The situation
A brokerage drowning in spreadsheets and missed renewals
The business in this scenario — a UK-based insurance brokerage with 22 staff and a £3.4M annual premium book — was managing their entire operation across seven separate Excel files. Leads came in through email, phone, and a web form, each logged manually by a different team member. Policy renewal reminders were calendar entries. Nothing talked to anything else.
When we first audited their workflow, the operations manager estimated the team spent 14 hours a week on data entry alone. Worse, duplicate records were causing two salespeople to call the same lead on the same day — an embarrassment they'd experienced more than once with high-value prospects.
Core challenges
Four distinct problems compounding each other
Lead fragmentation
Leads arrived via 4 channels and were entered manually into separate spreadsheets by whoever picked up the phone. No single source of truth existed.
Missed policy renewals
Renewals were tracked via calendar reminders. If a staff member was off sick, renewals fell through the cracks — the team estimated losing £60K–£80K in annual premium to avoidable churn.
Zero reporting visibility
Directors had no real-time view of pipeline value, conversion rates, or team performance. Monthly reports took a full afternoon to compile manually.
Duplicate outreach
Without a shared system, two reps regularly contacted the same lead. One enterprise prospect complained, and the relationship was nearly lost.
Our approach
A structured 6-phase SEO programme
We built a phased plan that addressed technical foundations first, then content, then authority — in that order. Skipping the technical audit would have wasted the content investment.
1
Discovery and workflow mapping
Spent two weeks interviewing every team role — sales, renewals, finance, and management. Mapped 34 distinct workflow steps before writing a single line of code. This prevented scope creep and ensured the system matched real behaviour.
Stakeholder interviewsWorkflow documentationData model designScope sign-off
2
Core CRM build — lead and policy management
Built a unified lead record linking contact details, source, assigned rep, communication history, quotes, and policy documents. Every status change is timestamped and auditable. Duplicate detection runs on email and phone number at point of entry.
Laravel 10MySQLRole-based accessDuplicate detection
3
Automated renewal engine
Built a renewal pipeline that flags policies 90, 60, and 30 days before expiry — automatically assigning a task to the responsible rep and sending a branded email sequence to the client. Directors see an aggregate renewal dashboard updated in real time.
Renewal pipelineTask auto-assignmentEmail sequencesDirector dashboard
4
WhatsApp and email notifications
Integrated WhatsApp Business API for instant lead alerts to reps' phones. New web form submissions trigger a WhatsApp message within 90 seconds. Email automation handles follow-up sequences and renewal communications via Mailgun.
WhatsApp Business APIMailgun integrationAutomated sequencesInstant lead alerts
5
Payment integration and reporting
Stripe integration for premium collection with automatic receipts. Built 14 management reports covering pipeline value, rep performance, source attribution, conversion rates, and renewal retention — all exportable to PDF and Excel.
Stripe payments14 custom reportsPDF exportSource attribution
6
Training and handover
Ran four structured training sessions across all staff levels. Produced a 48-page internal user guide. Provided 30-day post-launch support with a dedicated WhatsApp group for bug reports and questions.
4 training sessions48-page user guide30-day supportVideo walkthroughs
What we would measure
How success would be judged
We agree a baseline in the first week and report against it every month. We don't promise figures before we have seen your data.
Time to first response
How quickly a new lead is contacted, from form submission to first call.
Duplicate records
Duplicates created per month. The system should prevent them, not clean them up later.
Renewal follow-up
Share of renewals contacted on time by automated reminder.
Adoption
Share of the team working in the CRM rather than in side spreadsheets.
