Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM review

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is a tool that enables businesses to better engage with their audiences, plan out customers’ buying journeys, and build relationships more efficiently. CRM software streamlines business processes across different functions, such as marketing, sales, and customer service, to optimize efficiency.

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In this Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM review, we'll examine why many consider it to be one of the best CRM software out there. This cloud-based tool provides full-service CRM capabilities through a series of integrated apps for different business functions. With a host of advanced automation and reporting tools, this CRM is a great choice for larger organizations with more complex customer journeys.

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Plans and pricing

Dynamics 365 offers a range of pricing plans for apps suited to different business functions. 

The sales professional plan is $65/user/month. For larger organizations, the enterprise plan is $95/user/month. If the user already has an existing subscription to another qualifying Dynamics 365 app, either sales license can be added on for just $20/user/month. 

There is also the sales premium plan, at $135/user/month, and the Microsoft Relationship Sales plan at $162/user/month. Both offer more advanced features.

The customer service app is $50/user/month for the professional plan and $95/user/month for the enterprise plan. There is also a field service plan for $95/user/month, and a remote assist plan for $65/user/month. If bought as a subsequent app, all plans are $20/user/month. 

While sales plans are priced per user, marketing plans are priced per tenant. The tenant is the organization buying the software, and the price is determined by the number of marketing contacts you need to store in the CRM. Tenant plans start from $1500 a month. 

As the pricing structure is quite complex, we highly recommend contacting Microsoft directly to build a personalized quote for your business. 

Features

Marketing

Dynamics 365 Marketing is an advanced tool that enables you to design personalized customer journeys that increase your chance of conversion and give you a higher ROI. It's a smart, AI-powered database that collects data based on customer behavior and enables you to tailor your marketing strategy accordingly. 

You can use this CRM to nurture warm leads and develop a deeper relationship with your existing customers by delivering more meaningful content to them based on past interactions. You can also create advanced reports, highly targeted audience segments, and more. The built-in artificial intelligence and automation capabilities make this a powerful tool to predict customer needs and prioritize the warmest leads.

The sales app is designed to optimize the efficiency of sales professionals and shorten the sales cycle by storing all information about leads in a single AI-powered workspace. 

The app will keep you focused by prompting you to complete the next sales activity. The AI function will give you email templates to use and help you prioritize leads that need attention, and it can even aid your communication by detecting customer sentiment during calls. 

One of the key strengths of Dynamics 365 is that it can integrate seamlessly with Office 365. Integrations with Outlook and Teams enable you to automate processes and manage the sales pipeline. It also integrates with LinkedIn Sales Navigator to find new leads. 

Interface and in use

Dynamics 365 has a look and feel that is reminiscent of traditional Microsoft Office programs. It often uses flowcharts to visualize customer journeys. The dashboards are also an efficient way of showing key stats all in one place. 

However, perhaps due to the complexity of the CRM and the vast range of features it offers, Dynamics 365 is not beginner friendly and requires training to use. The navigation menus can sometimes appear cluttered, and more could be done to improve the user experience of those unfamiliar with the software.

Support

With a Dynamics 365 subscription, Microsoft offers excellent free support, which includes access to self-help portals, community forums, a service dashboard, and 24/7 support for critical incidents with a one-hour response time. 

They also offer an upgraded support plan at $9 per user per month (with a minimum spend of $180 a month) that offers additional advisory and escalation services. This plan is best suited for medium-to-large businesses. 

Security

Dynamics 365 is very secure. As it's a cloud-based CRM, it's hosted on Microsoft Azure, which offers state-of-the-art protection with multiple levels of security at the physical and operational levels. Microsoft encrypts all data both during transit and at rest.

The competition

Microsoft's biggest competitor is Salesforce. Both offer comprehensive CRM solutions with similar advanced features, though Salesforce works out slightly more expensive, as the sales enterprise plan is $150/user/month compared to $95/user/month for Dynamics 365. 

However, Salesforce does also offer a sales essentials plan for $25/user/month. In comparison, the cheapest option Microsoft offers starts at $65/user/month, which makes it less cost-effective for small businesses. 

Final verdict

Overall, Dynamics 365 is an advanced CRM system with an impressive range of features. It has a powerful inbuilt artificial intelligence system and useful native integrations with Microsoft Office software. 

However, it also has a steep learning curve and requires training to use properly. It offers fewer cost-effective price plans for small businesses than its main competitor, Salesforce. 

For these reasons, we recommend Dynamics 365 as a CRM for medium-to-large businesses.

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