Customized Zoho CRM for a Finance Firm - Case Study
Project Overview
**Client Overview: Real Estate Channel Partner**
Our client operates within the real estate sector as a dedicated channel partner, playing a crucial role in connecting property builders with potential home buyers. Rather than selling properties directly, the client collaborates with an extensive network of channel agents, also known as realtors, who refer leads and facilitate sales.
These real estate agents serve as the first point of contact for potential buyers, making the management of agent relationships and the handling of referred leads central to the client’s business success. By leveraging these partnerships, our client enhances the customer buying experience while driving sales for property builders.
**Key Features of Our Client’s Business Model:**
1. **Collaboration with Channel Agents**: Establishing strong relationships with realtors to maximize lead generation and sales opportunities.
2. **Lead Management**: Efficiently handling referred leads to ensure a seamless transition from potential inquiries to successful home purchases.
3. **Bridging the Gap**: Acting as a vital link between builders and buyers, the client simplifies the purchasing process and fosters trust in the real estate market.
4. **Enhancing Customer Experience**: Focusing on buyer needs and preferences by utilizing insights from channel agents.
By focusing on these strategies, our client not only boosts builders’ sales but also provides invaluable support and guidance to home buyers.
**Conclusion**: In today’s competitive real estate landscape, our client’s unique role as a channel partner is essential to driving sales and improving the home-buying experience. Their commitment to building strong relationships with real estate agents and managing leads effectively positions them for sustained success in the market.
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The client’s real estate sales process is complex, encompassing numerous tasks, including agent network management, lead follow-up, property tracking, customer data collection, document verification, contract drafting, and regulatory compliance. The client’s real estate sales process is complex and involves many tasks. These tasks include managing the agent network, following up with leads, tracking properties, collecting customer data, verifying documents, drafting contracts, and ensuring regulatory compliance.
With a growing network of agents, an expanding portfolio of properties, and an ever-increasing volume of leads, the client found themselves at a critical crossroads.They needed a CRM to handle the full lifecycle—from capturing a lead to converting it into a successful real estate deal.
To address this, the client chose to leverage Zoho CRM as the central operational hub. The goal was to streamline every step of their real estate process—from capturing and managing leads to tracking properties, collecting customer information, generating contracts, and engaging with customers throughout the sales journey.
Challenges Faced by Client
Before partnering with us, Bentham Locke already had a custom-built intake questionnaire outside of Zoho. However, it lacked the scalability and integration capabilities needed for a fully automated and self-managed legal intake process.
The client intake process, conducted manually, was inefficient and time-consuming.
There was no automated system in place to identify conflicts of interest. Additionally, document management and client communication were not well integrated.
- As a result, clients had limited visibility into the progress of their legal matters.
These challenges hindered operational efficiency and risked creating inconsistent experiences for clients, particularly at the crucial onboarding stage where first impressions matter most.
That’s when Bentham Locke approached bindbots to build custom app for their needs using Zoho Creator in a cost-effective way.
Our Solution:
That’s where bindbots stepped in — to reimagine and automate the client’s real estate operations using Zoho CRM.
Here is what we have delivered:
1. Centralized Agent and Lead Management
We have customized Zoho CRM to serve as the core system—storing and managing channel agents, leads, deals, and properties. Leads referred by agents were linked to their profiles using Related Lists, keeping referral data organized and traceable.
Sensitive customer details were only collected at later stages to respect privacy during the qualification process, ensuring trust and compliance.
This ensured that:
No lead slipped through the cracks.
Agents were credited for every referral.
Leads were properly qualified before deeper engagement.
2. Real Estate Property Management Module
YAALI developed a custom “Properties” module in Zoho CRM to manage an extensive range of property listings. This module captured:
Property type (e.g., villa, townhouse, apartment)
Lot numbers and availability status
Pricing breakdown (base price, taxes, and extras)
Builder/promoter contact details
Based on a potential buyer’s preferences—such as location, budget, and property type—the CRM intelligently filters and attaches a list of matching properties to the respective lead record. This ensures realtors or sales teams can respond to inquiries quickly and accurately with relevant property options.
3. Integrated Legal Client Intake App with Stripe for Credit Card Hold
Understanding that financial transactions are a critical component of legal services, we developed a custom widget using Zoho Creator, which integrates with Stripe payment processing. This widget allows the app to create secure credit card holds during the intake process, ensuring that payment authorization is obtained upfront while maintaining PCI compliance standards.
The payment integration is designed to be flexible, allowing attorneys to adjust the final charge amount based on the complexity of the case and the services required. This approach provides financial security for the firm while maintaining transparency with clients about potential costs.
4. Case Intake with Intelligent Conflict Checks in the Legal Intake App
Incorporated Intelligent Conflict Checking functionality in Legal Intake App to Take up unique cases
Perhaps the most sophisticated aspect of our solution was the automated conflict checking mechanism. The app conducts real-time conflict analysis by cross-referencing new client information against existing client data, identifying potential conflicts of interest before they become problems.
The conflict checking process operates on multiple levels:
Automated Primary Check: Upon the form & document submission of the client, the app immediately scans for obvious conflicts, such as opposing parties in similar cases or existing client relationships.
Manual Review Trigger: When automated checks identify potential issues, the app flags the case for manual review by qualified staff.
Disengagement Protocol: If conflicts are confirmed, the app automatically generates and sends disengagement emails to clients, maintaining professional standards while protecting the firm from ethical violations.
5. Attorney Dashboard and Case Management
For the internal team, we created a comprehensive attorney dashboard within the custom Zoho Creator app (Legal Intake App) that provides a centralized view of all queued intake questionnaires. This dashboard allows attorneys to:
Review client submissions in order of priority
Access all relevant documents and client information in one location
Counter-sign engagement letters electronically
Set credit card capture amounts based on case complexity
Create and manage support tickets in Zoho Desk for ongoing client communication
6. Build Custom Client Portal in Zoho Creator To Track Cases in Real-Time
Recognizing that clients value transparency and regular updates, we developed a customer portal that allows clients to track their case status in real-time. Through this Zoho Creator custom portal, clients can:
View the current status of their intake questionnaire
Access copies of signed documents
Review email conversations synced from Zoho Desk
Receive automated updates about case progress
Synchronized Communication: The portal integrates with Zoho Desk to display all email conversations related to their case, ensuring that clients have access to complete communication histories and can easily reference previous interactions with their attorneys.
Results and Impact:
Faster Onboarding: Clients were able to complete intake steps, including digital signatures and payment authorization, within minutes.
Operational Efficiency: The automation of conflict checks and engagement steps removed manual bottlenecks, allowing the team to focus on high-value legal work instead of administrative tasks.
Risk Reduction: Automated and manual conflict checks safeguarded the firm against potential legal conflicts, maintaining professional integrity.
Maintainability & Flexibility: The app was designed with user autonomy in mind. The client can now make updates to the intake process without developer reliance, ensuring long-term adaptability.
Compliance & Security: Using Zoho Sign and Stripe ensured that all legal and financial interactions were secure, traceable, and compliant with industry standards.
Conclusion:
With YAALI’s custom Zoho Creator solution, they’ve turned a cumbersome intake process into a client-centric, attorney-friendly experience. This comprehensive solution was not only efficient but also designed with scalability and user autonomy in mind.
From automated conflict checks to secure digital signatures and seamless collaboration between attorneys and clients, the solution empowered Bentham Locke to deliver high-quality legal services with speed, transparency, and professionalism.
By leveraging YAALI’s deep expertise in Zoho Creator and other Zoho Apps, Bentham Locke transformed its legal intake process into a modern, automated system that meets both client and attorney expectations.The firm is now better equipped to handle growing client demands without sacrificing efficiency or legal integrity.