring order to sales and service operations, today the focus is shifting toward deeper digital maturity and greater information independence. The team is deliberately moving toward a model where all key processes operate within a single logic and do not depend on fragmented tools or the human factor. Today’s reality calls for the active use of modern technologies, and Aqua Plus is ready to invest in areas where digitalization genuinely strengthens the business.

Step one: expanding the CRM communication layer

Currently, only about 20% of customer interactions take place via phone calls, while approximately 80% happen through messaging apps. That is why the company plans to implement communication modules — SMART Chat and SMART Easy Bot — which will consolidate all communication channels directly within the CRM. In 2023, the main priority was a fast and secure migration to avoid data loss and business disruption. Now that the system is operating stably, Aqua Plus can confidently expand its functionality to view the full history of customer communications in a single information space, regardless of the channel.

Step two: implementing an ERP system

Aqua Plus’s business needs have already gone beyond managing sales and service alone. The company aims to unify finance, analytics, cash flow management, and operational data within a single system — without switching between multiple tools or manually assembling a complete picture. Statistical data and analytics are especially critical for Aqua Plus. They enable informed management decisions and support long-term planning and sustainable growth.
“I believe it’s difficult to grow without statistics and analytics. As a business owner, you can rely on intuition, but emotions are not always objective. That’s why you need a system that shows the real state of the business in numbers: what works and what doesn’t, where you’re growing and where you’re losing ground. Internally, it’s still not easy for me to fully prepare for ERP implementation, but I clearly understand that there is no alternative if scaling and development are the goals.”
Tetiana Luhovska
Co-founder and Deputy Director, Aqua Plus
Ultimately, Aqua Plus is moving toward a model where CRM and ERP form a single digital foundation for the business — transparent, manageable, and ready for further growth. The partnership with SMART business enables the company to follow this path not chaotically, but systematically — step by step, with a focus on long-term value for both customers and the business itself.
“If your business is also at a growth stage today — when manual management no longer works and outdated, fragmented tools begin to slow development — this case can serve as a valuable starting point. The SMART business team helps companies build structured, scalable digital models from CRM to ERP, based on real business processes rather than ‘idealized’ frameworks. This is how sustainable growth stories are created: when technology does not complicate work but becomes a reliable foundation for business development and long-term customer trust.”
Denys Shevchuk
Business Development Manager, SMART business
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January 20th, 2026 20 min read
Комплекс рішень Microsoft Dynamics 365, зображений у формі системи планет
The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Ecosystem: What It Includes and How It Works
Statistics from the HostingAdvice analytics platform show that using a CRM system can reduce a company’s core expenses by an average of 23%. That’s why more and more organizations are rethinking their approach to customer relationship management, looking for tools that combine analytics, automation, and scalability. One name that frequently tops these searches is “Microsoft Dynamics CRM.” However, this is where businesses often encounter a surprise: there is no standalone system by that name. In fact, what it refers to is a suite of individual Microsoft Dynamics 365 solutions designed to optimize sales, marketing, customer service, and other areas. These solutions form a unified CRM ecosystem thanks to a single database and seamless integrations. As of October 2025, the Microsoft website lists the following tool stack under the “CRM” category: The Microsoft Dynamics CRM suite is constantly evolving: artificial intelligence is being integrated, modules are merged or transformed, their functionality changes, and the logic of their interaction expands. That’s why, to achieve maximum efficiency in CRM processes, businesses need to find the optimal configuration of these solutions. Microsoft partners are also actively developing the ecosystem of this CRM platform by creating local connectors and industry-specific solutions tailored to the specifics of local markets. With more than 16 years of experience implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 products, the SMART business team has created a guide to help you understand the functionality of key Microsoft Dynamics CRM solutions and build configurations that best meet your business needs.

Practical Advantages of Microsoft Dynamics CRM in Customer Engagement

In 2025, Forrester named Microsoft a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Customer Relationship Management ranking. And in 2024, Microsoft topped Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for companies offering sales automation solutions. Microsoft CRM solutions have earned this popularity thanks to the following functional advantages:
  • 360° View Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM solutions allow you to consolidate all customer interactions — from marketing, sales, and service — into a single system.
  • Unified Data Pool Microsoft solutions support a unified data pool through Microsoft Dataverse, reducing the need for complex integrations between separate systems and saving time and resources.
  • Artificial Intelligence (Copilot) Microsoft Dynamics CRM modules include generative AI capabilities and agents that help automate repetitive tasks, improve recommendations, analyze data, and more.
  • Personalized Customer Experience These solutions enable businesses to customize customer interactions across multiple channels — chat, email, social media, phone — while considering previous inquiries and customer preferences.
  • Real-Time Analytics and Decision-Making Integration with Power BI provides up-to-date insights into sales, service, and marketing metrics in real time.
  • Scalability and Flexibility Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM solutions are suitable for both small businesses and large enterprises. The system can be scaled, new modules added and adapted to industry or local requirements. The subscription model allows you to align costs with business growth.
  • Security and Compliance Microsoft ensures adherence to security, regulatory compliance, and privacy standards. Solutions based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM are deployed on Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure, which holds a wide range of certifications (ISO 27001/27701, SOC 1/2/3, etc.) and tools to support compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, DORA, and other regulations. Actual compliance depends on system configuration, security processes, and client policies.

Dynamics 365 Sales: Automating the Sales Process

Dynamics 365 Sales is a solution designed to manage the sales process at every key stage: lead identification, qualification, relationship development, proposal creation, and deal closure. The system is built around leading methodologies such as SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) and SPIN (Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff), helping sales managers work strategically without wasting resources on repetitive tasks. Dynamics 365 Sales offers the following functionality:
  • AI Analytics and Real-Time Insights — The system provides managers and executives with relevant customer information exactly when they need it and suggests actions to move deals toward closure.
  • Sales Engagement — Tools like Sales Accelerator, Sequences, and Focused View standardize the sales process, helping teams efficiently manage leads, contacts, and opportunities.
  • Workflow Integration — Dynamics 365 Sales integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365, Teams, and Outlook, consolidating all sales-related communication in one system.
  • Optimized UX — Microsoft recently introduced a new interface based on Fluent UI Components and accelerated the loading of all record forms by 40%, improving navigation and overall user experience.
  • Customer Organizational Charts — Visualizing deal structures with key stakeholders, decision-making roles, and relationship status helps managers build more accurate engagement strategies.
  • Flexible Process Configuration — Features like automatic lead and opportunity assignment to teams, creating multiple opportunities from a single lead, and exporting segments from a unified database allow sellers to manage deals quickly and efficiently.
An additional advantage of the solution is the integrated Microsoft Copilot. Artificial intelligence acts as a virtual assistant with the following benefits:
  • Automatic Meeting and Email Summaries — Copilot summarizes key discussion points, identifies buyer intent, budget, and timeline, and suggests next steps.
  • SWOT and SPIN Client Analyses — AI automatically generates a concise strategic profile of the client based on data from internal (CRM) and external sources.
  • Intelligent Recommendations in Outlook and Teams — Copilot suggests responses, generates follow-ups, drafts emails, logs activities in CRM, and personalizes communication.
  • Identifying Growth Opportunities in Engagement — AI analyzes messages, documents, and CRM data to detect gaps in customer needs and provide managers with actionable recommendations.
  • Contextual Analytics — Copilot displays information about key stakeholders directly in Microsoft 365 Chat, Outlook, or Teams.

Case Study — Pharmaceutical Company YURiA-PHARM

YURiA-PHARM, one of the leaders in the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market, chose Dynamics 365 Sales to support its rapid growth and business expansion. Implementing the solution helped structure work with international partners, make contract management transparent, and streamline collaboration between teams — directly impacting the company’s key performance indicators. Learn more about the implementation in YURiA-PHARM’s success story.

Case Study — System Integrator SEETON

Another example of Dynamics 365 Sales effectiveness is Seeton. This leading system integrator in Ukraine and Azerbaijan needed a CRM capable of covering the full and complex sales cycle — from tenders to post-project support. Dynamics 365 Sales helped them achieve complete process transparency, build clear analytics, and optimize risk management.

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights: Optimizing Customer Relationships

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights combines the capabilities of the former Dynamics 365 Marketing and Customer Insights into a single platform. This tool helps companies collect, unify, and analyze data from all sources — CRM, ERP, websites, contact centers — and create a complete customer profile in real time. The result: accurate segmentation, personalized communications, and effective marketing campaigns thanks to the following functionality:
  • Unified Customer Profile (360°): The system builds a consolidated customer profile by merging data from all channels in real time.
  • Intelligent Segmentation: Marketers can instantly create audience segments based on behavior, lifecycle stage, and customer preferences.
  • Customer Data Platform (CDP): The solution’s technological foundation enables data synchronization across all business systems and departments.
  • Campaign Automation: Insights generated by the solution can immediately be turned into targeted promotional campaigns without additional integration.
  • Smart Event Management: The system automates the entire communication cycle — from participant registration (including waitlists) to sending reminders and post-event emails, considering each contact’s time zone.
  • Unified Data Ecosystem: Dynamics 365 Customer Insights integrates with Microsoft Fabric OneLake — a modern platform for data storage and analytics. This ensures all customer data from CRM, marketing, sales, and support is consolidated in one database, optimizing analytics.
  • Copilot: Configure customer scenarios in real time and use Copilot to gain new insights, create audience segments, and generate personalized content.

Case Study — BROCARD: Personalizing Communication with Two Million Customers

Seeking a deeper understanding of its audience, retailer BROCARD chose Dynamics 365 Customer Insights — a platform that delivers flexible segmentation and high-level customer base analytics. Thanks to Microsoft CRM, the company reduced its “inactive” customer segment by 4.9 times, the potential churn segment by 3.8 times, and the churn segment by 1.5 times. Learn how these results were achieved in the success story.

Dynamics 365 Customer Service: Delivering Flawless Customer Support

Dynamics 365 Customer Service is a solution that enables companies to provide comprehensive, personalized, and fast support for customers within a single platform. It supports both B2B and B2C service models, addresses the needs of partners, dealers, and internal departments, and helps reduce time spent on routine tasks thanks to the following functionality:
  • 360° Customer Interaction View: A complete picture of customer history, preferences, communication habits, and data from ERP or other systems — all in one window — so agents can quickly understand the context and deliver personalized support in real time.
  • Intelligent Case Routing: The system automatically directs requests to employees with the right expertise, considering priority, topic, and communication channel.
  • Advanced Analytics and Quality Management Tools: The solution uses employee performance metrics, SLA monitoring, and sentiment analysis to identify and resolve issues before customers notice them, leveraging built-in IoT signals and alerts.
  • Self-Service Portal: Customers can access knowledge base articles, create support tickets, and use chatbots to reduce the load on support agents.
  • Integration: The solution integrates with Microsoft Teams and unified admin dashboards, allowing businesses to customize the workspace to their needs.
  • Built-In Copilot: AI in Dynamics 365 Customer Service helps draft responses to customers, summarize and translate their requests when needed, and suggests knowledge base articles and similar cases based on context. The advantage is that Copilot ensures a seamless, convenient, and personalized service experience for customers regardless of their location, language, or preferences.

Case Study — UIA (Ukraine International Airlines)

To improve the efficiency of handling customer inquiries, UIA sought a solution that would centralize all passenger requests and ensure control at every stage of processing. Implementing Dynamics 365 Customer Service enabled the company to create a unified system for logging, registering, and monitoring requests in real time. As a result, UIA optimized its support operations, accelerated response times, and increased transparency in customer service processes.

Dynamics 365 Field Service: Optimizing On-Site Service Operations

Dynamics 365 Field Service helps companies deliver high-quality service directly at the customer’s location. This solution combines intelligent scheduling and mobile tools to ensure field teams operate efficiently and service continuity is maintained. Its main advantage is that it not only resolves issues but also helps prevent them. The platform is suitable for managing customer equipment maintenance as well as internal technical infrastructure — for example, in large manufacturing or energy companies. The system offers the following functionality:
  • Smart Scheduling of Service Visits: Automatically assigns work orders to specialists based on workload, qualifications, location, and route.
  • Unified Work Order Management: Handles creation, assignment, tracking, and analytics of work orders in real time.
  • Mobile App for Technicians: Provides an intuitive interface with schedule updates, instructions, and customer service history.
  • Preventive Maintenance: Automatically creates recurring tasks for equipment checks to prevent failures and downtime.
  • Inventory and Procurement: When integrated with ERP systems, automates inventory tracking and processes for supply requests, returns, and material usage.
  • Performance Analytics: Analyzes completed work orders against plans, response times, and technician workload to optimize scheduling for maximum productivity.
  • IoT Support and Proactive Service: Integrates with IoT devices for equipment monitoring; if an issue is detected, the system automatically creates an incident ticket and schedules a technician visit.
  • Billing and Time Tracking: When integrated with ERP, the CRM solution automatically generates invoices based on completed work and materials, factoring in travel and on-site time.
  • Copilot: AI in Field Service generates work summary reports, analyzes data from field specialists, and helps segment and process requests faster.

Case Study — Ausgrid, Australian Energy Distributor

Ausgrid is one of the largest electricity providers in Australia, serving over 4 million consumers. A Microsoft partner implemented Dynamics 365 Field Service for Ausgrid to improve the efficiency of its field teams and minimize manual processes. By integrating the system with Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Ausgrid automated visit scheduling, equipped technicians with mobile tools, and gained real-time, transparent analytics. This helped reduce errors, accelerate task completion, and enhance customer service quality. Learn more in Microsoft’s case study.

Dynamics 365 Contact Center: Establishing Customer Connections

Seamless customer service starts with the right point of contact. Dynamics 365 Contact Center is an intelligent cloud solution for omnichannel support that combines telephony, chat, messaging apps, and SMS into a single platform. It can be integrated as part of the Dynamics 365 Customer Service suite or used as a standalone solution. Designed for professional contact centers, it delivers scalability, process automation, and deep CRM integration, boosting agent efficiency and customer satisfaction through the following functionality:
  • Full Cloud Telephony: Built on Microsoft Teams and Azure Communication Services, it supports scaling voice and chat channels without third-party solutions.
  • Omnichannel Interaction: All inquiries from telephony, chat, email, and messaging apps appear in a single agent console, providing a 360° view of customer history.
  • Intelligent Routing: Automatically assigns cases to the most relevant agent based on skills, language, rating, and prior experience.
  • Advanced Self-Service Options: Integrated AI agents and IVR scenarios powered by Nuance and Microsoft Copilot Studio allow customers to get answers without an operator.
  • Real-Time Analytics: Built-in Power BI dashboards track contact center workload, agent performance, and key KPIs.
  • Deep Integration with Microsoft Ecosystem: Native integration with Dynamics 365 Sales, Customer Service, and Customer Insights ensures a unified customer profile and accurate data synchronization.
  • Copilot: Embedded AI provides automatic call and chat summaries, real-time prompts for agents, draft responses based on knowledge base articles, and previous customer interactions.

Case Study — Lenovo: Boosting Agent Productivity by 15%

Lenovo, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of computer hardware and IT solutions, provides customer support in over 180 countries. The company implemented Dynamics 365 Contact Center and Dynamics 365 Customer Service to enhance its Premier Support operations and improve customer engagement quality. By integrating Copilot and generative AI capabilities, Lenovo automated case handling, introduced omnichannel support in nine languages, and provided agents with real-time prompts and summaries. As a result, productivity increased by 15%, and average case handling time dropped by 20%. Learn how these results were achieved in Microsoft’s success story.

Microsoft Dataverse: A Common Data Language for the Entire Company

Let’s return to the term “Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM”: as we’ve seen, it’s not a single system but a suite of separate solutions. So, how can these solutions be seamlessly combined into a unified CRM system for a company’s business processes? Microsoft Dataverse serves as that shared platform for all CRM solutions, ensuring consistent data storage, processing, and synchronization across departments—sales, service, marketing, and logistics. Each department works in its own role-based interface with the necessary functionality, but all share the same database. This means that changes made by one team are automatically reflected for others—within the access rights granted according to employee roles. Dataverse also stores business logic, system relationships, and configurations, so all Microsoft solutions — from Dynamics 365 Sales to Field Service — integrate easily while remaining consistent. In other words, Dataverse is the common “data language” that enables a company to operate as a single organism.

Pricing for Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM

The cost of Microsoft Dynamics CRM solutions is based on license fees and primarily depends on the number of users who will have access to the system. This can be billed per active user or for a specific range of users (e.g., up to 50, up to 100). License fees also vary depending on the selected CRM functionality. Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers different licensing models: you can choose a basic package or advanced options with additional features (information current as of Fall 2025):
Solution Name License Type Included Features Price
Dynamics 365 Sales Professional Basic sales process automation, Microsoft 365 integration, reporting, dashboards $65/month per user, billed annually
Enterprise Edition Advanced sales automation and AI-driven analytics with extended customization $105/month per user, billed annually
Premium Everything in Enterprise plus additional preconfigured AI solutions for sellers and managers, Sales Qualification Agent $150/month per user, billed annually
Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Single License Unified customer data source, enrichment functionality, personalized interactions with potential and existing clients $1,700/month per tenant, billed annually OR $1,000/month for customers with 10+ Dynamics 365 licenses
Dynamics 365 Customer Service Professional Basic customer service features: self-service, case management, knowledge base $50/month per user, billed annually
Enterprise Advanced customer service features for personalized support, team efficiency tools, and process optimization $105/month per user, billed annually
Premium Extended solution with integrated contact center and ready-to-use AI agents $195/month per user, billed annually
Dynamics 365 Field Service Contractor Engaging contract field service specialists for work orders, including mobile app access $50/month per user, billed annually
Field Service Comprehensive field service solution with step-by-step instructions and real-time remote expert support $105/month per user, billed annually
Dynamics 365 Contact Center Contact Center Comprehensive solution for voice and digital channel communication $110/month per user, billed annually
Customer Service Premium Extended customer service solution with integrated contact center and AI agents $195/month per user, billed annually

SMART business — Your Trusted Partner for Implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM

SMART business, an authorized Microsoft partner with over 16 years of experience and the trust of more than 1,250 clients worldwide, provides expertise in selecting the optimal solution from the Microsoft Dynamics CRM ecosystem, as well as system implementation and ongoing support to maximize business process efficiency. SMART business follows the Microsoft Sure Step methodology, ensuring predictability, transparency, and control at every stage of implementation. This approach gives businesses clear timelines, a predictable budget, and solutions that can scale as the company grows.

Implementation Options for Dynamics 365 CRM Offered by SMART business:

  1. Out-of-the-Box Solution Ideal for companies whose business processes are close to standard. In this case, the system is deployed quickly, the team receives training for confident use and gains the ability to configure CRM independently through low-code/no-code tools.
  2. Customized Solution If your business has unique processes, Dynamics 365 CRM can be flexibly adapted to them. SMART business helps determine which of the five Dynamics 365 solutions best meets your goals and calculates the scope of work for a clear understanding of resources and costs.
In addition to vendor services, SMART business also offers its own solution for implementation — SMART CRM. This is an alternative to Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM, built on Microsoft technologies, and easily integrates with your company’s existing business processes.

FAQ — Frequently Asked Questions About Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM

  • How is Dynamics 365 CRM different from ERP systems? CRM manages customer relationships, helping businesses build effective sales, marketing, and service processes. ERP, on the other hand, covers internal processes such as finance, manufacturing, logistics, and HR, enabling centralized management of these operations.
  • Can Microsoft CRM be customized for my business? Every solution in the Dynamics 365 CRM ecosystem allows you to create custom fields, forms, business processes, automations, and rules without coding using Power Platform. In addition, SMART business provides customization services at any level—from basic configurations to complex integrations and automations.
  • Does it support low-code / no-code development? Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM supports a low-code/no-code approach. With tools like Power Apps, Power Automate, and Copilot, companies can quickly build automations and integrations without programming.
  • How is data security ensured? Microsoft provides enterprise-grade security: role-based access control, encryption, user activity auditing, and compliance with international security standards. All data is transmitted through secure channels and backed up in Microsoft-certified data centers.
  • Does Dynamics 365 CRM integrate with other Microsoft products? For example, Outlook, Teams, Power BI, Word, Excel, and Entra ID work within a unified ecosystem. CRM synchronizes through built-in connectors — requiring only a corporate Microsoft account.
  • Does Dynamics 365 CRM integrate with other systems? It supports ready-made connectors and custom connector development using open APIs. Dynamics 365 CRM solutions can integrate with SAP, Oracle, Mailchimp, HubSpot, Slack, Zoom, Zendesk, ServiceNow, and more — or you can build custom integrations via Power Platform.
  • Is there a mobile version of CRM? Yes. Mobile apps for iOS and Android are available, featuring offline mode, push notifications, and full customer management functionality.
  • Does CRM integrate with Nova Poshta and Ukrposhta? SMART business has developed SMART Connectors that integrate Dynamics 365 with Nova Poshta, Ukrposhta, InPost, as well as payment services like PayPal, UAPAY, plata by mono, and Przelewy24.
  • Does CRM integrate with Rozetka? Yes. With the SMART Connector for Rozetka, marketplace orders can be processed directly in Microsoft Dynamics 365 modules.
  • Is employee training available? Yes. SMART business provides user training and quick-start materials.
  • Does Microsoft Dynamics CRM include CPQ? Not For example, Dynamics 365 Sales does not have a full CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) module that automates product selection, pricing, and quote generation. However, the system includes several built-in CPQ features that can be combined and extended.
Still have questions about Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM or ready to implement one of the solutions? Submit a request for a free demo, and SMART business experts will gladly consult you: Request a Demo
October 21st, 2025 1 min read
Your Ultimate Guide to Building Customer Experience That Drives Sales

Why does your business need a strong Customer Experience strategy?

Customers don’t evaluate individual touchpoints — they perceive the entire experience of interacting with your business. If there’s a delay, an unclear process, or a lack of personalization anywhere along the journey, you risk losing their trust. That’s why it’s crucial to analyze CX and continuously optimize it to retain customers and boost their loyalty. To help businesses take a systematic approach to CX, we’ve prepared a practical guide with recommendations and examples — a clear reference for building an effective customer interaction strategy. What’s inside the guide?
  • A clear strategy for building effective CX
  • Common mistakes that can cost you customers
  • Tools and approaches for automating the customer journey
Download the free guide and start improving your Customer Experience today! Download the Free Guide Want to learn more? Start now and turn your CX into a success driver! Leave a request
October 9th, 2025 18 min read
Зображення «колообігу» життя клієнта — від наближення до покупки
LTV — Customer Lifetime Value: Calculation and Practical Applications
LTV is all about the ability to measure your brand’s existence. If no one comes back to buy your product again, you’ve either failed to deliver on the brand experience or people don’t value that experience.
Taylor Holiday
Managing Partner of Common Thread Collective.
At the heart of today’s business isn’t the product or the advertising — it’s the customers who keep coming back. These returning customers drive company growth and serve as a measure of success: each repeat purchase is not just revenue, but a confirmation of your brand’s value in the eyes of the buyer. However, retaining customers is harder than attracting them the first time. The market is vast, competitors are aggressive, and customer expectations keep rising. In this environment, simply tracking sales or counting new leads is no longer enough. Companies need a clear answer to the question: “What real value does each customer bring over the course of our relationship, and is it worth investing resources to retain them?” The answer comes from LTV (Lifetime Value), also known as CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) — one of the key indicators of long-term business success. It allows you to view customers not as one-off transactions but as sources of stable, recurring revenue. Let’s take a closer look at how to calculate LTV and what it can do for your business.

What is LTV (Lifetime Value)

LTV, or Customer Lifetime Value, is a metric that shows the total revenue a business earns from a single customer over the entire period of their relationship. It takes into account all purchases and interactions — from the first transaction to the last touchpoint — capturing the full value a customer brings while staying with your business. How does it work? Imagine a coffee shop attracting a new customer through advertising. On the first day, they buy a coffee for 80 UAH. If they enjoy the drink, the atmosphere, and the service, they return tomorrow, next week, and perhaps even bring friends — becoming a regular visitor for three years, spending an average of 1,000 UAH per month. In this case, their LTV for the coffee shop would be roughly 36,000 UAH. This figure reflects the customer’s entire journey: initial acquisition, repeated purchases, and any additional spending generated by a positive experience. It’s worth noting that alongside LTV, the abbreviation CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) is commonly used internationally. Both represent the same concept, but with slightly different calculation focuses. LTV typically shows the average profit a customer brings over their lifetime with the company, while CLV looks at each customer individually, enabling more detailed segmentation.

Why Customer Lifetime Value Matters for Your Business

Mass marketing is becoming increasingly less effective in today’s market, while acquiring new customers gets more expensive every year. In contrast, retaining existing customers costs 5–25 times less, according to Harvard Business Review research. In this context, calculating customer lifetime value helps you identify which audience segments generate the highest profit and offer the greatest growth potential. This insight opens the door to personalized offers and communications, making customers feel understood and valued. The result is almost always increased loyalty, higher repeat purchase rates, and a boost in average order value. Moreover, analyzing LTV allows businesses to spot weaknesses in the customer experience: where engagement drops, when customers “churn”, and what isn’t working in your strategy. This insight helps generate hypotheses for service improvements, test new approaches, and adapt your business model to meet the expectations of your most valuable leads. In this way, the company invests more in returning customers, creates a positive experience for those still deciding, and identifies potential churners before it’s too late.

Why Calculate LTV: 7 Reasons for Business Owners

The LTV metric answers one of the most critical business questions: “How much do I need to spend to earn more?” But the value of LTV goes far beyond a single number. Calculating customer lifetime value provides businesses with a range of strategic advantages:
  1. Customer segmentation — Understanding which customer groups generate the most profit allows you to focus resources where they matter most.
  2. Personalized offers — Creating relevant products, promotions, and communications for different segments gives customers the feeling that they are seen and understood.
  3. Marketing cost optimization — Clearly defining how much can be spent to acquire a customer while remaining profitable enables more effective financial planning.
  4. Identifying the most profitable channels — Analyzing which sources bring in the highest-LTV customers helps you prioritize these channels in your marketing efforts.
  5. Reducing conversion costs — Eliminating ineffective channels and strategies that don’t bring valuable customers ensures budget efficiency.
  6. Adapting strategy to high-value leads — Flexibly adjusting approaches based on which customers drive the most growth helps preserve resources.
  7. Revenue and ROI forecasting — Accurately calculating how much to invest in acquisition maximizes return on investment.

How to Calculate LTV: Formulas for Different Industries

There’s no one-size-fits-all formula for calculating customer lifetime value. The method you choose depends on your business model, industry, and company goals. For example, in retail, the focus is usually on average order value and purchase frequency, for subscription services — churn rate and average revenue per user, and in banking — margin and long-term retention. So how do you pick the right method for your business? Below is a list of formulas commonly used across industries, with examples to help you determine which fits your company best.

  • Simple LTV Formula for Subscription Services and Recurring Payments

LTV = ARPU × Customer Lifetime ARPU — Average Revenue Per User per month = (Revenue ÷ Active Customers) Customer Lifespan — Duration of the customer relationship Example: ARPU = $30/month, Customer Lifetime = 24 months LTV = $30 × 24 = $720

  • Basic Multiplicative LTV Formula for eCommerce and Retail

LTV = AOV × Purchase Frequency × Customer Lifespan AOV — Average Order Value (total revenue ÷ total number of purchases) Purchase Frequency — How often a customer buys Customer Lifespan — Duration of the customer relationship Use case: eCommerce, retail, regularly purchased products. Example: AOV = $80, customer buys 4 times per year, lifetime = 3 years LTV = $80 × 4 × 3 = $960.

  • LTV Formula with Margin and Churn (for SaaS and Online Services)

LTV = (ARPU × Gross Margin) ÷ Churn Rate ARPU — Average Revenue Per User per month = (Revenue ÷ Active Customers) Gross Margin — Profit margin Churn Rate — Customer attrition rate Use case: Services with predictable payment streams. Example: ARPU = $15/month, Gross Margin = 60% (0.60), Churn = 4% (0.04) ARPU × Margin = $15 × 0.60 = $9.00 Divide by churn: $9.00 ÷ 0.04 = $225.00 LTV ≈ $225.

  • NPV Model (for B2B and High-Value Products)

LTV = Σ (Revenueₜ × Margin ÷ (1 + Discount Rate)ₜ) — CAC Σ — Sum across periods (year, month, etc.) Revenueₜ — Revenue in period t Margin — Profit margin CAC — Customer acquisition cost Use case: Long-term contracts and infrequent purchases. Example: Revenue: $200, $240, $300 over three years. Margin = 50% (0.5), Discount Rate = 10% (0.10), CAC = $100 Year 1 = (200 × 0.5) ÷ (1 + 0.10)¹ = 100 ÷ 1.10 = $90.91 Year 2 = (240 × 0.5) ÷ (1 + 0.10)² = 120 ÷ 1.21 = $99.17 Year 3 = (300 × 0.5) ÷ (1 + 0.10)³ = 150 ÷ 1.331 = $112.70 Sum of discounted contributions = $90.91 + $99.17 + $112.70 = $302.78 LTV = $302.78 − $100 = $202.78

  • Segmentation and Analytical Approaches (Applicable Across Industries)

LTV = Σ (Segment Revenue × Retention Probability × Margin) Σ — Sum across periods (year, month, etc.) Segment Revenue — Revenue from the customer segment Retention Probability — Likelihood of retaining the segment Margin — Profit margin Use case: RFM analysis, cohort analysis, and multi-category businesses. This approach helps account for the fact that different customer groups have varying levels of value and retention.

How to Use LTV in Marketing and Business: Practical Applications

Knowing your LTV helps companies make informed decisions: how much to invest in customer acquisition, which loyalty strategies work best, and where to identify profit growth opportunities. But how does it work in practice?
  • Customer Segmentation LTV is an ideal criterion for segmenting your audience, allowing you to categorize your customer base — from the most valuable to those generating minimal profit. This helps identify high-potential clients and deliver personalized experiences: VIP offers, tailored communication, special discounts, and more.
  • Forecasting and Planning Revenue prediction is a core use of LTV. With thoughtful approaches like cohort analysis, channel segmentation, and geographic breakdowns, businesses can estimate where future profits will come from.
  • Personalized Offers Analyzing lifetime value reveals which products or services your most valuable customers purchase. This insight enables targeted campaigns, product bundles, and upsell or cross-sell opportunities.
  • Retention and Loyalty LTV directly correlates with brand reputation: customers who feel valued return more often and spend more.
  • Identifying Growth Opportunities in the Customer Experience A declining LTV in a segment signals waning customer interest. Tracking changes in LTV allows businesses to quickly spot issues in service, communication channels, or product offerings and address them proactively.
  • Strategic Planning and Risk Management Knowing LTV helps forecast long-term profitability, plan business scaling, and build realistic financial models. LTV also highlights dependency on a limited customer group. If most revenue comes from a narrow segment, it’s time to consider diversifying audiences and channels, reducing vulnerability to market shifts or changes in customer behavior.
  • Efficient Marketing Budgeting LTV provides a clear answer to: “How much can I spend on acquiring a customer (CAC) while still making a profit?” If LTV exceeds CAC, marketing spend is justified. If not, it’s a signal to optimize campaigns or acquisition channels.

Understanding the LTV:CAC Ratio — What It Is and How to Calculate It

Businesses in the digital market face new challenges: over the past five years, the average Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) for digital companies has increased by 50%, driven by tougher competition and rising advertising costs on platforms like Facebook and Google. Analyzing the LTV-to-CAC ratio shows how much revenue a customer generates compared to the cost of acquiring them. This insight helps companies decide which customer segments are worth investing in. So, what should the LTV:CAC ratio look like (where LTV = Lifetime Value, CAC = acquisition cost)?
  • Less than 1:1 — the business is losing money.
  • 1:1–2:1 — break-even range; a risky balance.
  • 3:1 — considered a “healthy standard”: acquisition costs translate into profit and scalable growth.
  • 4:1–5:1 — indicates a profitable business, but growth may be conservative due to cautious marketing spending.
It’s important to note that LTV:CAC benchmarks vary by industry. The average 3:1 ratio is only a guideline, not a universal rule. For example:
  • B2B SaaS: typical range 4:1 — optimal for model stability and customer retention.
  • B2C SaaS (mass-market): ~2.5:1 due to lower LTV and broader audience.
  • Adtech: 7:1
  • Cybersecurity, Fintech, Edtech: ~5:1
  • Design: ~6:1
  • Business Services: 3:1
  • Industrial & Pharmaceutical: 3–4:1 If customers are acquired exclusively through paid channels, the average ratio is ~2.5:1.
  • Biotech, Business Consulting, Construction: 4:1
  • Financial Services: 4:1
  • Real Estate: 4:1
Effectively managing the LTV:CAC ratio helps understand whether marketing spend is truly benefiting the business. If a customer’s lifetime value significantly exceeds the acquisition cost, the channel is worth scaling — it’s already profitable. That’s why the 3:1 ratio is considered the baseline: it signals that the business model is ready for growth with profit. A 5:1 ratio, meanwhile, indicates the company can make even more aggressive marketing investments without sacrificing efficiency. This metric is also crucial for external evaluation. Investors directly consider LTV:CAC when valuing a business: a model with a 3:1 ratio is typically valued several times higher than one with only 2:1. Similarly, the ratio affects payback speed: with LTV:CAC around 5:1, marketing costs can be recouped in as little as four months, creating a strong resource for reinvestment and growth.

Key Reasons for Low LTV: Business “Mistakes” That Reduce Customer Lifetime Value

Low customer lifetime value is rarely accidental — it usually stems from specific gaps in strategy, service, or communication. Recognizing these mistakes helps businesses identify problem areas early and fix them before they become systemic losses. Here are the main “mistakes” that can lead to low LTV:
  1. Lack of systematic customer retention efforts Focusing solely on acquiring new customers often leads to existing ones gradually “falling away.” Without loyalty programs, personalized offers, or post-purchase support, even satisfied customers may turn to competitors.
  2. Poor customer experience Slow responses to inquiries, complicated purchase processes, clunky interfaces, or unpredictable delivery delays all undermine trust. Customers remember not just the product, but the entire journey with the brand.
  3. Ignoring personalization Sending the same communications to all audience segments risks losing the sense of individualized attention. Personalized recommendations and content increase repeat purchases and average order value.
  4. Undervaluing post-purchase support Lack of follow-ups, service reminders, or tips on using the product reduces the likelihood of repeat engagement. Customers are more likely to forget about a brand if it doesn’t stay on their radar.
  5. Limited assortment or pricing strategy If customers have nothing new to “discover” in your brand — no new products, promotions, upsells, or cross-sells — LTV stagnates. Expanding your offering allows you to increase purchases per customer without additional acquisition costs.

Seven Ways to Increase Customer Lifetime Value

Improving LTV isn’t an abstract goal — it’s a measurable business outcome. It can be achieved by combining quality service, effective communication, and data-driven decisions. The better a brand understands its customers and responds to their needs, the longer and more profitable the relationship will be. Here are several proven, universal practices that help extend and strengthen customer relationships:
  1. Personalize offers and launch loyalty programs Segment your customer base and use data on past purchases to recommend relevant products and services. Points, bonuses, cashback, or perks for loyal customers motivate them to stay with the brand and buy more often. (For example, about 80% of U.S. consumers belong to loyalty programs — and this increases repeat purchases by around 60%.)
  2. Reactivate passive customers Reach out to customers who haven’t purchased in a while — through special offers, discounts, or personalized messages. With this approach, you can re-engage 20–30% of inactive customers before they are considered fully lost.
  3. Deliver high-quality service Fast support, clear information, and a willingness to resolve issues build trust and encourage long-term loyalty. Research shows that over 90% of customers are willing to make a repeat purchase if they’ve had a positive service experience.
  4. Upsell and cross-sell Offer customers upgraded or complementary products. This not only increases average order value but also enhances the overall product experience. Automated post-purchase offers (for example, right after checkout) can significantly raise customer return rates.
  5. Keep the assortment fresh Regularly introducing new products or modifications keeps customers interested and gives them more reasons to come back. This is especially critical in highly competitive industries, where variety directly impacts purchase frequency.
  6. Provide educational content and demonstrate expertise Guides, tutorials, video lessons, or webinars help customers get more value from your product. This strategy strengthens brand trust and encourages consistent use.
  7. Use analytics to optimize interactions Continuously track LTV and test new tools — from email campaigns to upsell offers. This helps identify which actions deliver the most impact and scale them for greater profitability.

BROCARD Case Study: How LTV Analysis in a CRM System Helped Boost Company Profits

The effective use of LTV analytics in building marketing strategies is clearly illustrated by the success story of BROCARD, the largest perfume and cosmetics retail chain in Ukraine. Since 2018, the company has been using Microsoft Dynamics 365 tools to create personalized customer communications. One of the most impactful initiatives was the automation of birthday-related interactions. Previously, marketers manually compiled birthday lists and sent out generic monthly campaigns. Today, the company has moved to daily personalized communications. To achieve this, four tailored customer journeys were created, targeting different customer segments — from standard discounts to exclusive offers for VIP audiences. These offers are sent seven days before a customer’s birthday and remain valid for another week afterward. This approach quickly became one of the company’s top three most effective marketing activities, thanks to its strong results. Another step toward optimizing customer relationships was the full RFM segmentation of BROCARD’s customer base. By applying the Recency (last purchase date), Frequency (purchase frequency), and Monetary (average spend) criteria, BROCARD built a 5×5×5 RFM cube and then streamlined it into 11 key groups. This allowed for more precise targeting of different customer categories. Special attention was given to “dormant” customers. To win them back, cascade scenarios were introduced:
  • The first offer is sent 9 months after the last purchase, as this was identified as the optimal reminder period.
  • The next offers are sent after 12, 15 months, and so on, with increasing benefits for the customer.
  • Only after three years of inactivity does a customer finally move into the “churn” segment.
The implementation of this strategy delivered tangible results: the number of dormant customers decreased almost fivefold, potential churn decreased 3.8 times, and the churn segment itself shrank 1.5 times. By leveraging the customer lifetime value (LTV) metric, BROCARD gained a clear understanding of which customers bring the greatest value and which engagement scenarios are most effective. Without LTV, marketers would have been working “blindly”, launching the same mass campaigns for everyone. Thanks to this metric, the company was able to:
  • justify investments in personalization,
  • optimize work with different customer segments,
  • balance short-term promotions with long-term loyalty.

FAQ — Most Common Questions About LTV

We’ve put together answers to the most frequent questions entrepreneurs ask about LTV:
  • What’s the difference between LTV and CLV? In most cases, they are synonyms — Lifetime Value (LTV) and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) both describe the total profit a business earns from a single customer over the entire period of cooperation. The only nuance is emphasis: LTV is sometimes used in a broader sense, including not only financial value but also referrals and brand influence.
  • How often should LTV be recalculated? Ideally, every quarter or after significant changes in pricing, marketing, or customer behavior. In fast-moving industries, even monthly updates may be required.
  • Is LTV analysis relevant for all business models? For nearly all. It is especially important in subscription services, e-commerce, mobile apps, SaaS, and B2B. For one-off purchases (e.g., real estate), LTV is less commonly applied.
  • Can LTV be calculated by customer segments? Yes — and it’s actually recommended. Segment-level LTV helps identify which groups of customers are the most profitable and adjust marketing strategies for each group.
  • How does LTV relate to CAC, ROI, and ARPU? CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost): measures how much it costs to acquire a customer. The LTV:CAC ratio shows the profitability of marketing investments. ROI (Return on Investment): evaluates overall investment efficiency, and higher LTV directly drives ROI growth. ARPU (Average Revenue Per User): average revenue per user, which is one of the components in the LTV formula.
  • Can LTV be integrated into a CRM? Most modern CRM systems allow you to automatically calculate LTV based on purchase history and customer interactions, which simplifies segmentation and marketing planning.
  • What are the most common mistakes in calculating LTV? 1. Using only revenue without considering margin. 2. Ignoring customer retention costs. 3. Applying average values without segmentation. 4. Calculating based on incomplete or outdated data.
If you’d like to implement automation tools to improve your company’s customer relationships, submit a request — and SMART business experts will select the most relevant solutions for you. Request a demo
September 10th, 2025 16 min read
Візуальне порівняння Bitrix24 з безпечними аналогами SMART CRM та Microsoft Dynamics 365
SMART CRM: A Reliable Alternative to Bitrix24
A few years ago, a significant portion of CRM systems in the Eastern European region were of russian origin. Among them, Bitrix24 was particularly popular and widely used by businesses. However, concerns around data security, compliance, and operational risks have made reliance on russian-origin software increasingly problematic. For example, recent trends show that the use of such CRMs has dropped to around 14% of companies. This shift created an opportunity for local CRM solutions, such as SMART CRM, to gain traction by offering secure, modern, and fully compliant platforms. In this article, we’ll explore the risks associated with using russian-origin CRM systems and outline key factors to consider when choosing a contemporary, safe alternative to Bitrix24 and similar software.

What is Bitrix24?

Bitrix24 is a CRM system for managing business processes, developed by the russian company 1C-Bitrix. Until 2022, Bitrix24 held a significant share of the CRM market across Eastern Europe, with particularly strong adoption among small and medium-sized businesses. This was largely because the solution offered a basic set of tools for communication, task management, and sales. At first glance, this all-in-one approach seemed convenient, especially for companies that could not invest in specialized standalone systems. At the same time, the universal nature of the platform often came with limited flexibility, support challenges, and significant risks related to the origin of the developer.

A Brief Overview of Bitrix24: Key Features and Drawbacks for Businesses

For a long time, Bitrix24 positioned itself as an all-in-one solution for organizing internal company processes. The basic package includes functionality for managing customer databases (CRM), task assignment and tracking, telephony integrations, email and internal chats, organizing workspaces for team collaboration, and more. Despite its broad functionality, today Bitrix24 is more often associated with risks and limitations than advantages — especially for companies operating under international legal frameworks.

Key Drawbacks of Bitrix24:

  1. russian origin — Bitrix24 was developed by 1C-Bitrix, which has russian roots. This system is associated with risks to national security and can undermine trust in the domestic market. Potential consequences: Companies risk losing the trust of partners, clients, and government contractors, as using russian software may be perceived as unacceptable. Additionally, this dependency complicates entry into international markets where compliance with sanctions and ethical business policies is mandatory.
  2. Data storage and processing risks — There is no clear information about the physical location of Bitrix24 servers or under which jurisdiction they fall. There is a high likelihood that data is stored or transmitted through russia, allowing russian authorities potential access to confidential information. This applies not only to technical administration but also to possible requests from security agencies or influence from the regulator of the aggressor country. Potential consequences: Uncontrolled access to internal business data, compromise of client databases, financial information, or internal documentation by third parties connected to russia. This may lead to data leaks, financial losses, or unwanted legal implications, such as:
    • Violation of data protection laws — If a company cannot guarantee that data is stored and processed exclusively within secure jurisdictions (such as EU), it may potentially violate laws like the GDPR or CCPA, which could result in fines or bans in certain markets.
    • Compliance issues (ISO/IEC, SOC 2, etc.) — Many companies undergo audits for compliance with international information security standards. Having russian-origin software in the IT infrastructure automatically creates a risk of non-compliance.
    • Potential claims from clients or partners — In case of a data breach or unauthorized access, the company may face claims, reputational pressure, or lawsuits from business partners.
  3. Overly complex interface — The Bitrix24 interface is often cluttered with extra buttons, features, and sections that are not always intuitive for users. This increases the learning curve and requires additional resources to train employees. Potential consequences: CRM implementation takes longer, and team productivity decreases as employees spend more time adapting to the tool.
  4. Lack of deep integration with local services — Bitrix24 does not provide direct, full integration with popular platforms for accounting, reporting, and communications. As a result, companies often need to process data outside the system or invest in complex custom integrations. Potential consequences: Process automation remains incomplete, increasing the risk of errors and adding extra costs for integrations or duplicate manual work.
  5. Limited data export options — Migrating data from Bitrix24 can be challenging: automatic export is restricted, requiring additional tools and resources. Data is often exported in fragments, with no convenient way to fully extract the complete history of interactions, tasks, files, emails, and more. Potential consequences: Businesses lose flexibility and fall into a “digital lock-in”, with limited control over their own data and dependence on a single vendor.
  6. Complicated licensing structure — Pricing depends not only on the number of users but also on access to core functionality, which is sometimes hidden behind additional packages. Potential consequences: It is harder to predict the actual CRM costs, making budgeting more complicated.
  7. Moral and ethical risks — Using a product from a country with a problematic reputation may conflict with corporate social responsibility principles, particularly if the company wants to promote an ethical or socially responsible image. Potential consequences: Negative brand perception among employees, partners, clients, and even international stakeholders. This is another important reason to consider a Ukrainian alternative to Bitrix24.
For companies, using Bitrix24 has long gone beyond a simple technology choice — it has become a matter of risk and reputation. Having ties to the russian developers carries not only potential legal and compliance issues but also deeper consequences: from losing the trust of partners and clients to facing challenges in entering international markets. In a business environment where digital security is a strategic priority, continuing to rely on this software creates an uncontrolled zone of vulnerability: limited technical support, restricted updates, unexpected failures, or account blocks. With increasing demands for transparency in business processes, such a tool can do more harm than good, making the choice of a secure alternative to Bitrix24 a necessity today.

SMART CRM — a Secure Alternative to Bitrix24 Built on International Technologies

SMART CRM is SMART business’s proprietary solution, built on Microsoft Power Platform. The system combines customer-focused design with the reliability of global IT giant Microsoft, offering businesses tools for sales, marketing, and service management that meet modern security standards and support efficient business processes. The platform is designed for both B2B and B2C segments, enabling a smooth transition from legacy or russian software, making it the best Ukrainian alternative to Bitrix24. SMART CRM ensures GDPR and CCPA compliance and provides ready-made integrations with popular local services and applications. Implementation takes between one and three weeks, and thanks to the platform’s flexibility, each company can customize it to meet its unique needs.

Core functionality and capabilities of SMART CRM:

  • Unified customer database — stores all information about customer interactions in a single secure environment.
  • Integration with business applications — allows connection to modern communication channels and payment services without additional development costs.
  • Real-time analytics — provides extensive tracking of key metrics and current trends to support timely management decisions.
  • Template-based business processes — includes ready-made solutions for B2B and B2C workflows, with flexible customization to fit the company’s specific needs.
  • Team collaboration tools — accelerates internal communication and simplifies information sharing across departments.
  • Preservation of corporate knowledge — centralizes and safeguards accumulated expertise without the risk of data loss.

Four key SMART CRM solutions:

  • SMART Sales — automates B2B sales from first contact to deal closure. Features include customer and sales management, communications, product catalogs, addresses, tasks and notifications, as well as advanced analytics and reporting.
  • SMART Customer Care — ensures efficient service through a single-window interface. Handles requests in real time, supports multiple channels, integrates popular messengers via SMART Chat, monitors SLAs, and generates reports.
  • SMART Order Management — provides full control over the order fulfillment process. From order receipt to delivery, it automates allocation, processing, and execution, minimizing customer wait times.
  • SMART Marketing — enables live omnichannel marketing: audience targeting, customer segment management, automated campaigns, content management, and campaign performance analytics.
As a Ukrainian alternative to Bitrix24, SMART CRM also supports enhanced capabilities through additional tools like SMART Chat, which consolidates communications from Facebook Messenger, Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber, and Instagram into a single CRM window for personalized interactions.

What Sets SMART CRM Apart from Bitrix24 Alternatives: Key Advantages

  • Complete data security and control thanks to Microsoft cloud technologies.
  • Fast migration from russian or legacy systems without losing critical information.
  • Ready-made integrations and modules — no additional development costs.
  • Flexible customization for businesses of any size.
  • Reduced time on operational processes and increased team productivity.
  • Ability to scale functionality as the company grows.
In short, SMART CRM is an ideal Bitrix24 alternative. The SMART business platform combines international standards, Ukrainian expertise, and rapid implementation, providing a secure, modern, and effective tool for managing customer interactions.

SMART CRM vs. Bitrix24: Key Feature Comparison

To objectively assess how well SMART CRM meets the needs of modern businesses, it’s useful to compare its capabilities directly with Bitrix24. Check out the table summarizing the key features of both platforms.
Category Subcategory SMART CRM Bitrix24
Origin & Security Origin
✔️✔️✔️ Ukrainian system built on Microsoft Power Platform ✔️ russian CRM with cloud and on-premises versions
Data Security
✔️✔️✔️ Data stored in Microsoft Azure; compliant with international security standards: GDPR, CCPA ✔️✔️ Local version available for self-hosting, but geopolitical risks exist due to country of origin
Roles & Permissions
✔️✔️✔️ Flexible setup of roles and business units ✔️ Limited granularity in free plan
Access Control
✔️✔️✔️ Access and identity managed through Microsoft Entra, providing deep control over security, user identity, and data access — especially important for large enterprises and government organizations ✔️ Access can be configured on local server or cloud, but without support for global security standards
Audience & Scale Target Audience
✔️✔️✔️ B2B and B2C companies in medium and large enterprises ✔️✔️ SMEs, startups, internal teams
Scalability & Flexibility
✔️✔️✔️ Modular cloud architecture with selectable solutions (Sales, Order Management, Marketing, etc.); flexible scaling via connectors and deployment within the Microsoft ecosystem ✔️✔️ Combination of cloud and on-premises deployment; unlimited telephony; suitable for small and medium businesses; scaling possible, but customization is limited and depends on the plan
Number of Users
✔️✔️✔️ Unlimited users within a single subscription plan ✔️ Up to 2 users free; additional users require paid plan. Stability issues may arise with a large number of users, simultaneous access from multiple locations, or real-time processing of large data sets
Functionality Customization
✔️✔️✔️ Flexible configuration of business processes and workflows using low-code/no-code approaches ✔️ Limited customization in the cloud version; deeper changes possible only in On-Premises with partner or developer involvement
Automation & AI
✔️✔️✔️ Complex business processes built with Power Automate (approvals, document flow, integrations, notifications, RPA), analytics, integration with Microsoft Copilot and Azure OpenAI. Supports low-code/no-code approaches ✔️✔️ Automation via triggers, RPA, document generation, automatic tasks, built-in AI CoPilot (call transcription, summaries, automatic responses)
Analytics & BI
✔️✔️✔️ Built-in Power BI / custom dashboards ✔️✔️ Built-in analytics tools; some features available only in paid modules
Pre-Built Scenarios
✔️✔️✔️ Successful SMART CRM implementations cover B2B sales, customer service, logistics, and marketing, automating key processes, providing analytics, and supporting omnichannel communications ✔️✔️ Standard CRM functions + tasks, calendar, document flow, open lines
Lead Management
✔️✔️✔️ Advanced, with automation and reporting ✔️ Basic + process automation options
Channel Management
✔️✔️✔️ Email, Microsoft Teams, IP telephony (Binotel, Ringostat, Stream Telecom), Viber, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct, SMS, web forms, surveys, chatbots (SMART Chat, SMART Easy Bot) ✔️✔️✔️ Email, telephony, web forms, SMS, push, marketplace requests, chatbots (via Marketplace or SaleBot, Aimylogic)
Marketing
✔️✔️ Dedicated SMART Marketing module; automation scenarios via Power Automate ✔️✔️ Marketing included in some plans; includes email campaigns, ads, and analytics
Implementation & UX Implementation Speed
✔️✔️✔️ Out-of-the-box solution with ready documentation and training materials, support in Ukrainian, English, and Polish; implementation takes 1–3 weeks; fast configuration thanks to pre-built modules ✔️ Requires setup; knowledge base exists but documentation is often fragmented or in russian; implementation depends on complexity, especially the on-premises version can take a long time
Interface
✔️✔️✔️ Intuitive and modern interface, built on Microsoft logic and adapted to typical sales and customer service workflows ✔️ Overloaded interface; requires time to get used to due to extensive functionality
Localization & Support
✔️✔️✔️ Full Ukrainian localization, support, and documentation; backed by a Ukrainian team; no russian software involved ✔️ Partial localization: interface partially in Ukrainian, documentation often fragmented or in russian; developer is a russian company
Interface Language
✔️✔️✔️ Full Ukrainian localization ✔️ Ukrainian interface present but limited
Integration & Ecosystem Integration
✔️✔️✔️ Deep integration with the Microsoft ecosystem (Microsoft 365, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Power BI), ERP systems, chatbots, delivery services, e‑commerce platforms, and DMS. Built-in integrations do not require additional modules ✔️✔️ Built-in ecosystem with 35+ business tools (CRM, tasks, telephony, drive, etc.), support for Power BI, email, social media, and API. Some integrations require setup via marketplace
Comprehensiveness
✔️✔️ CRM focused on business process customization, automation, ERP, and analytics within the Microsoft ecosystem ✔️✔️✔️ Comprehensive ecosystem with 35+ business tools: CRM, tasks, marketing, telephony, drive – all in one package
Finance Cost & Pricing
✔️✔️ Flexible modular model: cost depends on selected functions, number of environments, and Microsoft licenses. Transparent structure with no hidden fees ✔️✔️ Fixed-rate plans (flat-fee) with limits on users and features. Everything included in the plan, but expansions require higher-tier plans
Free Trial
✔️✔️ Up to 30 days, plus promotional offers (e.g., 80% discount for 6 months) ✔️✔️ Free trial available for cloud version

Case Study: Successful Migration from Bitrix24 to SMART CRM

AQUA PLUS — a leading Ukrainian company in water treatment and comprehensive water purification services — faced growing client demands and needed a tool to systematically manage customer relationships. Their previous experience with Bitrix24 was unsatisfactory: setup was done in-house, functionality didn’t match the company’s processes, and data security remained a concern. These factors became decisive in the search for a more flexible and reliable Bitrix24 alternative. Key selection criteria included full data migration with interaction history, advanced customization capabilities, user-friendliness for managers, and a high level of data protection. A demonstration of SMART Order Management by SMART business convinced the AQUA PLUS team that the system could cover the company’s core needs and scale for future challenges. The result was the migration of all processes into SMART Order Management, including the full client database and communication history. Data management became faster and more transparent, order processing more automated, and customer communication more efficient thanks to the SMART Connector for GMS, which automates bulk and triggered communications via SMS and Viber directly from the CRM. The company gained not just a high-quality Ukrainian alternative to Bitrix24, but a flexible tool that easily adapts to new ideas, goals, and internal changes, allowing the team to focus on what matters most — excellent service and business growth. Read more about the implementation results here.

Conclusion:

The case study and comparative analysis clearly demonstrate that SMART CRM significantly outperforms Bitrix24 in key areas — from data security and scalability to business process automation. Seamless integration with the Microsoft ecosystem, AI-powered tools, and flexible customization options make SMART CRM a more reliable and forward-looking solution for companies that want to adapt quickly to change while maintaining high efficiency. Although Bitrix24 offers broad functionality, it falls short in depth of customization, stability during scaling, and compliance with international security standards. Additionally, limitations in free tiers, a more complex implementation process, and less focus on localization reduce its appeal for medium and large businesses. For organizations focused on long-term growth, scalability, and robust data protection, SMART CRM is a smart and strategically sound choice. Request consultation
July 22nd, 2025 16 min read
A conceptual illustration of a customer journey through consolidated communication channels with a company
What Is Omnichannel in Business and How Does It Streamline Customer Interaction?
In the world of Internet Customer Service, it’s important to remember your competitor is only one mouse click away.
Doug Warner
Today’s business reality is one where the customer journey is not linear but rather resembles a metro map with numerous stations, transfers, and spontaneous stops. Along this journey, the brand must accompany the customer wherever they turn — whether it’s a messenger, social media, a website, or a physical store. The modern customer journey is a complex system of turns, repeated contacts, and unexpected interaction points. Yet, customers expect a seamless, convenient, and personalized experience with the brand, regardless of where their journey begins. This is why omnichannel has become a strategic necessity in business.

What Is Omnichannel?

Omnichannel means seamless, unified communication with the customer that preserves the essence of the dialogue regardless of where it takes place. By consolidating all communication channels into a single system, a company can personalize its interaction with the customer by enriching their profile. Every point of contact between the consumer and the company collects information about the customer, and all other channels have access to this data. This way, omnichannel enables businesses to see the full picture and respond quickly, consistently, and personally. Omnichannel usually integrates data from the following communication channels:
  • Company website
  • Mobile app
  • E-mail campaigns
  • Messengers (Viber, Telegram, WhatsApp, etc.)
  • Contact center (telephony)
  • Online advertising
  • Offline sales points
  • Social media
  • Service support systems (ticketing, help desk)
  • Chatbots and AI assistants

What Is Multichannel?

Omnichannel begins with multichannel because first, a customer must be able to contact the company through various platforms — depending on which is most convenient for them. Multichannel means having multiple communication channels (e-mail, phone, social media, messengers, offline locations) that customers can use to get information or support. However, these channels usually operate independently and are not synchronized: interaction histories don’t transfer between them, and each new contact starts “from scratch”. This is the first step toward more convenient service, but without data integration and continuous dialogue, such an approach often fragments the customer journey.

What Is the Difference Between Omnichannel and Multichannel?

The difference between multichannel and omnichannel lies not just in the number of channels but in how these channels interact with each other. In multichannel, a customer can reach the company via different platforms — but each functions separately, without sharing data. For example, an e-mail inquiry won’t be linked to a message sent via a messenger, so the customer must repeat information about their order each time. In contrast, omnichannel unites all these channels into a single system: no matter which channel the interaction starts or continues on, customer data, interaction history, preferences, and statuses are stored and synchronized.

Omnichannel in Practice — in Sales and Customer Service

According to data from Digital Commerce 360, companies with effective omnichannel interaction show an annual revenue growth of 9.5%, while businesses with weaker strategies achieve only 3.4%. How exactly does this work in the context of company–customer communication? In sales, omnichannel means that a customer, for example, starts their selection on the website, clarifies details on Instagram, makes a purchase via a mobile app, and picks up the product in a physical store — with each stage conveniently integrated and logically complementing the previous one. All customer actions are synchronized in a single system (usually a CRM system) that combines analytics tools, an e-commerce platform, and all communication channels. Thanks to this, the brand not only records every contact but also understands the context — which products were viewed, what questions arose, and which payment method is preferred. This enables personalized offers and process optimization: ensuring product availability in a specific store, reducing service time, minimizing returns, and more. Omnichannel sales build a unified interaction logic that guarantees comfort for the customer and higher conversion and repeat purchases for the business. In customer service, omnichannel means care without disruptions or unnecessary repeats. For example, the operator already sees the issue the customer raised yesterday via chat, and the service team continues the conversation over the phone from where it left off — without needing the customer to explain everything again. This is possible thanks to the integration of communication channels (chatbots, e-mail, telephony, messengers) with the CRM system, which stores the full interaction history in real time. Every employee sees the status of the request, colleagues’ notes, attached files or complaints, as well as the customer’s segment and profile. This not only saves time and reduces frustration but also improves overall customer satisfaction (CSAT) and reduces repeat inquiries.

Advantages of Omnichannel Customer Service:

  • For the business: Omnichannel guarantees coordinated channel operation, reduces response time, lowers service costs, and forms a comprehensive picture of customer needs. Data from different sources no longer exist separately — they are unified into a single system that enables more accurate decisions and helps build long-term relationships.
  • For the customer: Omnichannel means, above all, convenience and consistency — the ability to receive the same quality of service regardless of the channel — online or offline. Every interaction is accounted for, interaction history is preserved, and personalized solutions are offered from the very first minutes. This approach creates a sense of trust and professionalism, which directly influences brand loyalty.

What is Omnichannel Marketing and How to Develop an Effective Omnichannel Marketing Strategy

In marketing, omnichannel means seamless communication where a customer sees a banner on the website, receives a personalized offer in a messenger, and then a reminder by e-mail with a relevant product in the cart. Thanks to the integration of marketing channels with CRM systems, analytics, and automated scenarios, businesses can send accurate and timely messages in a convenient format — considering the customer’s behavior, preferences, and previous interactions. This not only improves campaign effectiveness but also retains audience attention without intrusiveness, preserving trust in the brand. Building a quality omnichannel marketing strategy starts with creating a portrait of the omnichannel customer. After all, the customer is at the center of this communication — they set the rules, choose communication channels, and points of interaction with the company. These choices and behavior patterns should be taken into account when forming the customer profile.

Building a Personalized Customer Profile: What to Consider

The average omnichannel customer typically:
  • Prefers BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store) — orders a product on the website and picks it up in a physical store. According to statistics from Fireworks, 50% of shoppers prefer BOPIS, and 67% of them make additional purchases while collecting their order in-store.
  • Frequently orders products online with home delivery.
  • Tracks and compares prices on websites or in apps.
  • Installs store or brand apps to make ordering products or services more convenient and to receive updates on discounts and promotions.
  • Subscribes to e-mail or messenger newsletters from the company to monitor deals and new arrivals.
  • Actively leaves feedback and suggestions via chatbots, social media, or phone support.
Using these common patterns as a foundation, you can start building more personalized customer profiles — for instance, a Customer Journey Map.

CJM for the Omnichannel Customer and How to Build One

A Customer Journey Map (CJM) is an analytical tool that helps a business visualize the customer’s interaction with the company at every stage of their journey — from the first contact to purchase and post-sale service. This map clearly outlines which touchpoints the customer encounters, what obstacles they face (e.g., a hard-to-find checkout button or a long hotline queue), what emotions accompany their decisions, and at which stages the company loses effectiveness. The more detailed the map, the more precisely you can identify critical blockers: non-functional CTAs, complex registration forms, overwhelmed support teams, or inconsistent cross-channel communication. Focusing on real customer segments allows for the setup of personalized scenarios, automation of interactions, and tailoring of content to specific user needs.

Calculating CLV — the Next Step in the Strategy

To build an effective omnichannel marketing strategy after developing a customer profile, the next step is to calculate their CLV (Customer Lifetime Value). This metric allows a business to assess the actual long-term value of a customer to the company. With CLV, a business can segment its customer base, tailor communication, prioritize support, and make informed decisions about where to invest time and budget — and where to optimize spending. CLV is the total revenue a customer generates over the entire period of interaction with the brand — for example, over a year or the average customer lifecycle. Let’s say a buyer spends ₴2,000 every two months. Their annual value (CLV) would be calculated as 6 × 2,000 = ₴12,000. However, if supporting this customer requires two hours of service each month and one hour of a specialist’s time costs ₴500, then the annual service cost equals 12 × 2 × 500 = ₴12,000. As a result, the company earns no profit from this customer. Identifying such cases in time is crucial to optimize resources and focus on customers with higher potential value. By creating an omnichannel customer profile and calculating their CLV, a company is ready to begin building a data-driven omnichannel marketing strategy.

How to Work with an Omnichannel Customer: Tips and Insights

The growing number of communication channels opens up new opportunities for engaging with customers — but it also makes managing those interactions more complex. Without a unified strategy, communication quickly turns into chaos, where marketing becomes ineffective and customer trust is lost. While every company must choose its own path to customer engagement, here are a few universal recommendations to help make the process as effective as possible:
  1. Identify key touchpoints You don’t need to be everywhere — you need to be where your customer is. Analyze the platforms and channels your audience actually uses, and focus on those that ensure stable, measurable engagement: website, messengers, e-mail, social media, physical locations, app, and so on. Tip: Keep your number of touchpoints optimal. Respect both your budget limits and your customer’s privacy — too many newsletters, promotions, or surveys may backfire and damage the experience.
  2. Ensure technical integration between channels Your CRM, marketing platforms, analytics, chatbots, contact center, and e-commerce modules should all be synchronized. All customer data — orders, interaction history, campaign responses — should be accessible in a single view.
  3. Build personalized engagement flows Use customer data (behavior, purchase history, content interactions) to develop automated communication flows: welcome sequences, abandoned cart reminders, personalized follow-ups, dynamic discounts for loyal customers. Personalization should always make sense in the context of that specific customer.
  4. Implement cross-channel analytics Track not only the effectiveness of each channel individually but also how customers move between them. Monitor KPIs such as conversion rate, time to purchase, cost per contact, open and click-through rates. This will help you pinpoint bottlenecks and growth opportunities — for example, when customers start in Instagram but don’t complete purchases on your site.
  5. Maintain brand consistency Your brand voice, visual style, and value proposition should be aligned across all platforms. A customer shouldn’t feel like they’re dealing with different companies on Facebook, via the call center, or at a pickup point.
  6. Establish feedback loops and run tests Make sure every omnichannel campaign includes a way to gather feedback. What are your customers saying? Where is communication breaking down? A/B testing messages, formats, and channels will help you continuously improve customer experience.
  7. Regularly review your strategy Channels evolve — and so does customer behavior. Keep your customer journey maps, segments, flows, and campaign logic up to date. Your strategy shouldn’t be static — it should evolve alongside your audience.
  8. Deploy AI assistants and chatbots Automate basic inquiries and repetitive tasks using chatbots and AI-powered assistants. They can instantly handle standard questions, help place orders, or offer recommendations based on purchase history or user behavior. Modern AI tools can understand context and even adapt to changes in customer behavior, delivering a fast, effective, and personalized experience — 24/7.

How to Choose the Right Tools to Automate Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy: What to Look For and What the Market Offers

Choosing the right tools to automate your omnichannel marketing strategy isn’t just about convenience — it’s a critical step in building strong, lasting relationships with your customers. So, what should you consider when selecting a platform?
  1. Integration with existing systems: The solution should integrate seamlessly with your current platforms (CRM, CDP, e-commerce, analytics) to ensure consistent data flow and efficient information exchange between systems.
  2. Flexible communication channels: Your platform must support a variety of communication channels — e-mail, social media, messengers, phone, and website chat. All channels should be consolidated into a single system to enable continuous dialogue with the customer.
  3. Communication automation: The tool should support setting up automated notifications, messages, and communication flows for every stage of the customer journey — such as order confirmations, abandoned cart reminders, and more.
  4. Personalization capabilities: Look for a solution that enables you to deliver personalized offers based on customer data, behavior, and purchase history. This directly impacts the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.
  5. Data analysis and reporting: The platform should provide tools for collecting, analyzing, and visualizing data across each customer interaction channel — allowing you to track performance metrics and adjust your strategy in real time.
  6. Customer profile management: You should be able to create and maintain a unified profile for each customer by consolidating data from all touchpoints.
  7. Scalability and flexibility: Your tool should scale as your business grows and adapt to new channels or changing needs without requiring major restructuring.
  8. User-friendliness: An intuitive, easy-to-use interface is essential to ensure your team can quickly adapt to new workflows and settings.
  9. Data security: Protecting customer data is a top priority. The platform you choose must comply with security standards and ensure the confidentiality of customer information.
  10. Ongoing support and updates: The tool should come with reliable technical support and regular updates to keep pace with market demands and emerging technologies.
SMART business offers a suite of solutions that meet all these requirements. Let’s explore how the functionality of these tools can help automate your marketing processes and enhance your customer engagement strategy.

SMART CRM, Microsoft Dynamics 365, SMART EasyBot, and SMART Chat: How These Tools Optimize Your Omnichannel Strategy

SMART CRM is a comprehensive CRM platform designed to automate sales, marketing, and customer service processes by consolidating all essential trade data in a single digital environment. The CRM system includes four core modules, which can be implemented individually or together: SMART Sales, SMART Customer Care, SMART Order Management and SMART Marketing. The platform also offers seamless integration with a variety of key connectors, such as SMART Connector for Telephony, SMART Connector for GMS, SMART Connector for Ringostat, and others. Implementing SMART CRM or its individual modules helps businesses automate customer communication at every stage of the journey, consolidate all communication channels into a unified workflow, efficiently analyze customer behavior, and reduce the manual workload for marketing and service teams. Two additional CRM modules — SMART Chat and SMART EasyBot — are particularly useful for building an effective omnichannel marketing strategy:
  • SMART Chat enables your business to consolidate all messaging platforms (Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber, Instagram, etc.) into one clear communication stream, while automatically syncing customer data into Dynamics 365 or SMART CRM. This unlocks additional opportunities for personalized engagement.
  • SMART EasyBot is a chatbot that automates customer communication on Viber and Telegram. It supports sending personalized messages, building interactive menus, handling inbound requests, launching segmented campaigns, and managing everything directly from the CRM system. The bot integrates with customer profiles, supports user registration, and enables self-service flows.
By selecting the tools most relevant to your business and integrating them into a single ecosystem, you can build a seamless chain of interactions that keeps the customer engaged throughout the sales funnel. For example:
  1. A customer calls the company. A customer record is automatically created via SMART Connector for Telephony, based on their phone number.
  2. Using SMART Marketing, an SMS or messenger message is sent with a summary of the conversation and a link to a chatbot.
  3. The customer subscribes to SMART EasyBot and begins receiving personalized offers through the bot.
  4. The customer chooses their preferred channel of communication — for instance, selecting from five available messengers.
  5. A manager continues the personalized conversation using SMART Chat, communicating with customers across multiple messengers — all from one convenient interface.

Real-World Use Cases: Managing Omnichannel Interactions with SMART business Solutions

Ultimately, the best way to showcase any solution’s capabilities is through real-world results. Here are two examples of how SMART business helps optimize omnichannel marketing: Brocard, the largest perfume retail chain in Ukraine, implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights along with SMART Connector for GMS to automate Viber/SMS campaigns, analyze customer behavior, and send trigger-based messages (e.g., birthday reminders or abandoned cart follow-ups). This allowed the company to move beyond one-time promotions and offer personalized customer experience to over 1.8 million consumers. LEOLAND, a sports and entertainment complex in Lviv, integrated Dynamics 365 Sales with SMART Connector for Binotel, SMART Chat, Easy Bot, eSputnik, and GMS to automate e-mail/SMS/Viber campaigns, telephony, chatbots, and Power BI analytics — all within a single CRM ecosystem. As a result, LEOLAND visitors enjoy not only the entertainment experience but also flawless service and communication. If you're also looking for solutions to automate your omnichannel strategy — request a demo, and SMART business experts will help you choose the tools that fit your goals: Request a demo
June 27th, 2025 19 min read
Sales funnel in a CRM system
A Seamless Sales Funnel: How CRM Keeps Every Lead in Focus
In business, sales often define a company’s success — every inquiry holds the potential to become a deal, and every interaction can lay the groundwork for future collaboration. That’s why sales teams often resemble emergency response units: juggling a flood of contacts, limited time, and constant multitasking. Without a clear system to track every interaction, the sales funnel can quickly turn into a sieve, leaking valuable opportunities. What’s more, according to Gartner, 84% of business leaders say that the handoff between marketing and sales is one of the most complex and critical challenges. Sounds familiar? The transition from MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) to SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) is a delicate process that requires nurturing the lead at every stage of the funnel — until they show a clear intent to buy. This is where most gaps occur, and they can cost companies dearly. In simple terms, an effective sales funnel is a tool that helps the team act in sync. It’s a way to see the big picture, identify where the flow stalls, and uncover what’s holding back conversion.

What Is a Sales Funnel in Business Terms?

A sales funnel — also known as a “sales pipeline” — is a sequence of stages a potential customer goes through, from the first interaction with a company to closing a deal (making a purchase, signing a contract, ordering a service, or subscribing to a product, etc.). Think of it as a narrowing path, like a funnel: many interested prospects enter at the top, and only those truly ready to buy make it through to the bottom. For businesses, it’s a practical tool that helps to:
  • Organize the customer acquisition process.
  • Identify weak points (analyze where most leads drop off).
  • Optimize resources (allocate the team’s efforts so that every sales stage operates efficiently).
  • Increase conversion (better understand customer needs and tailor communication strategies).
In other words, a sales funnel gives you a clear view of where prospects are “getting stuck,” where customers need more attention, and how to increase the number of successful deals. It’s the foundation of a strategy aimed at minimizing losses and maximizing profit.

Business Benefits

An effective sales funnel offers a number of advantages for businesses, including:
  1. Full process visibility — you can track every step of the customer journey, understand where a lead currently is, and what actions are needed to keep the momentum going.
  2. Bottleneck detection — the funnel shows where potential clients are most often lost. This allows for targeted, data-driven decisions instead of guesswork.
  3. Prioritization focus — instead of spreading efforts too thin, the team can concentrate on leads that are closest to conversion. This saves time and resources while boosting performance.
  4. Improved customer experience — by knowing where a customer is in the funnel, you can tailor communication, offer relevant solutions, and address the questions that matter most at each stage.
  5. Outcome forecasting — by analyzing the funnel, it becomes easier to predict how many deals are likely to close soon. This improves planning and minimizes surprises.
  6. Higher conversion rates — a structured approach helps increase the percentage of leads moving from one stage to the next, resulting in more closed deals overall.
  7. Transparency and accountability — the sales funnel makes the process clear both for managers and the team. Everyone understands their role and is accountable for results at their stage.
  8. Scalability — when the process is well established, it becomes easier to grow sales volumes since every stage is clearly defined and under control.

How Does a Sales Funnel Work?

Imagine the real path of a buyer: first, they search for something, then come across your product or service. Next, they read reviews, compare you to competitors, hesitate, consult others — and finally make a decision. A typical sales funnel is divided into several stages:
  • Top of the funnel — the broadest level where people are just becoming aware of your brand. This stage is driven by advertising, social media, and SEO tools.
  • Middle of the funnel — the potential customer is already interested: they’re reading your blog, attending a webinar, or downloading your price list. Here, it’s important to explain why your offering is worth their attention.
  • Bottom of the funnel — the customer is almost ready to buy but needs a final push: a product demo, success story, or a personalized consultation.
When the funnel is thoughtfully designed — with respect for the customer and without pressure — it doesn’t feel like a sales push. Instead, it feels like guidance. The customer sees that you’re not dragging them forward but leading them along a path they’re genuinely interested in.

How to Work with a Sales Funnel

To truly serve your business, a sales funnel must be a living tool — meaning it should be fully integrated into your day-to-day operations. Here are several key principles to make your funnel systematic and results-driven:
  1. Start with your current reality — assess what your funnel looks like right now. How many leads are at each stage? Where are most of them dropping off? Without an honest diagnosis, it’s hard to make changes. Don’t be afraid to identify weak spots — they are your growth points.
  2. Clearly define the stages — every sales funnel has its own levels, from the first contact to closing the deal. Structure your stages based on your business process, for example:
  • Lead generation (creating interest via ads or content)
  • First interaction (a call, email, or meeting)
  • Solution presentation (demo of your product or service)
  • Negotiation (discussing deal terms)
  • Closing the deal (purchase, contract signing, service activation)
There’s no one-size-fits-all funnel. Some may have 4 stages, others 8. The key is aligning each stage with the logic of your customer journey — from first click or call to the final signature.
  1. Assign clear actions and responsibilities at every stage — when your funnel becomes a team tool, everyone knows what to do with leads at their specific stage. For example: “A lead who responded to a commercial offer” = a task for the manager within 24 hours.
  2. Log every interaction — from the first “hello” to the final “thank you for your purchase,” since each potential client may be at a different stage of the funnel. A CRM system is your best assistant here, ensuring that all calls, emails, notes, and negotiation history are kept in one place. This minimizes the risk of losing important information during handovers or team changes.
  3. Measure, analyze, adjust — because what isn’t measured can’t be improved. If you’re losing many leads at a specific stage, it’s a signal to optimize the process. For example, maybe your presentation isn’t convincing enough, or the negotiation stage needs more flexibility. In this case, data becomes your best advisor.
  4. Automate where it truly makes life easier — reminders, email campaigns, auto-tasks — these save time and reduce human error. But don’t let automation become bureaucracy. An automated sales funnel should enhance, not hinder, live communication.
  • Collecting lead data
  • Sending reminders and emails
  • Generating analytics on each stage’s performance, and more
  1. Use a personalized approach — customers value tailored communication. Your sales funnel should reflect their interests, and a CRM system for business helps you adapt your offers to their specific needs.

The Most Common Types of Sales Funnels and Key Differences Between B2C and B2B Funnels

For B2C, the classic marketing funnel AIDA is typical: Attention → Interest → Desire → Action. Let’s break down these stages in detail:
  1. Attention — The company first grabs the person’s attention toward the product or brand. For example, a bright banner, a provocative headline, or social media ads.
  2. Interest — At this stage, you need to engage interest: show why it’s relevant, useful, or simply worth noticing. This involves meaningful content that answers questions or highlights the product’s value.
  3. Desire — Here, the customer starts wanting the product or service. It’s important for them to see how it solves their problem or improves their life. Reviews, use cases, and visualizing benefits work well here.
  4. Action — The final step. The customer takes the desired action: buys, registers, submits a request, etc. Marketing’s job is to simplify this step and eliminate any last doubts.
In B2C, purchase decisions are usually faster, and contact often happens directly with the end consumer. It’s more about impulse, convenience, and speed. The funnel is short, with minimal steps. In such conditions, SMART CRM helps ensure no contact is lost, quickly responds to customer actions, and automates repeat sales — exactly what’s needed to work effectively with B2C audiences. B2B is much more complex. The decision is made not by one person but by a team, each with their own perspective, motivation, and concerns. So, the B2B funnel typically looks like this: Need Identification → Solution Research → Option Evaluation → Agreement → Deal → Post-sale Support Here, both emotion and logic, arguments and trust, matter. Sales cycles are longer, more complex, and every stage is critical. SMART CRM helps keep a complete history of interactions, structure all deal stages, automate follow-ups, and ensure continuous communication between departments. This creates a sense of control and transparency in B2B sales. As a B2B company itself, SMART business also works with long sales cycles and uses SMART CRM to manage its own marketing and sales processes to stay effective at every customer touchpoint.

How to Determine When a Customer Is Ready to Move Forward?

Obviously, not every contact immediately becomes a lead. And not every lead is ready to buy. For the funnel to work systematically, it’s crucial to clearly understand the signs that show when a potential customer moves from one stage to the next. Here are some examples of criteria companies commonly use:
  • From Attention to Interest: the user clicked a link, subscribed to a newsletter, or left their email. This means the content worked, and it’s time to prepare personalized communication.
  • From Interest to Desire: the person downloaded a price list, registered for a demo, asked a question in chat, or spent time on a case studies page. In this case, it’s appropriate to hand the lead over to a sales manager.
  • From Desire to Action: the client requested a consultation, agreed to a call, responded to an offer, or filled out an application. This is the moment when it’s crucial to maintain momentum and close the deal.
  • From Action to Post-sale Support: payment has been made, the client became an active user or partner. This is where a new story begins — about support, upselling, and loyalty.
SMART CRM enables you to track these signals and automate transition logic. This means the system helps you see which stage the client is at and suggests what to do next: send an email, create a task, offer content, or hand the contact over to another department, etc. Thanks to a clear view of transitions between stages, the sales team doesn’t lose potential deals and works not by guesswork but strategically, understanding exactly where each lead stands and what needs to be done to get them to the finish line.

Automated Sales Funnel with the SMART CRM Platform

In sales, victory doesn’t always go to the loudest, but to the most systematic. However, it’s important that this system doesn’t stifle initiative — instead, it should support it. That’s exactly how SMART CRM works: a full-fledged sales ecosystem where there is room for both rules and creativity. An automated sales funnel isn’t a rigid robot forcing everyone into the same mold. Rather, it’s a detailed map clearly marking key points — but how you get there is up to you. The system sets the route but doesn’t limit your choice of tools: call, write, schedule meetings, launch marketing campaigns — all these capabilities are gathered in one working environment. So, SMART CRM disciplines without restricting. But how much of the sales process should be regulated, and how much should remain creative? Regulation is necessary for:
  1. A unified standard of customer service quality.
  2. Analytics and forecasting (without defined stages and statuses in CRM, measuring effectiveness is impossible).
  3. Training new employees: a clear structure significantly shortens the adaptation period.
  4. Ensuring scalability: it’s good if the process works for one manager, but when the team grows, a single system is needed.
  5. Compliance with legal and commercial requirements: for example, in B2B, it’s important to have an approved offer, contract templates, and clear approval procedures.
In other words: funnel stages, criteria for moving between them, a set of mandatory actions and documents, and communication rules must be clearly defined and followed. So, what should remain creative?
  1. Building a personal connection with the client: adapting to their style, mood, and expectations.
  2. Negotiations that require flexibility, improvisation, and unconventional solutions.
  3. Visualizing product value to most effectively convey benefits tailored to a specific situation.
  4. Handling objections, because standard templates often don’t work — a personalized approach is needed.
It’s worth noting: the more complex the product, the greater the role of creativity. But mass sales require stricter regulation to maintain consistent quality.

Advantages of an Automated Sales Funnel with SMART CRM

  • Clear structure and freedom of action — SMART CRM helps standardize the sales process with clearly defined stages. Yet within each stage, the manager has freedom to decide which specific actions to take to achieve results. This allows for maintaining a unified system without losing the individual approach to the client.
  • Timely follow-ups without the risk of missing anything — automated reminders, triggers, and tasks in the CRM help ensure no potential client is overlooked, keeping order and control at every stage of the sales process.
  • The whole team works in a single information space — reports, comments, and interaction history are available in real time. With an automated sales funnel, there’s no need to ask or clarify statuses with colleagues — everything is always up to date and visible.
  • Business sees the full picture — data in SMART CRM is presented in an easy-to-understand format for fast and informed decision-making.
  • Instructions exactly where they’re needed — newcomers don’t get lost thanks to clear scripts, while experienced sellers stay engaged because there’s room for improvisation.

What About the Drawbacks?

It’s important to be honest here: automation almost always means changing habits. If previously a manager kept everything in their head or in spreadsheets, that won’t work with a CRM. It’s a system that requires a culture of reporting and regular interaction. But once this culture takes root and becomes routine, the company’s efficiency grows exponentially. SMART CRM is the entire sales logic in one solution. The platform combines marketing, service, analytics, inquiry and order processing for both B2B and B2C directions. Thanks to the SMART Sales solution, a company can keep the entire deal cycle under control — from the first contact to closing. The SMART Order Management solution automates order processing. SMART Customer Care helps quickly resolve client inquiries without losing requests. And SMART Marketing enables managing customer segments, launching omnichannel campaigns in real time, and analyzing their effectiveness. All actions are transparent, coordinated, and measurable. Moreover, the system supports extension through additional connectors and integrations, allowing you to unify all key communication channels in one environment — such as messengers, social networks, and popular services like Nova Poshta, Rozetka, and others. This capability ensures a seamless and personalized experience for your customers. A practical example of implementing an automated sales funnel approach comes from AM Integrator Group. The company approached SMART business with a request to strengthen their sales department with a modern CRM solution that supports flexible integration with Microsoft 365. As a result, SMART Sales from the SMART CRM product stack was implemented. Thanks to this, the AM Integrator Group team gained a unified workspace for smoothly guiding clients through the key sales funnel stages. The solution integrates with Outlook and Microsoft Teams, so managers receive reminders about planned tasks, meetings, or activities right in their familiar work tools, without switching between multiple applications. This significantly simplifies daily work and improves discipline in task completion. The procedure for creating a new client card was also automated, and important data is displayed in Power BI analytical dashboards, which greatly sped up business process planning and control. The system allowed configuring funnel stages according to the company’s internal processes and adding important fields for evaluating each deal — for example, the probability percentage of closing or the expected margin. Overall, this enabled better work planning, simplified onboarding for newcomers, and provided a complete picture of specialist involvement in each deal.

How to Measure the Sales Funnel — An Example

To not just guess but actually know where you are “losing” customers and how to fix it, you need to regularly calculate conversions between funnel stages. Conversion is the percentage of leads moving from one funnel stage to the next. The formula is very simple: Conversion (%) = (Number of leads that moved to the next stage / Number of leads at the previous stage) × 100 Example: You have 500 leads who submitted a request on your website. Managers contacted 300 of them, and 120 agreed to a product presentation.
  • Conversion from request to call = (300 / 500) × 100 = 60%
  • Conversion from call to presentation = (120 / 300) × 100 = 40%
These simple numbers already show where potential customers are lost. If you lose 40% at the first step, it signals room for improvement. And if only 10% proceed from presentations to commercial offers, it’s necessary to analyze the presentation, the manager’s approach, or the relevance of the offer to the target audience more deeply. To get truly useful insights, consider:
  1. The full customer journey, not just the final deal stage.
  2. Lead sources — because conversion rates from a webinar and a cold call can differ drastically.
  3. The role of the manager — who handled the deal and what tools they used.
  4. Product complexity — SaaS solutions are one thing, developing a large project from scratch with numerous integrations is another.
Calculating conversions at each stage (lead → qualified lead → presentation → commercial offer → deal) allows you to see exactly where the process “drops off” and, most importantly, why.

How to Improve Sales Funnel Conversion in CRM?

When you identify weak spots in the funnel, you can make targeted process improvements: add triggers, reminders, adjust scripts, and enhance interaction across different channels. To prevent customers from “getting stuck” in the middle of the funnel or getting lost between communication channels, it’s important to create a comfortable and consistent interaction experience for them. SMART CRM helps achieve this through three key approaches:
  • Omnichannel Presence: Be where the customer is — today’s buyer doesn’t have the patience to wait for a callback. They might write in a chat, respond to a lead form, or leave a request via messenger. Omnichannel in SMART CRM means that all these inquiries automatically feed into the funnel on a single customer card, with no risk of getting lost. The manager sees everything in one place and can respond faster. This directly impacts conversion from the first contact: the quicker the response, the higher the chance of engaging the customer.
  • Use of AI: Smart chat assistants at the service of sales — SMART CRM offers scalable customer interaction powered by intelligent solutions like SMART Chat and SMART Easy Bot. These extensions help automate communication, making it personalized and convenient. SMART Chat unifies popular messengers in one window, preserves chat history and analytics, while SMART Easy Bot allows creating smart chatbots for Viber and Telegram, implementing self-service scenarios, mailings, and collecting verified contacts. These solutions are called “smart” because they can automatically respond to customer requests without operator involvement, recognize intent, suggest next steps, and provide relevant information in real time. Together, they reduce response time, boost customer trust, and give managers tools for proactive work.
  • Building a Customer Journey Map: Understanding the customer’s path = Impact on results — SMART CRM collects information about customer interactions: when and how they contacted you, what they viewed, and where they got stuck. This helps identify typical behavior patterns and adapt to expectations. For example, if most leads “drop off” after receiving a commercial offer, it might be time to revise the email template or add a reminder call.

Conclusion:

With SMART CRM, a company gains not only clear metrics but also real tools to influence them. The system highlights problem areas and provides solutions to address them — from automation to in-depth customer journey analytics. If you’re curious how SMART CRM can help your sales team close more deals, request a consultation to learn how to tailor the system to your sales funnel and achieve measurable results! Request Consultation
June 17th, 2025 12 min read
An image of a laptop and two software passports, symbolizing the choice between safe and unsafe software
What to Replace russian CRMs with: Better, More Efficient, and Safer Alternatives
Ukrainian companies continue to abandon russian software. The first wave of boycotting software from the aggressor state occurred in 2017 due to moral reasons and the introduction of sanctions, and after the full-scale invasion in 2022, the issue of IT security became critically urgent. The government supported amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Sanctions”, which provide for a complete ban on the use of hostile software products and access to electronic resources controlled by russia. As a result, a significant number of companies began switching to Ukrainian or Western alternatives. This trend is not only a matter of principle, but also of practical security. After all, using hostile software carries a number of critical business risks, such as:
  1. Lack of data control – russian IT companies are subject to national legislation, under which security services may demand access to any information. This means there are absolutely no guarantees regarding the protection of personal and commercial data.
  2. Risk of sudden “blackout” – Servers or access to the service may be shut down by the vendor at any moment – for political or strategic reasons. This jeopardizes the continuity of business processes.
  3. Inability to receive updates and support – Sanctions restrict the legal use of russian software, blocking access to technical support and updates. These restrictions will only tighten, which in turn will impact related business processes.
  4. Geopolitical isolation – Global companies are massively cutting ties with russian vendors, directly affecting businesses that use their software. In addition to reputational damage, using russian software can lead to isolation from the European and American markets.
  5. Support for the aggressor – Every license or payment for russian software means funding the state that is waging war against Ukraine.
Nevertheless, despite these risks, in 2024, 17% of Ukrainian companies still used russian software, including CRM systems – as reported in a Ringostat’s study. This typically happens due to financial constraints, migration challenges, or simply out of habit. However, some organizations do not consider switching from hostile software simply because they cannot find local or foreign CRM alternatives. That’s why we propose to explore which solutions should be abandoned and what can replace russian CRMs.

List of the Most Popular russian CRMs on the Ukrainian Market: Which Systems to Avoid

Unfortunately, for a long time, russian software was the most popular option for doing business in Ukraine. The reasons varied: aggressive marketing, convenient integrations, or a lack of understanding of who the actual developer was. As a result, a number of CRM solutions of russian origin gained wide popularity in Ukraine. Among them:
  • Bitrix24 – A comprehensive platform for managing sales, tasks, communications, and document flow.
  • amoCRM (also known as Kommo) – A cloud-based CRM system focused on managing sales and customer communication.
  • Megaplan – A tool for project management, task tracking, and team communication.
  • EnvyCRM – A CRM system for sales and marketing automation.
  • Prostoy Business – A universal CRM system for small and medium-sized businesses.
  • Okdesk – A system for request management and customer service.
These are the most well-known software products from the aggressor state that are still present in the Ukrainian business environment. At the same time, there are solutions on the market that conceal their russian “origin”, posing as international ones. So how can you check whether the software you’ve chosen is connected to russia or Belarus? The IT Ukraine Association has created the Vorozhyi Soft (“Enemy Software”) platform, where you can easily check the origin of software, and the Opendatabot portal provides detailed information about whether citizens of russia or Belarus are among the owners or beneficiaries of a product. The issue of information security is especially critical in the CRM segment — systems that store customer data. The choice of CRM affects not only the efficiency of the team’s work but also the security of confidential information and the company’s reputation. So, having decided to abandon software from the aggressor state, Ukrainian businesses face a strategic choice: what can replace russian CRMs while ensuring stability, alignment with Ukrainian realities, and the potential for business growth?

Alternatives the Market Offers Ukrainian Businesses to Replace russian CRMs

To replace russian CRMs, the market currently offers Ukrainian businesses the following alternatives:
  • SMART CRM (Ukraine) — Built on Microsoft Power Platform, this solution offers flexible customization, secure data migration, and integration with popular services such as Nova Poshta, Rozetka, and Binotel.
  • Dynamics 365 CRM (USA) — This is a set of Microsoft systems with built-in AI. They are categorized by functionality, enhancing different business units: Dynamics 365 Sales (B2B and B2C sales management), Dynamics 365 Customer Insights (marketing automation), Dynamics 365 Customer Service (transparent service support), Dynamics 365 Field Service (on-site service coordination), Dynamics 365 Contact Center (omnichannel customer communication through a contact center).
  • Perfectum CRM+ERP (Ukraine) – A comprehensive solution for small and medium-sized businesses with CRM and ERP modules, supporting automatic updates, REST API, and certified data security.
  • SalesDrive (Ukraine) – A cloud-based CRM system focused on sales automation, lead management, and analytics, with integration options for telephony and email services.
  • Creatio CRM (Ukraine) – A no-code platform for CRM and business process automation that allows for quick adaptation to changes in the business environment.
  • KeepinCRM (Ukraine) – A user-friendly CRM system for small businesses, featuring customer tracking, task management, and integration with popular services.
  • OneBox CRM (Ukraine) – A flexible system that allows business process customization, task automation, and integration with various services, including telephony and email.
  • Asteril CRM (Ukraine) – A specialized CRM for online stores, integrated with marketplaces such as Rozetka and Prom.ua, offering order and inventory management features.
  • NetHunt CRM (Ukraine) – A CRM system integrated with Gmail, enabling sales and customer management directly from the inbox; actively supports the Ukrainian market.
  • Odoo (Belgium) – A modular open-source platform that combines CRM, ERP, and other business apps, providing flexibility and scalability for various business types.
  • Zoho CRM (India) – A cloud CRM system with a wide range of features for automating sales, marketing, and customer support, integrated with over 800 third-party apps.
  • KeyCRM (Ukraine) – A CRM system for e-commerce that consolidates orders from marketplaces, messengers, and social media into a single interface, with inventory management and analytics tools.
  • LP-CRM (Ukraine) – A CRM system focused on processing orders from landing pages and online stores, featuring sales automation and integration with popular payment systems.
It is important for a new CRM for business to be reliable, flexible, user-friendly for the team, and financially reasonable. So, let’s explore which aspects are most important to consider when choosing a new CRM system.

How to Choose a Quality Replacement for russian CRMs for Ukrainian Businesses: Tips and Recommendations

A quality CRM is not just a “replacement” for an old system. It is a new tool that should become part of the business ecosystem: support sales, automate customer interactions, enable transparent analytics, and facilitate scaling. So, when choosing a replacement for russian CRM systems, it is important to consider not only technical specifications but also a number of critically important criteria.

Criteria for Choosing Software to Replace russian CRMs

  1. Localization, support, and service for Ukrainian clients: A Ukrainian-language interface, technical support, compliance with Ukrainian legislation and business specifics – these are essential factors when selecting a system.
  2. Customization flexibility: A quality CRM should easily adapt to the working logic of a specific company – from the sales funnel structure to access rights, reporting, and internal integrations.
  3. Optimal financial conditions: A CRM must be a financially sound investment. It’s important to consider not only the subscription cost, but also the expenses for setup, employee training, technical support, and scaling. The market currently offers many options with broad functionality at an affordable price.
  4. Migration speed and data retention: Data transfer from previous systems must be fast, secure, and controlled. Choose CRMs with a track record of successful migrations – this will significantly reduce risks during the transition.
  5. Integrations and level of automation: The availability of ready-made integrations with telephony, email, messengers, accounting systems, and more is critically important. A CRM system should become the central hub for all customer-related processes.
  6. Analytics and management reporting: Analytical tools must be clear, flexible, and accessible. This enables informed decision-making based on real-time data – from sales performance to evaluating manager effectiveness.
  7. Compliance with legislation and security standards: The CRM system must comply with current Ukrainian laws on storing and processing personal data, as well as international security standards (including GDPR, ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 2, etc.).
Replacing russian CRMs and switching to a completely new system may feel like a “leap of faith”, but it can unlock new opportunities for business, support expansion into the European market, and help build stronger relationships with clients. A properly implemented and configured CRM system is a strategic tool that can strengthen internal communication, enable faster responses to market challenges, and support better managerial decision-making. To ensure that replacing a russian CRM and migrating to new software goes as smoothly as possible and without risking your company’s operations, it is best to rely on a trusted vendor. For over 16 years, SMART business, in partnership with Microsoft, has been implementing and localizing leading solutions for business process automation – providing full technical support from the start of integration to the creation of a unified digital environment for the company. The company offers a full-fledged alternative to russian software – SMART CRM, a modern platform built on Microsoft Power Platform technologies. This solution for B2B and B2C companies covers all key customer interaction processes. SMART CRM is a reliable replacement for russian CRM systems like Bitrix24, Kommo, Megaplan, and other similar solutions – fully aligned with the modern needs of Ukrainian businesses.

SMART CRM as an Alternative to russian CRMs: Features, Capabilities, and Advantages

Implementing SMART CRM opens up a wide range of opportunities for companies, tailored to today’s market challenges. The CRM platform offers a number of key advantages:
  • Flexible configuration for business needs: Thanks to a convenient tool builder, users can independently adapt the basic functionality of the CRM system to their own processes – without needing to involve developers.
  • Robust technological foundation: SMART CRM is built on Microsoft Power Platform – one of the world’s leading low-code/no-code platforms. This allows for rapid scaling while minimizing costs associated with complex development.
  • Integrations with modern services: The CRM system supports native integration with services like Ringostat, Binotel, Stream Telecom, Nova Poshta, Rozetka, eSputnik, PayPal, UAPAY, InPost, plata by mono, and more. This ensures centralized management of customer communications and logistics.
  • High level of security and compliance: SMART CRM complies with more than 13 international security regulations and standards, including GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, SOC, RODO, FedRAMP High, and others. This guarantees reliable data protection and compliance with legal requirements.
  • Regular feature updates: The platform is continuously evolving – new versions are released every 3–4 months, consistently expanding capabilities and enhancing the user experience.
  • Support and training from experts: Included are professional documentation, training materials, and consultations from certified specialists – helping users quickly get up to speed.
  • Deep customization options: If needed, a company can request personalized configuration for its specific processes – provided directly by the SMART business team.
  • Mobility and accessibility: The CRM system is accessible from any device – mobile or desktop – providing work flexibility and real-time control over business operations.
The SMART CRM platform offers four CRM solutions: SMART Sales, SMART Customer Care, SMART Order Management and SMART Marketing. These tools are currently demonstrating their effectiveness across industries such as retail, logistics, IT, as well as in education, energy, and pharmaceuticals. Below are a few recent CRM implementation cases from SMART business:
  • Nova Post: SMART Sales and SMART Customer Care Goal: Enable effective B2B sales management and customer inquiry handling during expansion into the European market. Result: The implementation of the CRM system helped the company scale quickly and efficiently, optimize internal team communication, and improve customer satisfaction.
  • AM Integrator Group: SMART Sales Goal: Optimize the process of working with potential deals and improve sales analytics. Result: The implementation of SMART Sales streamlined deal management, aligned sales funnel stages with the department’s business processes, and enhanced analytics.
  • British-Georgian Academy: SMART Sales and SMART Customer Care Goal: Improve communication with students’ parents and optimize administrative processes. Result: The implementation of SMART Sales and SMART Customer Care improved communication with parents and reduced the administrative workload.
  • AQUA PLUS: SMART Order Management Goal: Optimize order processing and ensure effective coordination between departments. Result: The implementation of SMART Order Management automated key service processes – from order creation to invoicing – enabling a unified, integrated view of all orders.
  • DTEK: SMART Sales Goal: Optimize engagement with potential donors and track the entire lifecycle of equipment. Result: The implementation of SMART Sales created a single, transparent, and convenient environment for interacting with donors of specialized equipment and allowed for full traceability of the equipment’s journey.
If you’ve decided to stop using hostile software and are looking for a replacement for a russian CRM – or if you’re simply ready to implement a flexible, innovative, and efficient CRM system – submit a request, and SMART business experts will help you choose the right solution: Submit a Request
May 21st, 2025 9 min read
A human and a robot high-five through smartphone screens, symbolizing friendly interaction between humans and artificial intelligence.
How to Improve Customer Experience with Chatbots and Virtual Assistants
Customer-oriented service, since the start of the 2020s, has firmly shifted from being a “nice to have” to a “must-have” in the business value system. Why? Because consumers are no longer just looking to purchase products or services. Increasingly, they expect unforgettable customer experiences from their favorite brands. According to Forbes research, in 2023, 58% of respondents were willing to switch trusted brands for the sake of a better customer service experience. Businesses had to accept these new rules of the game because, according to McKinsey research, losing one loyal customer can only be offset by attracting three new ones. This demand has spurred the active development of technologies that help improve the key elements of customer-oriented service:
  • understanding customers,
  • omnichannel communication,
  • personalization of offers,
  • automation of service processes.
With innovative solutions, it’s easier to stay connected with customers and partners 24/7, communicate through the most convenient channels, remember every detail of preferences, and never forget about personalized offers. This is why CRM systems – software products for automating customer, consumer, and partner relationship management – have become bestsellers in the software market over the last decade. And their extensions – various chatbots and virtual assistants – are essential components of good service.

Chatbots and Virtual Assistants: Differences and Areas of Responsibility

Chatbots and virtual assistants are digital tools used as extensions of classic CRM systems to automate user interactions. A chatbot is a software product that facilitates user interaction through text or voice interfaces and follows a clearly defined script. It is designed to perform specific narrow tasks, such as registration or booking bots. A virtual assistant is a multifunctional version of a chatbot, which may be enhanced with artificial intelligence. In this case, it understands context, takes past interactions into account, and continuously improves. The difference between a chatbot and a virtual assistant lies in the depth of functionality and adaptability. Chatbots are best suited for basic tasks, while virtual assistants provide personalized, context-dependent support. By the way, according to McKinsey’s research, the implementation of AI-based virtual assistants in the banking sector contributes to a 22-30% increase in employee productivity and leads to a 6% growth in annual revenue.

AI-Powered Technologies – A Revolution in the World of Bots

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has the potential to completely revolutionize customer service. According to a study by McKinsey, incorporating GenAI into customer service, solely by reducing human hours during the handling of customer inquiries, boosts productivity by 30-45%. However, it’s also important to consider the increased sales that come with improved customer satisfaction. This happens through:
  • efficient automation of responses. GenAI-powered chatbots can independently engage in conversations, generating answers to common questions and even solving more complex issues without involving service staff,
  • improved accuracy and relevance of responses. Thanks to natural language processing, GenAI can understand both the context and tone of the inquiry,
  • faster processing of customer requests. GenAI’s ability to quickly analyze large amounts of data speeds up response times.

Common Use Cases for GenAI-Powered Virtual Assistants

SMART business, a company with over 15 years of experience in developing and implementing digital transformation solutions and creating AI-powered products, has compiled a list of the most common use cases for generative AI. An AI chatbot for customer support and an AI assistant on the website provide high-quality customer support 24/7, even when your employees are off. They:
  • quickly search the knowledge base and generate summary responses with links to documents,
  • ensure high accuracy, even if the inquiry contains mistakes,
  • find the required product, even if the user forgot the name but can provide related information.
AI Assistant for HR:
  • automation of the recruitment process, including job description creation, resume screening, and candidate selection. This process is used by the renowned high-tech HR company Wonderlic,
  • creating personalized learning programs,
  • virtual L&D assistants and tutors,
  • automation of upskilling and reskilling processes,
  • assisting with onboarding new employees by answering questions based on HR documents and wikis. Employees without computers can access information via messaging apps like Telegram, Viber, or Facebook Messenger.
AI Assistant for Legal Departments: With significant potential to improve compliance and risk management, an AI assistant can:
  • quickly identify inconsistencies in documents or risks that may affect business outcomes,
  • monitor operations in real-time for compliance with regulatory standards and detect potential violations,
  • predict risks based on historical data,
  • check documents for alignment with company policies and identify those that need updating.
AI Assistant for Healthcare Institutions:
  • assists in processing inquiries to the hotline,
  • aids in diagnosing diseases. An interesting example is PathAI, which uses AI to analyze tissue samples for pathological conditions,
  • accelerates the drug discovery process by analyzing billions of potential chemical compounds to identify promising ones in terms of research.
AI Assistant for Educational Institutions:
  • automates communication with parents and students,
  • creates personalized learning programs, such as the globally recognized language-learning platform Duolingo.
AI Assistant for Product Descriptions on Websites:
  • automatically creates unique, high-quality product descriptions tailored to specific keywords,
  • selects images for product cards in accordance with SEO requirements and optimizes them for fast loading and correct display on different devices,
  • generates tags frequently used by users to search for similar products,
  • performs SEO optimization for existing product cards, for example selects the most relevant keywords, creates titles, and meta descriptions that improve CTR (Click-Through Rate).
Customer Service Quality Assessment:
  • transcribes and analyzes support team conversations with customers and evaluates them for professionalism, empathy, and adherence to company norms,
  • provides recommendations for improving service levels when necessary.
Intelligent Social Listening (Online and Social Media Analysis) for companies planning rebranding, launching a new product, or exploring a new niche. It not only counts mentions and hashtags but also deeply analyzes the context and tone. This allows for highly accurate predictions of market trends and the development of strategies that resonate with the target audience. By creating personalized solutions in partnership with the SMART business team or choosing from ready-made options and integrating them into business processes, companies can enhance a wide range of functions. Want to understand which business processes in your company benefit most from an AI assistant? Request a free consultation here.

Opportunities for Creating a Unique Customer Experience by SMART business

Having seen how significantly AI-based solutions can boost profitability, businesses today no longer ask “Is it worth it?” but rather “Where do we start?” Successful cases show that it starts with reviewing needs and choosing the right vendor. For instance, global retail giant Walmart partnered with Microsoft to implement a range of generative AI-based solutions. This collaboration elevated customer experience for consumers across 11 countries. The company’s top management emphasized access to the most advanced AI models, combined with high data security, as key reasons for choosing this partnership. SMART business, a leading Microsoft partner, offers the full spectrum of solutions from the vendor. Specifically, SMART CRM provides all the necessary tools to build effective interactions with customers and partners. SMART Chat and SMART Easy Bot have been developed as extensions of the platform’s capabilities: SMART Chat is a tool that:
  • integrates popular messaging apps (Facebook Messenger, Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber, Instagram) into a single window,
  • records conversations and key metrics (such as wait times and communication duration) and integrates communication history for a personalized experience,
  • optimizes each subsequent interaction with the customer by saving communication history in the customer’s profile, enabling personalized communication.
Learn more here. SMART Easy Bot is a tool for simple and convenient management of Viber and Telegram chatbots directly from the CRM interface. Unlike SMART Chat, which facilitates omnichannel communication, SMART Easy Bot can also be used for self-service by customers who have subscribed to the bot. Key features include:
  • building a client base with verified contacts,
  • sending bulk or segmented messages,
  • supporting feedback,
  • generating unique texts directly from CRM,
  • converting texts into barcodes or QR codes as needed.
This tool supports various scenarios, such as purchases or service maintenance. Learn more here.

How SMART business Chatbots Help Build Trust-Based Relationships with Consumers

The value of these solutions for businesses is evidenced by successful implementations with our customers. For example, LEOLAND, a sports and entertainment complex in Lviv, is a unique project spanning 30,000 square meters with numerous family-friendly locations. It attracts many visitors daily, each of whom deserves to feel special, which implies being informed about changes in operating hours, the availability of certain areas, or new personal offers. Additionally, visitors expect immediate responses to their inquiries, regardless of the complex’s operating hours. The SMART business team received a request from LEOLAND for an upgrade to their IT ecosystem. The result was the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365, integrated with several connectors, including SMART Connector for Binotel, SMART Chat, SMART Easy Bot, SMART Connector for eSputnik, and SMART Connector for GMS. The system enables seamless communication with visitors through their preferred channels, records and analyzes inquiries to the customer center, and automatically analyzes preferences to generate personalized offers. Despite opening amid the war, LEOLAND quickly became a popular family destination for locals and visitors alike. SMART business solutions ensure efficient business process automation with flexible customization, rapid implementation, and user-friendly interfaces. They also comply with the highest international standards, particularly regarding data protection. Implementing any toolset on the SMART CRM platform guarantees:
  • improved customer interactions,
  • increased operational efficiency,
  • enhanced precision in decision-making processes,
  • increased security of information systems.
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