A CRM that actually gets used
The best CRM is the one your team will open every day. For most shops, that's not the famous one.
Pick the simplest tool that fits the trade
Trade-specific tools (ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber, JobTread) beat generic CRMs because they fit how shops actually work. The fancier the CRM, the more it goes unused.
Three fields beat thirty
Name, phone, last-contact date, next-action date. That's the minimum that drives revenue. Everything past that is for managers, not the work.
Block 15 minutes a day for follow-up
The CRM doesn't make calls. You do. Same time every day, same shortlist, same one-line follow-up. That habit beats every feature.
Take your version of this question further
This is one operator-tested angle on the question. Your shop, your size, your trade, and your team change the answer. Ask your specific version inside Ask a Shop Owner to get a response grounded in how owners like you actually handled it.