Creating a basic CRM in Airtable

[Ben_Simai]

Hi Airtable community,

Looking for some help with setting up a basic CRM.
Context:

• This company runs multiple programs.
• 1 person can sign up to multiple programs
• Want to create 2 tables:
• Table 1: Sign-up forms: All sign-up form data sits here, there will be multiple rows per person in this table.
• Table 2: CRM: This table has one row per person. Each row/record/person links to that person’s forms in the sign-up form table.

I have created a quick Loom video to explain

[ScottWorld]

Keep your form as-is (where people can freeform type their own email address), but you’ll need to add a new linked record field in your CRM table that links to the form table.

Then, you would just need to create an automation that takes the newly-submitted form record, searches for that particular email address in the CRM table, and then adds the newly-submitted form record to the linked record field in the CRM table.

(You can add onto the contents of an existing linked record field by inserting the existing linked record field first, then typing a comma, then inserting the new field’s value.)

[kuovonne]

ScottWorld:

then adds the newly-submitted form record to the linked record field in the CRM table.

(You can add onto the contents of an existing linked record field by inserting the existing linked record field first, then typing a comma, then inserting the new field’s value.)

Or create the link from the other direction and there is no need to mess with the comma or check for existing values.

[ScottWorld]

Oh, right! Duh! Much better! Much simpler. My brain is clearly too tired to think properly tonight! :crazy_face:

[Ben_Simai]

Hi Kuovonne,
Thanks for taking a look!
Could you please explain what you mean by “create the link from the other direction”?

[kuovonne]

Ben_Simai:

Could you please explain what you mean by “create the link from the other direction”?

Scott originally suggested updating the linked record field of the record that was found.

Instead, update the linked record field of the original newly-created record with the record ID of the found record. Because this new record starts with no linked records you only need to update it with the found record and don’t have to mess with adding on to an existing list. Airtable will take care of creating the back link in the other table for you.

[ScottWorld]

In essence, just copy and paste the email address into the linked record field in the form table. This assumes that “email address” remains the primary field of the CRM table.

[Ben_Simai · Accepted solution]

Thanks @kuovonne & @ScottWorld for your help, much appreciated!
I think I understood what you both suggested and have made a quick Loom video explaining the solution in case anyone else runs into this issue :slightly_smiling_face:

[Daniel_C]

If you company triggers emails or depends on emails as the primary mode of communication, TaskRobin can help you save all these communications to Airtable and also automatically create, manage and track contacts in a CRM table.

All saved emails are linked to contacts in the CRM table and you can also see when the first and last time a particular person was contacted via email.