CRM for contractors

Most contractors don't have a CRM problem. They have a "where does the truth live" problem. The customer's name is in the phone, the estimate is in a quoting app, the job is on the dispatch board, the invoice is in QuickBooks, and the lead source is in somebody's memory. Buying a CRM on top of that adds a fifth place.

The fix is to pick one system that owns the customer and the job, then judge every other tool by whether it reads from that system or makes you copy into it. This page is the framework for that choice across trades. For the marketing uses of a CRM, start with the contractor CRM hub.

What "CRM" means for a contractor

A CRM (customer relationship management system) keeps customer records, history and conversations in one place. The classic sales CRM was built around a pipeline. HubSpot's free CRM, for example, organizes contacts, logged activities and deals, and its paid tiers start at $15 per seat per month.¹

A contractor's relationship with a customer isn't mostly a pipeline. It's a string of jobs at an address: a repair, a quote, an install, a maintenance visit, a warranty call. Each one carries data marketing needs later: what's installed, how old it is, what was quoted and not sold, how much was paid, and how the customer found you in the first place. That's why field service products now include CRM records, and why the glossary definition of a CRM is broader than the sales-software one.

Which setup fits your trade

Here's the decision table. Find the row closest to how you sell, not how big you are.

The common thread: whatever owns the job should own the customer. A sales CRM can sit upstream of it for long deals, but once the job exists, the field system is the record.

The double-entry tax: a worked example

Running a sales CRM beside field service software sounds harmless until you count the copying.

Example (hypothetical). Say a 6-tech shop books 30 jobs a day. For each new job, the CSR copies the customer, the lead source and the job type from the field software into the sales CRM, about 90 seconds a job. At 250 working days and a loaded office wage of $25 an hour:

That's before mistakes. The expensive errors aren't typos in a name. They're the unsubscribe recorded in one system and not the other, and the lead source that never gets copied on busy days, which quietly starves your channel report of exactly the jobs from your busiest campaigns.

Sync tools reduce the copying but don't remove the problem of two records disagreeing. If you sync, write down which system wins for each field.

The fields that make a CRM useful to marketing

Whatever setup you choose, these are the fields that turn a customer list into marketing. Each trade has its own version of "equipment age."

How "equipment age" plays out by trade:

• HVAC: ENERGY STAR tells homeowners to consider replacing a heat pump or AC more than 10 years old and a furnace or boiler more than 15.² Install year on the location is the replacement list. The HVAC CRM page covers this in depth.
• Plumbing: ENERGY STAR's heat pump water heater fact sheet says a water heater 10 years old or older is likely heating inconsistently or heading for failure.³ Record tank install year and fuel type on every water heater job.
• Electrical: Panel age and amperage, plus whether the home has an EV charger or generator. Panel and service upgrade campaigns need those fields, not just the address.
• Roofing: Roof install or last replacement year, material, and the date of the last inspection. Storm follow-up lists filter on ZIP and inspection date.

app.tradeswork.app · Lead sources gallery

How to score a CRM demo

Vendors show their best screens. Bring a scorecard and weight it by what drives revenue for your shop. The weights below are a starting point; change them to fit.

Score each line 0, 1 or 2, multiply by the weight, and compare totals. A system that wins on screens but scores 0 on revenue by lead source will cost you more in wasted ad spend than it saves in office time.

What it costs, and what's extra

Price models differ enough that the sticker price misleads. Three things to compare:

• Per technician, per user or per seat. Field service software is often per technician or per user; sales CRMs per seat. Jobber's pricing page, for example, shows a Core plan priced per user and a Marketing Suite add-on at $99 a month.⁴ Housecall Pro lists plan prices and shows Campaigns as an add-on without a published price.⁵
• Marketing as an add-on. Several vendors sell marketing tools separately from the core plan. Ask what reviews, campaigns and reporting cost, in writing.
• The second system. If you run a sales CRM beside field software, add both, plus the sync tool and the office time from the example above.

Email marketing rules apply no matter which tool sends. The FTC requires a working opt-out on commercial email, honored within 10 business days.⁶ Make sure unsubscribes flow back into whichever system owns the customer.

How to measure it from your jobs

A contractor CRM is doing its job when you can answer "which marketing paid for itself" from invoices, not from clicks. Three numbers prove it.

The second number is customer acquisition cost turned around. The customer acquisition cost guide shows the full calculation from completed jobs.

Where TradesWork fits

TradesWork is field service software with the CRM records built in. Leads from lead services, your website form and forwarded emails land in one inbox, tied to a campaign that follows the job to the invoice, and the reports show revenue by channel from completed and collected work. It builds marketing lists from your records, but doesn't send marketing email campaigns yet. For roofing and remodeling shops with long sales cycles, compare its estimate follow-up against your pipeline needs before switching; the ServiceTitan Marketing Pro alternatives page covers the marketing add-on question in detail.