I’m hoping that someone can help us to use Zoho CRM a little more effectively.

We are a small, home insurance broker and been using the CRM for a while, to good effect – but I’m sure there are features that we could be taking advantage of, to achieve much more than we currently do.

In simple terms, we use the Zoho CRM “Contacts” module to record details of each of our 900+ customers (private individuals) and their homes, including the risk details that we need to know in order to research quotes and arrange cover. These are all annual policy contracts and we research the options for our clients, each year, at the anniversary (renewal). We use the mail merge feature for client correspondence and pulling data out data to email to our 20+ insurers, to compare quotes.

We have also created fields for recording policy premium, payment date, payment method and commission etc. These are updated (i.e. replaced, each year) Finally, we use the notes section to record the premium history, year by year.

The problem with this method is being able to run reports / gauge historic trends or variations in premium paid and income to us (i.e. premium; income increase / decrease).

In addition, as of a year ago, we now take payment from some customers, depending on how they wish to pay and / or the insurer that we are arranging cover with. Currently, for any client monies we handle, we are using a spreadsheet to record the amount received, the proportion of this due to the insurer and the proportion (commission and/or fee) due to us – which is to be paid to the company current account. Again, it would be preferable to be able to record and reconcile this within the CRM, if indeed that is possible. We can’t just add new number fields as we’re maxed out on these.

I’d really appreciate any advice on how we can maximise the use of the CRM. Please ask if you want any further clarification on how our business model works.