Topics:

  • What is Copper
  • Copper features and pricing
  • Copper reviews
  • Copper customer service
  • What is Thryv
  • Thryv pricing and features
  • Thryv reviews
  • Thryv customer service
  • Copper versus Thryv

When you’re running a business, you’re thinking about what’s best for the company’s longevity. That includes building enduring business relationships to retain customers. Your customer relationship management (CRM) software makes that possible.

The key is finding a CRM that manages the day-to-day business operations. This lets you get back to doing what you love — serving your customers.

But how do you know which software platform to choose? Which one will make it easy for you to chat, email or text with your customers; create customized offers; follow up with online scheduling and reminders; send estimates, invoices and receipts; and request and monitor online reviews in real-time?

Does Copper CRM do all that for you? To help you weigh benefits and costs, we’ve gathered details about two popular small business software platforms, Thryv and Copper.

What Is Copper

Copper is known for its Google Workspace integration, which allows small business owners to work directly from their inboxes. Copper’s CRM seamlessly integrates with Google’s Gmail, Calendar and Drive. That means no switching tabs to add leads, track email conversations or manage marketing or sales tasks.

Copper’s CRM claims to help users never drop an opportunity, as their software provides “perfect visibility” into all activities occurring across all teams to close deals. This happens with the help of its visual sales pipelines and automated follow-ups.

Copper only offers email follow-ups and doesn’t include the option to text as well, like Thryv does.

While Copper can keep customers moving through your sales pipeline, it lacks a complete in-software experience or payment processing solution, both of which help make the sales close easier.

COPPER FEATURES

Sales Force Automation

Copper prides itself on its Google Workspace integration, which takes away a great deal of manual data entry. Leads, prospects and customers are automatically synced with Copper.

Copper’s Google Workspace integration also means its users can capture new leads’ details and track their engagement within the business owner’s email inbox. Copper users can store and retrieve information associated with customer contacts and accounts, as well as track company-wide communication.

The drag-and-drop pipelines make it easy to see where leads are in your sales funnel, easily move those opportunities along or flag those who have been stagnant too long. This is a helpful feature for Copper users who don’t have the highest-tier plan; contacts are capped on Copper’s Basic and Business plans.

With Copper, users can track stages, values, and probabilities of closing a deal or sale. Sales pipelines can be managed by individual sales rep, team, region or company-wide.

When it comes to managing daily schedules and priorities, users can assign due dates and integrate them into calendars. This helps business owners track progress against quotas and make adjustments as needed.

Marketing Automation

If you’re looking to save time writing repetitive emails for marketing and customer engagement purposes, Copper offers email templates, bulk email distribution and email open tracking. But these are only available to users who sign up for their two highest-tier memberships.

Also available are social media integration, subscriber list management, sign-up forms, success rate reports, A/B testing and email auto responses. Those looking for automated nurture campaigns and follow-up communications need to purchase the costliest package.

Reporting & Analytics

Copper offers ready-to-go templates for sales reporting. Reports can be scheduled and sent to stakeholders and team members whether they’re Copper members or not. Copper’s Pipeline Reporting allows users to see where their open opportunities are. Their lead process typically involves steps such as Lead Generation, Customer Inquiry, Inquiry Capture, Lead Filtering, Lead Grading, Lead Distribution and Lead Qualification.

COPPER PRICING

Copper offers three membership tiers: Basic, Professional and Business.

The Basic plan starts at $29 per user, per month. It includes the Google Workspace integration but has a three-seat limit and a cap of 2,500 contacts for leads and clients.

Those looking to do more can opt for Copper’s most popular plan, Professional. It begins at $69 per month, per user and offers full CRM functionality including workflow automation. This plan has no seat maximum but has a cap of 15,000 contact slots for leads and clients

The highest tier, Business, is listed at $129 per user, per month and includes unlimited contacts, marketing tools and customization. This is the only monthly membership that requires an annual commitment.

COPPER REVIEWS: What customers* are saying

Pros: Easy to use. Great for task sharing and tracking progress,

Cons: No ability to accept payment. Cannot message contacts within Copper. Having to leave the platform for tasks is a time waste.

“It would be fantastic to charge through Copper and see the money; now, when individuals make payments, I have to manually add value and update the pipeline. I’d want a Copper inbox as well. When I get a lead on Gmail, I add it to Copper. I’d want to be able to evaluate new messages in Copper exclusively from Copper leads because they are the ones that matter the most to me.” —Dennis M. Business Developer; Verified current user; G2 review 4/11/2022

COPPER CUSTOMER SERVICE

Copper claims to provide a convenient way for customers to get answers to inquiries, post-service issues and access other information through their guides, eBooks, knowledge base, blog, webinars and case studies.

But it appears that when clients want hands-on help from their customer support team, Copper is missing the mark.

One user, Beth H, said they disliked how customer service had been trained. It’s hard to understand whether they’re talking to a bot or a human because the interaction is impersonal and dry.

“Working with humans is THE thing most customers seek, [I] understand the use of bots, but when a human shows up please allow them to be human and show some personality, please!”

What Is Thryv

For small business owners who want one platform to manage all their business’s day-to-day activities, such as customer communication and generating online reviews, Thryv is the answer. Thryv is the end-to-end customer experience platform that ties together nearly all business activities.

Organize your customer database, send bulk emails, use text communication and manage all aspects of a job — from initial outreach, ongoing communication, estimates, invoices, payments, receipts, follow-ups, reminders, online scheduling convenience and so much more.

It’s also a robust marketing tool. Thryv supplies email and text templates as well as a library of social media posts paired with a social media posting platform. That means users never have to leave their Thryv dashboard to build their marketing messages.

Thryv’s powerful follow-up tools also help you request and manage online reviews from clients so you can protect your online reputation. The software regularly analyzes how your website and social media efforts perform. At the same time, Thryv assesses your online review rankings and engagement with clients who provide reviews.

Thryv’s ever-evolving App Market integrates seamlessly with several popular business-operating programs, like Quickbooks, Jotform, Yext, Constant Contact, Indeed, Mailchimp, Shopify, Typeform, Zoom, ShareAble for Hires and even more to come soon, such as Gmail and Clover.

THRYV FEATURES

As a full, end-to-end platform, Thryv helps businesses:

  • Get the Job by improving online presence, building and maintaining reviews, expanding social media audiences, setting online appointments, creating and delivering estimates and allowing form fills.
  • Manage the Job by maintaining a real-time calendar for all staff members, collecting and storing online documents, creating and delivering estimates, allowing a variety of payment methods.
  • Get Credit with marketing automation such as social posting, text and email campaigns and requesting reviews, as well as sending promotions and other messaging customized for the right audience at the right time.

Robust CRM

A centralized CRM system provides the foundation for Thryv’s software platform. Thryv is one dashboard that includes CRM, marketing, sales, payments, service, data syncing and so much more. Our users can manage, message and market to their customers all in one software.

Thryv makes it easy to stay organized so you never miss a message or appointment. Customer information is at your fingertips. Client cards can be organized with identifiable information like services received, date of last service, upcoming appointments, payments, conversations and even uploaded documents.

Thryv’s CRM is verticalized — that means the software uses language and displays terms specific to your industry. Recent enhancements to the CRM platform help users organize multiple jobs, patients, cases and more under a single contact.

Online Scheduling

Customers want to schedule appointments on their own time. Thryv makes it easy by offering online scheduling irrespective of package. Free yourself and your staff from time-consuming call-ins, text messages and emails back and forth.

With Thryv, multiple staff accounts can be synced. You’ll be able to manage your team’s schedule and book appointments through the Thryv dashboard.

And as a sure way to build customer loyalty, you also can offer packages for repeat business, such as regular maintenance or classes.

Sales & Payments

Thryv users can create customized estimates, invoices and receipts all from the dashboard. You also can get a clear look at any outstanding invoices, without adding on the cost of extra integrations.

Unlike Copper, which has no payment processing capability, Thryv allows customers to take their pick from several payment methods: credit, debit, ThryvPay, PayPal, Braintree, Venmo, Square, Stripe, Apple Pay and Google Pay.

ThryvPay is designed specifically for service-based businesses that want to provide contactless payment options and schedule recurring payments. It offers competitive flat-rate fees on credit card transactions, as well as an option for budget-friendly ACH payment processing.

Because ThryvPay is integrated with Plaid, businesses know in real-time if funds are available — key in avoiding bounced checks. ThryvPay also offers a pay-by-SMS text message option. This allows customers to pay from their mobile devices, making it easier for you to get paid on time.

ThryvPay is also available as a stand-alone app that any business can download for free.

Communication

A centralized inbox means Thryv users can manage every client conversation and respond immediately, whether over email or text. Or you can assign staff members to manage specific correspondence. Thryv’s centralized inbox also offers the ability to receive messages via webchat, Facebook, Instagram and more.

Marketing & Social Media

Thryv users can create, customize and schedule marketing campaigns. It’s an effective way to update customers on what’s new and headed their way. You can send these campaigns in bulk at one time. Or you can automatically schedule and send them to customers after a specific milestone or special event.

With tagging capabilities, Thryv users can easily automate emails or texts to alert customers it’s time to schedule their next appointment or if an appointment is approaching.

Users can also tap into Thryv’s email and text templates, as well as the library of social media posts to use on their various social media pages. These customizable posts make a steady social presence a breeze.

THRYV PRICING

Although Thryv’s policy is to customize pricing based on each individual business, we can assure you Thryv works hard to stay more affordable than Copper. Copper’s costs seem low at first, but that’s an illusion. You aren’t the only person running your business, but Copper’s plans are per person per month.

As a result, even the smallest five-person team will be spending $345 each month for Copper’s second-tier plan. Not to mention users still can’t accept payment, communicate with customers in-app or manage and request reviews. These are all features Thryv includes, regardless of plan.

THRYV REVIEWS: What customers* are saying

“As a small business owner where every dollar and hour of the day matters, it’s nice to feel like you have a partner and are not being treated as just another customer.” — Bill B; Verified current user; G2 review; 4/7/2022

Pros. Excellent billing and payment processing; easy to navigate; user-friendly; ongoing communications and personable 24/7 support team; central location for everything; multiple services in one platform; allow you to compete with larger companies; the Thryv team considers all feedback.

Cons. There’s a lot to learn, but support is always available — it’s worth the time and effort to educate yourself on how to fully use the software.

THRYV CUSTOMER SERVICE

The key to Thryv’s customer service is it’s free, unlimited and available 24/7. If you’d like to use the chat to do a quick fix, you can. If you have a question but aren’t in a rush, there’s an email option.

For those moments when you need help quickly, the support line is open and ready. In Thryv’s online reviews, customers continuously point out our support is a game-changing benefit that sets Thryv apart from the rest.

Thryv also offers a dashboard button that takes users to a feedback form. There, you can request new features as well as vote on those currently under consideration.

Free online resources include educational guides and blogs, customer testimonials and how-to videos. Plus, Thryv users have access to a robust knowledge center with step-by-step instructions and feature updates.

Thryv provides video training and one-on-one demos that address each business’s individual needs, from improving customer communication to getting more organized to generating more online reviews. When conducting demos, Thryv takes a no-pressure “information session” approach, so you can learn without being pressured to buy.

Copper vs Thryv

There’s no denying these powerful platforms help businesses stay organized and streamline workflows. However, Thryv has specifically tailored its features and pricing for small- and medium-sized businesses. Meanwhile, Copper seemingly takes advantage of small businesses as they grow; the pricing structure reflects that.

The main difference is that every Thryv package offers access to core features for managing sales, marketing, scheduling, payments and more. But with Copper, users must purchase costlier plans to gain better functionality — and they’ll still never get the beneficial features Thryv offers at every price point.

Thryv says it will help small businesses get the job, manage the job and get credit. Copper offers only one of those three: managing the job.