CRM for Insurance Distributors (Part 1)

TLDR

I built a lightweight CRM on Airtable for a small insurance distributor. Two linked tables (Contacts ↔ Policies), searchable docs, renewal tracking, and a tap-to-WhatsApp/email reminder. Free up to ~1K rows; scales at ~$20/mo with built-in Zapier automations @ $25/mo

What am I trying to solve

After a book grows past ~100–200 clients, spreadsheets and ad-hoc notes stop being reliable for renewal tracking and client follow-ups. Insurance work depends on timely renewals and regular touchpoints, so the client needed a simple way to centralize contacts, policies, and documents and to surface upcoming renewals without digging through emails or PDFs. We built the Airtable dashboard to do exactly that: two linked tables (Contacts ↔ Policies), one place for KYC/policy files (including previous versions), a “days to renewal” field with views for the next 60/30/14/7 days, and a one-click WhatsApp draft that pulls in name, policy, due date, and last premium. The goal is practical—reduce manual tracking, standardize follow-ups, and avoid missed renewals—on an affordable, easy-to-maintain stack.

What it is

A small Airtable base with two interconnected tables:

• Contacts (Individuals/Corporate; status like Open Lead, Customer, Lost/Archived)

• Policies (Policy No., Vertical—Motor/Life/Health—Insurer, Broker, premium, start/end dates, status, links to documents)

Each contact can have multiple policies. Records include links to KYC and policy PDFs, plus previous policy docs for reference. Views power quick checks and a clean dashboard.

What the dashboard shows:

Contacts Overview

1. Filters for Status, Client Type, Vertical, and Creation Date.

2. High-level tiles for Active customers, Total customers, and Active policies across contacts.

3. Visuals for Contacts by Status and Contacts by Type.

4. A simple trend of Monthly new contacts added.

Policies Summary

1. Quick tiles for pending renewals by vertical (e.g., Motor/Health/Life).

2. Distribution charts: Policies by Vertical, Policies by Broker, Policies by Insurance Provider.

3. Drill-down table views for active records and all records.

Renewals & Worklist

1. A ‘Due in next 2 months’ list showing key fields: contact, vertical, email/phone, policy status, insurer, policy number, and broker.

2. Quick actions: tap-to-WhatsApp reminder, links to policy/KYC documents, and filters/sort for prioritization.

How it works (under the hood)

1. Data model:

   • Contacts → fields like Name, Client Type, Status, Email, Phone.

   • Policies → Policy No., Vertical, Insurer, Broker, Start/End Date, Premium (Last), Policy Status, Docs URL, Contact (link).

2. Linked records: Policies link to a Contact. Rollups let you see total active policies per client and show previous policy docs.

3. Renewal math: A formula such as DATETIME_DIFF({End Date}, TODAY(), 'days') → Days to renewal views filter ≤ 60 days to create the “Due in next 2 months” list.

4. Tap-to-WhatsApp: Uses Msg91 to link and automate Whatsapp reminders

5. Ecosystem: Airtable’s inbuilt automations + native support for Zapier/Make keeps it cheap and flexible.

   
   

What it costs (intentionally lean)

1. Airtable’s free tier comfortably handles the first ~1K rows; beyond that it’s roughly $20/mo. That covers the jump from a small scrappy investment to professional software with automations, attachments, and permissions—without a CRM migration.

Why this helps a small distributor

1. Faster renewals = long term revenue. The dashboard shows what matters this week; one tap starts the conversation.

2. Less hunting, more doing. Linked records + doc links mean everything is one click away.

3. Grows with you. Start free. No vendor lock-in, no technical expertise/learning curve required.

Next up, we will cover some basic automation features....

To be continued....