iReadCustomer Team
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What Is CRM? A Practical Guide for Thai SMEs, with Costs
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Quick answer
CRM stands for customer relationship management: one system holding every customer's details, conversation history, open deals and follow-ups, so leads aren't dropped and the owner sees what revenue is coming. SMEs can start on a free CRM such as HubSpot or Zoho CRM (free for up to 3 users). A custom CRM that connects LINE OA and accounting starts at ฿50,000 and typically runs about ฿119,850–319,600.
What is CRM? CRM stands for customer relationship management. In practice it is one system that holds every customer's details, conversation history, open deals and next follow-up in one place. Salespeople stop dropping leads, service staff see the full history, and the owner sees what revenue is coming. For a Thai SME, a CRM replaces the notebooks, Excel files and LINE chats scattered across employees' phones.
What CRM stands for and what it means
CRM stands for customer relationship management. It names both a discipline (looking after customers from first enquiry to repeat order) and the software that runs it day to day, which is what people usually mean by "a CRM system".
Salesforce describes a CRM system as one central place to store customer and prospect contacts, identify sales opportunities, record service issues and manage marketing campaigns.
Put simply: if a salesperson resigns today, their customers should stay with the company, not leave with their phone.
What a CRM system does
| Job | What the CRM does | Without one |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts | One card per customer: details, channels, conversation history | Split across phones, business cards and Excel |
| Sales pipeline | Every deal with its stage, value and expected close date | Asking each salesperson in the weekly meeting |
| Follow-ups | Reminders: who to call today, who is waiting for a quotation | Memory; quiet customers go unnoticed |
| Service tickets | Each complaint becomes a case with an owner, tracked to closure | Complaints buried in chat |
| Marketing | Segments by interest or purchases, with targeted messages | One broadcast to everyone |
| Reports | Sales by rep and channel, conversion at each stage | Totals added up by hand at month end |
The feature list matters less than everyone recording into the same place, consistently. More in Why Your CRM Isn't Working: It's Not the Software, It's You.
Types of CRM: start from the problem
Salesforce lists four types: operational, analytical, collaborative and strategic. The first three are what an SME uses day to day; strategic CRM is a company-wide customer focus.
| Type | What it does | Fits an SME that |
|---|---|---|
| Operational | Runs daily sales, marketing and service work: pipeline, reminders, cases | loses leads or can't see stuck deals |
| Analytical | Shows which segments buy again and which channels bring real customers | has sales history but decides on gut feel |
| Collaborative | Shares customer information across departments | gives one customer different answers from different teams |
Most CRM software mixes all three. Start operational; analysis pays off once records are complete.
CRM in Thai SMEs: examples
The big difference from textbook examples: Thai customers talk to businesses on LINE, on the company's LINE Official Account (LINE OA) and on salespeople's personal LINE. A CRM that works here plans for LINE from day one.
LINE OA + CRM
LINE OA lets admins answer chats and broadcast to followers, but it is not a CRM: no pipeline, no deal values, no link to quotations or purchase history.
The bridge is LINE's Messaging API. When a customer messages your LINE OA, the LINE Platform sends a webhook event to your server, so your CRM can create or update the customer card, tag the interest and assign a salesperson automatically. For LINE OA plans and costs, see What Is LINE OA? 2026 Pricing, Costs, and CRM Guide.
Sales teams that close on personal LINE
In wholesale, distribution and field sales, chat history often lives in salespeople's personal LINE. The owner can't see pending deals, and when a salesperson leaves, the customers go too. The fix: move customer chats to the company LINE OA and log deals and follow-ups in the CRM from a phone.
Typical uses by business type
Clinics track course history and return visits; distributors follow quotations and reorder cycles; showrooms and property sales route ad leads and book visits; training schools follow enquiries to enrolment; B2B service firms track after-sales cases and renewals.
Don't skip personal data
A CRM holds personal data, so Thailand's Personal Data Protection Act B.E. 2562 (2019), the PDPA, applies. Build in role-based access, a change log, and an easy way to find, correct or delete one customer's data; for legal duties, ask the PDPC office or your lawyer.
Signs you need a CRM
If several of these sound familiar, a CRM will likely beat living in Excel:
- Leads arrive from LINE OA, Facebook, your website and the phone, and nobody knows the total.
- Customers ask for a price, go quiet, and nobody follows up.
- The owner asks each salesperson what they expect to close this month.
- A salesperson resigns and the customer list leaves too.
- Two salespeople contact the same customer, or quote different prices.
- Customers repeat their complaint every time they call.
If the owner still handles every customer personally, Google Sheets may be enough. Don't buy a system before you have a problem it solves.
SaaS CRM or a custom-built CRM?
SaaS means ready-made cloud CRM paid per user or plan (HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho CRM, several Thai-made CRMs). A custom CRM is built around your own process, and you own the code and data.
| SaaS | Custom | |
|---|---|---|
| Getting started | Fast: sign up and configure | Design and development first |
| Cost model | Ongoing, per user or plan; grows with the team | Upfront build plus maintenance; not per user |
| Process fit | You adapt part of your process | Built around how your team sells |
| LINE OA and existing systems | Vendor integrations or add-on tools | Direct links to LINE, ERP, accounting or POS |
| Data ownership | On the vendor's platform; export as it allows | Code and data belong to you |
Choose SaaS when the team is small, the process is standard (lead → meeting → quotation → close), and you aren't yet sure the team will use a system. Start on a free plan or trial.
Build your own when SaaS can't handle your steps (quotations from your own pricing formulas, say), LINE OA must feed your ERP or accounting automatically, per-seat licences would cost more than building, or data must stay on your own systems.
A middle route: keep a SaaS core and build only the missing pieces, such as a LINE OA connector or accounting sync. iReadCustomer does custom software and CRM development. If HubSpot, Zoho or another SaaS fits you better, we'll say so instead of proposing a build.
How much does a CRM cost?
SaaS CRM
From the vendors' official pricing pages, checked on 26 Oct 2026:
| Vendor | Entry plan | Pricing model |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot | Free CRM ("100% free. Forever.", per HubSpot) | Paid plans add features; see HubSpot's pricing page for figures |
| Zoho CRM | Free Edition, free for up to 3 users | Standard, Professional and Enterprise editions, per user per month |
| Salesforce | Starter Suite, US$25 per user per month (billed monthly or annually) | Pro Suite US$100 per user per month (billed annually); higher editions cost more |
| Thai-made CRMs | Plans by users or by features | Thai language and document formats; ask the vendor for a quote |
Example: 10 salespeople on Salesforce Starter Suite cost 25 × 10 = US$250 a month, or US$3,000 a year, so cost SaaS at real headcount over several years. Confirm currency, tax and billing terms before buying.
Custom CRM
iReadCustomer prices by the man-day (one engineer, one working day), from ฿7,990 per man-day, and every custom project starts at ฿50,000. A typical custom CRM takes 15–40 man-days, roughly ฿119,850–319,600.
- Lower end: a lead pipeline with reminders for one sales team.
- Upper end: LINE OA integration, quotation workflows, multi-level permissions, dashboards, and ERP or accounting sync.
Once scope is agreed, you get a quotation with a number before work starts. Details are on the custom software development page.
Costs people forget
- Data migration and de-duplication
- Training and adjustment time
- Your LINE OA plan, if LINE is your main channel
- Integrations with accounting, ERP or an online store
- Maintenance, or extra licences as the team grows
How to choose a CRM
- Write down your sales process first: lead sources, steps to payment, who does what. If unclear, read Design a CRM Pipeline Your Sales Team Will Consistently Use.
- List your customer channels. If LINE OA is the main one, ask whether chats reach the CRM automatically or an admin copies them.
- Cost it per year at real headcount, and compare with building.
- Trial it with real data. Use a free plan or trial (Salesforce offers 30 days free); have salespeople log deals from their phones.
- Check the data side: full export, per-person permissions, where data is stored, PDPA support.
- Set usage rules: what must be recorded, and run sales meetings from CRM data. A system nobody opens is a system nobody fills in.
Where to start
Map your sales process and channels, then try a free CRM with the real team. If the gap is the LINE OA link, quotations or back-office integration, talk to the iReadCustomer team about configuring, integrating or building.
Sources
- What Is CRM? — Salesforce
- Sales pricing — Salesforce
- CRM pricing — HubSpot
- Zoho CRM pricing — Zoho
- Messaging API overview — LINE Developers
- Personal Data Protection Act B.E. 2562 — PDPC Thailand
Information as of 26 Oct 2026; vendor prices change, so check before you buy.
