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Construction CRM
A construction CRM holds the people who have not signed yet. That is the difference between it and the software running your jobs, and it is the reason builders end up with both.
This page covers what a CRM does for a builder, how to follow up on bids without thinking about it, what changes for subcontractors and remodelers, and how Phanz works alongside Buildertrend or Procore. There is pricing at the bottom. For other trades, start at the CRM for contractors guide.
What a CRM Does for a Builder, Compared With Project Management Software
Procore, Buildertrend and the rest of that category manage the build. Schedules, selections, change orders, daily logs, budgets and client portals all sit there, and they run the work you already sold.
A construction CRM handles the part before that. Someone calls about an addition, you meet them on site, you send a number, and then four weeks of silence go by while they talk to their spouse and two other builders. The CRM holds that person, remembers what you quoted, and keeps in touch until you get a yes or a no.
Most builders who feel short of work are not short of enquiries. They are sitting on twenty open bids nobody has touched since the day they went out.
Following Up on Bids and Estimates
Construction bids do not get rejected. They get forgotten. The homeowner is waiting on a bank, comparing three prices, or deciding whether to do it this year at all, and none of that has anything to do with you.
So the follow-up has to run whether you remember it or not. In Phanz you build the sequence once and it attaches to every estimate you send: a text two days later, an email at one week, a check-in at two weeks, and a last one at a month. Anyone who replies drops out of the sequence and lands in your inbox.
Ask a builder how many bids they sent last quarter and most can guess. Ask how many were followed up more than once and the number is usually zero.
Responding to Leads While You Are on Site
You cannot take a call with a nail gun running, and the person calling you will not leave a voicemail. They will call the next builder on the list, and most of them do it within five minutes.
Missed call text back covers that gap. The moment you miss a call, the caller gets a text saying you are on a job site and asking what they need. Most people answer the text, and you pick the conversation up at lunch with the job still available. It is one setting, and for a trade with $20,000 jobs it is the highest return thing on the platform.
Web forms work the same way. A form submitted at nine at night gets an immediate reply instead of sitting until morning.
Subcontractors and Remodelers
Subcontractors
Your pipeline is relationships rather than enquiries. Ten builders send you most of your work, and when one goes quiet you usually notice two months late. Tag each contact by the GC who sent them, and you can see at a glance which relationships are producing and which have stopped.
The same list is useful for chasing invoices and for the quiet December call that reminds five builders you have capacity in January.
Remodelers
Kitchens, baths and additions all come with a long decision window and a lot of comparison shopping. Volume is high enough that manual follow-up falls apart by the second week.
Past clients are also your best source of new work. A remodeler with a tagged list of everyone they have worked for can run one email before spring and fill a month.
How Phanz Sits Alongside Buildertrend or Procore
If you already run Buildertrend or Procore, keep it. Phanz does not replace them and it is honest about what it leaves out: there are no takeoffs, no scheduling boards, no job costing, no crew timesheets and no selections.
Phanz covers everything in front of the contract. Your website and landing pages, your lead forms, your phone number, the CRM those leads land in, the text and email follow-up, the review requests after handover, and deposit collection. When a lead becomes a signed job, that job moves into your project management software and the build runs there.
Builders who use both describe it simply: one tool wins the work, the other runs it.
What It Costs
The DIY plan is $98/mo, no setup fee and no contract. That covers the website and landing pages, the CRM, calendars, missed call text back, email and SMS automation, review requests and payments. You set it up and our team answers questions while you do.
Done-For-You is $547/mo, or $4,997 a year at about $416/mo. We build the site, write your bid follow-up sequences, set up the number and hand it over running, usually live in about 3 business days.
Compare that with per-user pricing on the project management platforms, where a small office of four can pass $300 a month before anyone has followed up on a single bid. Full detail on the pricing page.
Construction CRM: Common Questions
What does construction CRM mean?
CRM stands for customer relationship management. A construction CRM is the system that holds everyone who might hire you: the homeowner who called about an addition, the architect who asked for a budget number, the GC who wants a price on framing. It tracks the conversation from first contact through to signed contract. Project management software takes over after that.
Is Buildertrend a CRM?
Buildertrend has a lead management module, so it stores leads and lets you set activities against them. It is built as construction project management first, so the strongest parts are scheduling, selections, change orders, daily logs and client updates during the build. Lead follow-up is there, but it is not the reason people buy it.
Is there a free construction CRM?
HubSpot, Zoho and Bitrix24 all have free tiers that work fine for storing builder contacts. None of them text your leads, respond to a missed call or chase an unsigned bid on their own, so the follow-up is still on you. That is the real cost of a free construction CRM.
What is the best CRM for a small construction business?
The one that answers people while you are on a site. A small builder is quoting, running the job and answering the phone at the same time, so the software has to do the follow-up without being asked. Phanz is $98 a month for the DIY plan, which is usually less than a single missed enquiry.
Do remodelers need a different CRM than builders?
The workflow is the same but the timeline is shorter and the volume is higher. Remodelers send more estimates, lose more of them to silence, and win a lot of work from past clients. So follow-up sequences and a past-customer list matter more to a remodeler than they do to a custom builder running four jobs a year.
Can subcontractors use a construction CRM?
Yes. When your work comes from a handful of builders and GCs, the CRM tracks who sends you what, which bids are still open, and which relationships have gone quiet. A sub who notices that a regular builder has not called in two months can do something about it.
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Stop Losing Bids to Silence
If you are sitting on open estimates nobody has followed up, put them somewhere that chases them for you. Missed call text back, automatic bid follow-up, review requests and deposit links on one platform.
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