Businesses of Varied Sizes Find Customer Relationship Help

FOR MICROBUSINESSES “Very small companies usually just need something to manage contacts,” said Ms. Larrimore. Her own firm used Batchbook until it reached 17 staff members, then it switched to Sugar C.R.M.

Taylor Aldredge, who heads branding and marketing for Grasshopper, a company in Needham, Mass., that offers a virtual phone system for small businesses, uses Buzzstream, software that helps manage social media marketing campaigns. It costs the company $40 a month for each of three users.

Mr. Aldredge wanted a way to track conversations with prospects, customers, journalists and bloggers. “I needed something that had the ability to track interactions and mentions — whether that is social media, links or press — to see which conversations were worth pursuing,” he said. The company’s customer base has grown 500 percent over the last five years.