Custom CRM Development in Thailand

What a CRM is

A CRM (Customer Relationship Management system) keeps every customer and every interaction in one place, from the moment someone fills in a form on your website or messages your LINE Official Account, through quotation, closing and delivery, to the day they come back for service or a repeat order.

In practical terms, a CRM answers three questions management asks every week:

• How many customers are we talking to right now, at what stage, and what are they worth?
• Who needs to follow up with whom, and when?
• What has this customer bought before, what problems have they had, and who looks after them?

If today those answers are spread across several Excel files, LINE groups and the memory of individual salespeople, that is where a CRM helps.

Southern Whale builds custom CRM systems designed around your sales process rather than forcing your team to change how they work to fit software. Sometimes we build from scratch; sometimes we extend an existing open-source platform. We choose whichever is more cost-effective for you.

Who it’s for

• B2B sellers such as distributors, building-material suppliers and machinery companies, where deals take several quotation rounds over weeks or months
• Contract manufacturers that need to track samples sent and customer responses
• Resorts, hotels and tour operators in Southern Thailand handling group, event and wedding enquiries through LINE and email
• Clinics that follow up patients after treatment and track purchased courses
• Installation and maintenance businesses (air-conditioning, solar, water systems) with both sales and after-sales service
• Associations and organisations managing members, donors or partners

If you have a few dozen customers, one-off sales and the owner answers every chat, a full CRM may not be necessary yet. A well-configured LINE OA and a shared spreadsheet may be enough. We say that to people who ask.

Signs you need one

• Counting this month’s leads means asking several people to check several places
• A returning customer messages in and a new staff member has no idea what was discussed before
• Quotations go out and nobody follows up
• Each salesperson keeps customers on their own phone
• You can’t forecast next month’s sales because you don’t know which deals are close
• After-sales issues have no owner
• You run ads but can’t tell which campaign brought customers who actually bought

Modules we build

You don’t need everything at once. We recommend starting with whatever hurts most.

Custom vs off-the-shelf

We don’t think custom is always better. Many SaaS CRMs are excellent and are the better choice for some businesses.

Choose SaaS if your sales team is small, your process is standard, you need few integrations and you want to start this week.

Choose custom if your process has specific rules, most customers come through LINE, you need ERP or stock integration, or per-user fees have grown larger than owning the system.

There is a third option: keep a SaaS CRM as the core and have us build only the missing connectors, such as LINE chat sync. For companies where SaaS already covers most needs, this is often the best value.

Our process

1. Discovery. We sit with the owner, sales lead and the people who actually answer chats, and map the journey from first contact to after-sales. Output: a process map, a prioritised module list and a phase-one scope.
2. Prototype. A clickable prototype the sales team tries with real scenarios, refined until they say it works.
3. Phased rollout. Phase one is usually lead capture and the pipeline, because it shows value fastest. Quotations, service tickets and integrations follow.
4. Training. Role-based training with Thai and English user guides and short videos.
5. Handover. Source code, system documentation and server accounts in your company’s name, with a support period afterwards. Continue with us on a maintenance plan or hand over to another team.

Integrations

• Website: contact, quotation and booking forms post straight into the CRM with UTM source data
• LINE OA: LINE Messaging API for chats into the customer timeline, tags and follow-up messages; LINE Login to link member accounts
• Facebook: Lead Ads and page messages
• ERP and stock: product lists and prices for quotations, closed deals become sales orders. See Custom ERP Development
• Accounting software: customer and sales data to the program your accountant already uses, such as Express, FlowAccount or PEAK, via API or import files as each program supports
• Excel / Google Sheets: import and export for reports your team still runs the old way

Data migration

Years of customer data are valuable but rarely clean. We collect every source, merge duplicates, normalise phone numbers and emails, separate companies from contacts, map old fields to new ones, have your team review a sample, import, and count the result against the source. Some data, such as chat history in staff personal LINE accounts, cannot be imported automatically; we tell you up front what can and cannot move.

Security and PDPA

A CRM holds personal data directly, so it is designed for Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act from the start: role-based access, consent records with date and channel, support for access, correction, deletion and opt-out requests, an audit log of who changed or exported what, restricted bulk export, automatic backups and HTTPS. The system makes compliance easier, but your privacy policy and consent process remain the company’s responsibility; consult a PDPA specialist for legal advice.

Why Southern Whale

• We start from your process, not from a product we need to sell
• We understand both lead generation and systems. We also do SEO and websites, with 50+ sites delivered, so the CRM connects to your site and campaigns from day one
• We tell you when custom isn’t worth it
• You own it: code, data and server accounts in your name

Related services

• Custom ERP Development for stock, purchasing, production and accounting
• Custom Software Development for other internal systems
• System Design to plan your overall architecture before building

Free consultation on LINE

Tell us where your leads come from, how your team follows up and where things get stuck. We’ll suggest which module to start with, whether SaaS would do, or whether custom makes sense. Priced on real scope — message us on LINE for a free consultation first.

Message us on LINE @969dkzqz or email [email protected]

Frequently asked questions

What is a CRM?

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It keeps every customer and every interaction in one place, from the first enquiry through closing, delivery and after-sales service. Sales staff see which deal is at which stage and who needs a follow-up; management sees the pipeline of revenue coming in.

Should we use an off-the-shelf CRM or build a custom one?

If your sales process fits what a SaaS CRM already does, your team is small and you need few integrations, SaaS is usually cheaper and faster to start. Custom makes sense when your process has specific rules, you need deep LINE OA and ERP integration, or per-user fees keep growing. We will tell you honestly which fits in the first conversation.

Can the CRM connect to LINE OA?

Yes, through the LINE Messaging API. When a customer messages your LINE Official Account, the system creates or matches the contact, logs the chat to their timeline, and staff can tag them or move them into the pipeline. It must be the company's LINE OA, not staff personal LINE accounts.

What is the difference between CRM and ERP? Do we need both?

CRM handles customers and selling before an order exists. ERP handles the back office: stock, purchasing, production and accounting. Many companies start with CRM and connect ERP later, or build one system that covers both, depending on size and readiness.

Can you migrate customer data from Excel or our old program?

Yes. We clean the data first, merging duplicates, normalising phone numbers and separating company from contact names, and your team checks a sample before the real import. If something can't be exported from the old program, we tell you during discovery.

Does it work on mobile for field sales?

Yes. We build it as a mobile-friendly web app. Sales staff can look up customer history, log visits, attach photos and update deals on site without installing an app.

Where is customer data stored, and how secure is it?

On a server or cloud account your company owns. We set role-based permissions, keep an audit log, run automatic backups and design for Thailand's PDPA, including consent records and deletion requests.

Do we get the source code?

Yes. We hand over the source code, system documentation and user manuals. The data is yours and another team can maintain the system later.

How long does it take?

It depends on the number of modules and integrations. We recommend starting with the most-used modules, usually lead capture and the pipeline, so the team uses it early, then adding quotations, service tickets and accounting integration in later phases. Timelines for each phase are set out in the proposal.

How much does a custom CRM cost?

Priced on real scope — message us on LINE for a free consultation first. We'll look at your sales process, the modules you need and the systems to connect, then propose the most cost-effective scope.