One CRM for several brands or websites: how to keep them apart

When one owner runs several brands or websites

A CRM for multiple businesses has two jobs: it shows the owner the whole group, and it keeps each brand apart. A group can look like several small businesses on the outside and one business on the inside. The brands may share staff, suppliers or showrooms. They may also share a team that answers enquiries. Even when they do not, the owner usually wants to see the whole picture in one place.

At the same time, each brand needs to be kept apart. A customer of one brand should not receive messages with another brand's name, and a staff member who works for one brand should not need to see the others.

One system or one for each brand

There is no single right answer. Here is what each choice means in practice.

• One CRM for each brand: each brand is fully separate, which keeps things simple for staff of that brand. The owner has to open several systems to see the group, reports must be combined by hand, and every change has to be made more than once.
• One CRM for all brands: the owner sees the group in one place, a change can be made once and a shared team can work from one list. The system needs careful rules so that the brands stay apart.

What every lead must carry

In a shared system, two facts on each lead matter most: the website it came from and the brand it belongs to. If every lead carries both, everything else becomes possible: filtering, access rules, reports and the right reply under the right name.

Decide how these two fields are filled. A good way is to fill them automatically, by the form on each website, so that nobody has to choose the brand by hand and make a mistake.

Who sees what

Access by brand is the part that keeps the brands apart. A staff member of one brand logs in and sees only that brand's leads. The owner and any group manager can see all of them.

Write down the roles before you build: who sees one brand, who sees several, who sees everything, and who can change settings. It is much easier to plan this at the start than to add it later.

One shared inbox or one for each brand

If one small team answers for all brands, one shared inbox for new enquiries can work well. Each message should still show the brand clearly, so the person who replies uses the right name and the right wording.

If each brand has its own team, give each brand its own inbox. You can also mix the two: a shared inbox for the main websites and separate ones for the smaller brands.

Reports for one brand and across the group

Reports are where a shared system helps most. A brand manager needs to see how that brand is doing: enquiries by source, quotes sent, jobs won. The owner needs the same view for the group, and a way to compare brands.

Because each lead carries its website and brand, both views come from the same data. If you want to explore what this could look like for your group, you can read about one custom CRM for all your brands and how we plan it.

What we built

Here is a real project, described without client names.

• The business: A flooring group that runs five brand websites under one owner.
• The problem: It needed one place for every enquiry, without mixing the brands.
• What we built: One CRM that holds all five websites. Every lead carries the website and the brand it came from. New enquiries from the main websites go to one shared inbox.
• The result: A staff member of one brand logs in and sees only that brand's leads.

Points to settle before you start

• Which brands and websites will the system hold today, and which might be added later?
• How is the brand filled on each lead?
• Which roles need access to one brand, to several, or to all?
• Where do new enquiries go: one shared inbox or one for each brand?
• Which reports are for one brand, and which are for the group?