Hello, this is Matsubara, CRM Evangelist.

"We don't have real-time information on what our agencies are selling."

"Every time the agency representative changes, the relationship starts all over again."

"The headquarters thinks it's managing the agencies, but in reality, the agencies are the ones causing trouble for the headquarters."

These are challenges that companies with agency networks commonly face.
The difficulty in managing agencies lies in the fact that their structure differs from that of typical customer management.
The agency is both a "customer" and a "sales partner."
Managing these dual relationships within a single CRM system is crucial to the overall performance of the agency network.

This article explains the specific design of an agency management system using EMOROCO CRM Lite.

The structure of agency management—organizing the three-tiered relationship

Customer management in the agency business has a "three-tiered structure."

In EMOROCO CRM Lite's agency management, these three layers are designed as independent records and linked to each other.

Two types of relationships that headquarters should manage:

• Headquarters ↔ Agency RelationshipTrust relationship with agencies, sales, challenges, emotional temperature
• Agency ↔ End-user relationship: The relationship with customers that agencies handle (visualization and support)

Designing these two types separately is the core of agency management.

Field Design – Two Records Specialized for Agent Management

Record ①: Agency Record (Agency from the Head Office's Perspective)

Record ②: Agency End-User Record (Customer owned by the agency)

This record allows headquarters to see the end users managed by the agency.

Multi-tenant design – "Connecting while separating"

EMOROCO CRM Lite's greatest strength in agency management lies in its multi-tenant design.

Data protection between agencies: Even if agencies A and B use the same EMOROCO CRM Lite environment, they cannot see each other's customer data. Departmental and form-specific security roles guarantee this information separation.

Headquarters Cross-View: Headquarters tenants can grasp aggregated data from all agencies (sales, sentiment distribution, and churn risk). You can see "which agencies need attention this month" on a single screen.

Workflow Design – 7 Key Points for Agency Management

Workflow ①: Seasonal alert for agency representative transfers (highest priority)

The biggest risk in agency management is the reset of relationships due to the transfer of agency representatives.
To prevent situations where a new person in charge arrives and "there are no handover documents from the previous person in charge" or "the relationship has to be rebuilt from scratch," it is important to prepare the narrative in advance.

Workflow ②: Early alert for monthly sales decline

Workflow ③: Alert 2 months before contract renewal

Workflow ④: Proposing support to agencies with a "low" level of utilization

Workflow 5: End-user churn risk detection (via agency)

Workflow ⑥: Emergency follow-up for agencies with an emotional temperature of "cool" or lower.

Workflow 7: Onboarding support for new agencies

The first three months with a new agency determine the quality of the long-term relationship.
This automated onboarding workflow prevents situations where you might forget to follow up with a new agent.

Dashboard Design – The Screen Headquarters Managers Look at Weekly

① Agency Sentiment Temperature Distribution: The percentage of all agencies in the hot/warm/cool/cold categories and the month-on-month change. This allows you to see at a glance "how many agencies have seen their relationships cool down this month."

② Target Achievement Rate Ranking: A list of the target achievement rates for all agencies for the current month. This helps determine the priority of support for agencies with low achievement rates.

③ List of agencies nearing contract renewal: A list of agencies whose contracts will be renewed within the next two months, along with their current sentiment towards them.

④ Number of end-users with a high risk of cancellation (by agency): How many end-users with a high risk of cancellation are there for each agency? Identify agencies that require intervention from headquarters.

⑤ List of agencies with a "low" utilization level: A list of agencies that require support and their last contact date.

CRM 4.0 in Agency Management: From "Managed Agencies" to "Co-creating Partners"

The CRM 4.0 philosophy of "shifting from management to co-creation" remains unchanged even in agency management.

Viewing agents as "management targets to achieve sales targets" is a mindset that predates CRM 3.0.
The CRM 4.0 concept views agencies as "partners who work together to realize co-creation with end users."

This difference is reflected in the design.

CRM 3.0-style agency management: Only monthly sales and target achievement rates are managed. Agencies that do not meet targets are managed as "problem agencies."

CRM 4.0-style agency management: Record the emotional state and narrative of agency representatives. Anticipate and support the agency's current situation. Visualize the emotional state of the agency's end users, allowing headquarters to take action before the agency encounters problems.

Instead of managing the result that "agencies aren't selling," we anticipate "why they aren't selling" by analyzing emotional temperature and narrative, and then intervene—this is the practice of CRM 4.0 in agency management.

Transformation Story: How a Company Changed After Implementing CRM 4.0 for Agency Management

*This is a fictional story based on industry realities and implementation patterns from multiple companies.

This is a story about a business software vendor (20 employees, 35 distributors).

Challenges before implementation: 35 agencies were managed using Excel. Only monthly sales were recorded, but no one knew information such as "why a particular agency's sales declined" or "how the relationship with the agency changed after the person in charge changed."

Discoveries on the first day of implementation: After setting emotional temperature levels for all 35 companies, 43% (15 companies) were rated as "cool" or below. Several agencies that thought "it's OK because we're meeting our sales targets" actually had cool or cold emotional temperatures. We realized that agencies that were meeting sales targets but had strained relationships with headquarters posed the highest risk when it came time to renew their contracts.

Changes after 6 months:

The biggest change was the "retention rate after a change in the person in charge." Previously, every time the agency representative changed, it meant "having to rebuild the relationship from scratch again."
The narrative handover design allows new employees to start conversations by saying, "I've heard all about this from my predecessor."

Summary: Shifting agency management from "human memory" to "organizational design"

The essence of agency management is cultivating multiple relationships simultaneously.
The relationship between headquarters and agencies, and the relationship between agencies and end-users—as long as these dual relationships depend on the "memory and intuition of the person in charge," they will be reset every time the person in charge changes.

EMOROCO CRM Lite's multi-tenant design, emotional temperature, narrative, and workflow transform "agency management that relies on human memory" into "agency management that functions as an organizational design."

The more agents we have, the greater the compounding effect of this design becomes.

Learn more about agency management design here.
You can try it with a 30-day free trial.
Digitalization and AI Implementation Subsidy 2026 Compatible Tool Number: DL07-0022934
Product Info:https://www.emoroco.com/

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