Quick Follow Up Boss Review
Overall Rating
4.7
Follow Up Boss is a stand-alone Real Estate CRM with automated follow-up capabilities. Stand-alone means it comes without a website.
It connects with websites, IDX systems, other lead generation platforms like BoomTown, CINC, Bold Leads, Ylopo, InboundREM, and 200+ additional integrations.
Overall, Follow Up Boss is a strong CRM in terms of ease-of-use and integrations, but the current pricing structure makes it the best option for teams with up to 3 members. Large teams of 30+ should avoid FUB.
Some alternatives have more features, although feature-heavy CRMs can be impractical.
Follow Up Boss Video Review
Follow Up Boss CRM Functions
- Manages leads and leads sources
- Automates follow-up using emails, texts, and a built-in dialer for phone follow-ups
- Allows team management by tracking activity, not only for team members but also for lead sources
- Tracks website activity and leads flow activity
- Tracks call, email, and text activity from the individual and from the system’s own automation
- Creates easy-to-read reports for all of these activities, including exportable versions of these reports.
CRM Dashboard
The below screenshots show the dashboard for the CRM. As you can see, it’s clean and simple, yet informative and detailed.
Now check out the lead sources page, which shares the clean interface.
Company and Leadership Information
Dan Corkill and Tom Markow founded Follow Up Boss in April 2011. Currently, Dan is the CEO, and the team was remotely even before Covid19.
Reviewing Follow Up Boss is almost boring. On Glass Door and rating platforms, including G2 and others, ALL the reviews are between 4.3 stars and 5 stars.
The closest thing I could find to a complaint after 2 hours of searching was (1) an employee who wanted more help and (2) a couple of customers who complained about a price increase when they released FOLLOW UP BOSS V.2. Since then, they lowered the price by $10.00 per user.
Don’t take my word for it! Here are some links to the review services I looked at.
Follow Up Boss Reviews
Helpful Positive Review
Steve S. provides a very balanced view on g2, which we think everyone will find helpful.
What do you like best about Follow Up Boss?
FollowUpBoss comes pre-built so that you can turn it on and you are ready to go, but it also can grow with your business. There is so much that you can customize and integrate with.Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
What do you dislike about Follow Up Boss?
The is a serious learning curve when getting adjusted to FUB. I can take some time getting used to it, but luckily, there are a lot of helpful resources like their private Facebook group.Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Helpful Negative Review
In my opinion, the few negative reviews online seem mostly hot-headed.
If you educate yourself on who Follow Up Boss is best for, rather than getting ALL of your info from the sales team, you should be able to make an easy decision.
Another g2 reviewer had this to say about FUB.
What do you dislike about Follow Up Boss?
Does not allow for custom salutations on mailing labels, No choice of alternate fonts / colours, or lablel styles. Their software is not sophisticated in this regard.
We wish our company had been fully informed before transferring our database, as this was an integral feature for us.
Features List (Including Some HUGE CONS)
Follow Up Boss has published their complete features list. This actually leads me to TWO of my heartfelt CONS about Follow Up Boss.
First, they list too many features on the assumption you already understand what they do.
They have demo videos available on their YouTube Channel and website. However, their external marketing/advertising video content is disorganized.
Second, if you are trying to learn about this system, you have to book a demo and cross your fingers you get a SUPER knowledgeable sales rep. By that, I mean someone that can explain (1) the Follow-Up Boss CRM features and (2) how they will benefit you.
However, my advanced walkthrough video above can provide you with a decent understanding of the Follow Up Boss features.
Follow Up Boss Pricing
When they updated their core offering, they raised and simplified their prices.
Originally Follow Up Boss (2011-2013) was $35 dollars a user. They did some upgrades and raised it to $50 per user (2015). Then they eliminated a pricing tier. After updating to Version 2, they raised prices (2017) and lowered them again (2019).
Here is their current pricing as of March 2021:
- GROW – $69 per user 1-5 users ($69-$345)
- PRO – $499 from 5-10 users
- PLATFORM – $1000 for 15-30 users
- Integrated Calling Add On – $39 per user (Included in some plans)
Pricing Sweet Spots
For 1-3 users, this real estate CRM is the best value for money by a million miles.
At the 3-10 users range, they are competitive on pricing. But they offer much better features than their competitors.
Some CRM website combos are close enough in price that you might feel the need to do a lot of research. (But I’ll save you the time…Follow Up Boss is definitely the better value).
Pricing Sour Spots
At the 15-30 user range, they are competing with Boomtown and CINC and KvCORE. In my opinion, they make a big mistake by pricing their system almost 100% the same.
They haven’t taken into account that ALL three of these competitors tend to get A LOT less expensive as the teams get larger. Accordingly, negotiated pricing for their competitor’s services can be as low as $15 dollars per user.
At a minimum, there should be an option for large team sizes to negotiate to somewhere between $15-20 per user. That would lock Follow Up Boss in as the “defacto” CRM for teams of 100-1500 in EVERY market. That’s where these guys should be.
The reality is that KvCORE and CINC currently dominate the large team, landscape due to aggressively negotiated CRM contracts.
Follow Up Boss Features
Cons
Let me save you some time. The cons of Follow Up Boss are (1) their external marketing/learning and (2) their pricing policies for large teams.
In terms of the product itself, every single feature set EXCEPT ONE is the best I have seen or reviewed. I cover this aspect best in the above video review, which is much more comprehensive than this written review.
Follow-Up Boss has two-way integration that tracks website visits and listing visit details. But some website CRMS combos (BoomTown, Sierra Interactive, Real Estate Webmasters) show how many times a visitor has looked at the SAME property in a slightly cleaner way.
This means a proactive agent could look through the system and discover a potential lead has clicked on the SAME property many times. Then the agent could manually send out a market report with a click of a button.
That’s exactly how the three companies I mentioned build their websites. However, I’ve made 4500+ calls to agents and brokers over 13 years, and I can think of two that MIGHT use that feature. So it’s not a huge deal.
Pros
Every other feature listed is a pro. Honestly, every other CRM focused on real estate LEAD GENERATION will be catching up to Follow Up Boss for the next few years.
For the details, watch my video, which walks you through every feature.
- Lead Import – Worth mentioning because Follow Up Boss has the most robust importing I have had the chance to review. This allows you to create custom fields during the import process. And that creates the best opportunity to keep all of your lead information intact.
- Learning Follow Up Boss – They shine ever so much here. It took me 30-40 minutes to feel like I understood how to use the system. They have 1-3 minute learning videos INSIDE the system. That makes it much easier to use than my previous top-rated CRM Bold Leads (who has been getting some disturbing reviews since the sale of the company in 2018). For comparison, I spent 8-10 hours learning the same for Sierra Interactive, KvCORE, and even longer for CINC.
- CRM – Track your leads activity on websites and lead generation portals. Track sales team contact efforts. Track your own sales efforts. A combined inbox so inbound communication does not get missed. Many more features. (See Video Review)
- Team Management – Assign leads by source, track by source, round-robin, lead pools, and custom combos are all available for lead distribution. You can also include lenders as part of your “team”. Then you can easily filter, assign, and track sources for those that have “lender partners”.
- Agent and Team Calling – You can make and record outbound calls from Follow Up Boss for an additional charge.
- Email – Robust email templates. Mass emails. Integration with Bomb Bomb. Like ALL real estate CRMs, emailing works better with stand-alone providers (as opposed to Website + CRM combos). You can always ask me about this in the comments section of this blog post.
- Text – You cannot currently mass text with Follow Up Boss. You can text as part of funnels and in the customer record.
- Funnels – Best in class. Follow Up Boss has a library of ready-made funnels complete with tasks reminding salespeople when to call. Some lead providers like Ylopo and InboundREM have custom funnels that plug right into Follow Up Voss because leads are NOT all created equally and should not be treated so.
- Tracking – Everything is tracked. Emails, Lead Sources, Contact attempts, and much much more. Watch my video!
- Training – Unlike CINC, KvCORE, Sierra Interactive, and almost every other robust system, service training is included for the Pro and Platform levels.
- Integrations – 200+. Every major and most minor reputable lead generators integrate with Follow Up Boss, including InboundREM.
CRMs that ACTUALLY compare to Follow Up Boss
I was shocked when I checked out Capterra and other review platforms. They were comparing companies like ZOHO, SalesForce, and Five Street to Follow Up Boss.
Simply put, that’s laughable. They probably hired a content writer who’s not really involved in real estate marketing and has zero boots-on-the-ground experience.
That’s one of the reasons I do these reviews. You could blow 10 hours of your time before realizing these SAAS services collectively suck for the average real estate brokerage.
Sometimes, they aren’t even CRMs but actual services that do the follow-up for you.
Below are the companies that almost hold a candle to Follow Up Boss. I’ve done reviews on 5 of the 6. You can click on the names to see my end-user reviews for all of these Website/CRM combos.
- CONTACTUALLY
- CINC
- BOOMTOWN
- BOLD LEADS
- SIERRA INTERACTIVE
- KvCORE
Choosing The Best CRM For You
The Follow Up Boss CRM is for agents and brokers who already own their own websites to access the same “ALL INCLUSIVE” features that those companies above offer as part of an all-in-one package.
In terms of CRMs alone, Follow Up Boss does a much better job than any of the companies on this list for so many reasons. But that DOES NOT mean it is the hands-down choice for you.
All agents and teams have unique circumstances in terms of working leads. For teams of all sizes, CRMs are increasingly important. Larger brokerages that have in-house technology resources will spend months or even years selecting CRMs.
I’ve never before reviewed a standalone CRM like Follow Up Boss. Despite the endless options, Follow Up Boss is the clear king of the castle.
If you think I can help more with your CRM questions, leave a comment or use the contact form below.
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11 Comments
What did you mean by this “Like ALL real estate CRMs, emailing works better with stand-alone providers (as opposed to Website + CRM combos). You can always ask me about this in the comments section of this blog post. “?
What I mean/meant is there is NO CRM that I have EVER looked at including Salesforce/Hubspot or any real estate-specific solution that works as well as email marketing solutions that FOCUS on email alone. Such as Robly or Bomb Bomb.
Your response here in the comments section was exactly what I was referring to when I said I would add in some comments that provided more detail to that section of the blog post.
Hey Robert! Do you have any opinions on Podio? Thanks buddy 🙂
Are you thinking of flipping? I don’t think it’s better or more intuitive than existing tools. It’s certainly NOT intuitive for real estate.
I use Follow Up Boss for my independent brokerage. As we’ve grown, several of my agents opted out of using it (and by extension, forgo company leads) after realizing they lack true autonomy for marketing to their own (uploaded) contacts the way they want. They have to ask me to allow changes to their settings. Of course I have no problem allowing this, but having to ask the administrator is a huge negative. FUB told me that they’ve heard similar complaints from other indies, but haven’t followed through on changing it. What other platforms among those you call out as “somewhat comparable” have that important feature for me to consider replacing it with? Thx in advance!
C.Austin If I understand the question correctly your looking for a CRM that will supply you with a “brokers” account filled with seats but allow each seat to make individual changes. While I am sure this exists I don’t readily know which of the CRMs I have reviewed have this specific capability. If the answer presents itself and I remember I will circle back around and add another comment.
Have you reviewed the Brivity platform yet? Would Brivity be a better alternative to FUB?
I have looked at Brivity. There team did a good job at Transaction integration. But overall I do NOT put it into the same category as Follow Up Boss.
I’ve looked at it. No review. A quick summary is that FUB is very much superior with the single exception of transaction management.
This was super helpful Robert!! Would FUB be a useful CRM for insurance (Life products) as well? What are your thoughts or any recommendations?
Jeff,
Should work fine but wouldn’t a insurace CRM be better?