Today, customer (across the globe) has more concerns about the service in terms of quality & speed, be it at a retail shop, a bank, or even at his insurance company. Digitization has enabled Insurance providers to onboard & serve customers beyond Geographies, during the entire Customer Journey. To achieve this the Insurance industry is adopting the latest technologies. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is a key point in the proposed Digital Transformation to ensure a superior customer experience across all touchpoints. Effective CRM systems are designed to connect the entire Insurance echo system right from the Customer, Broker & Insurance Industry. Secondly, it also optimizes the service & operational cost and extends better features to create the “WOW” factor at the customer end.
With the increasing penetration of Digitization and supporting enforcement situations like the recent pandemic, customers across all ages, regions, professions are switching and preferring the digital way of communication. As this volume intensifies, the service providers on the other end have to be equipped with tools such as CRM to cater to these volumes effectively. Especially, Insurance Industry which has to service high customer volumes is sensing the need for a CRM, due to its manifold capabilities.
Manifold Capabilities of CRM for Insurance Industry
The Insurance system has key external entities such as Prospects, Customers, Agents, Brokers, and equally back-office entities such as Claims dept., underwriters, Payments, Back-office, etc. All these entities are bound to be or servicing for end Customers.
Right from onboarding prospects, CRM can empower the entire journey with its key inbuilt features. The Onboarding process comprises the activities right from lead generation.
Lead Generation & Nurturing
Better utilization of the prospect data gathered from various campaigns, events, and seminars by built-in email campaign tool. The response to the email in terms of Receipt/Opened/ Read can be captured to make the campaign more effective.
The insurance industry is highly competitive. A little delay / unfair response may result in losing the customer. CRM systems are tuned to nurture these leads effectively by automating & tracking the communication and initiating follow-up actions as and when required. In a distributed environment, CRM also facilitates assigning of relationship managers to HNI prospects.
Prospects demand instant and reliable response which can be initiated from the CRM itself by email/social-media plug-ins. This data triggers vital dashboards for the management which are inbuilt in CRM. The dashboard depicts the spectrum of leads and our response infrastructure so that Management can take necessary actions for a better success rate.
Customer / Agent Onboarding
Once the prospects agree to go for insurance, the next experience has to be instant & smooth. CRM systems can integrate with KYC/Video-KYC systems for quick and reliable onboarding. Relevant API integration can download customer details from governing authorities to avoid Form filling and also nullify typo errors while creating master records. CRM systems also capture the customer data as his preferences of service expectations, preferred language, interaction timings, plans, etc. This leads to more personalized service which every customer would love to have.
The insurance echo system also has a key element i.e., Insurance broker/agent (could be an individual or an entity). Since these are the soldiers on the battleground, it is imperative to extend all possible benefits to them from a single point, i.e., a CRM system. Agent induction training and getting him ready for the sales can be integrated as ‘Agent Journey’ by the CRM.
Right from lead registration, assignment, to tracking customer journey even in terms of cross-selling, upselling opportunities can be well managed by the CRM tool which would be a great assistance for the Agent/Broker force. The customer loves personalized service and always gets inclined for the same. CRM systems can help to enhance the further relationship with the customer by extending the insurance to other family members, the cross-selling attempt.
CRM extends multiple benefits for the Insurance Industry
1. Cost-Effective & quick ROI
Every procurement asks for ROI. Seeing the benefits of the CRM, the Insurance industry feels the CRM is the right choice for investments due to its tangible business benefits. Customer Experience is the Primary Key for the business now and the CRM is extended to all customer touch-points with various features to create a WOW factor, as mentioned earlier.
2. Customer satisfaction & loyalty
Efficiently dealing with all the customers and providing them with what they need increases customer satisfaction. Every satisfied customer is more effective than the Salesperson. The result is a new customer which gets further impressed by your CRM features. This triggers indirect business growth across the products, regions & families.
3. Data Utilization Better
The CRM system captures huge customer Data and Data is new Oil. This data can offer excellent insights and CRMs enabled by AI/ML has built-in algorithms that predict the probable sales pipeline. This proactive prospecting has higher success rates at lesser costs.
AI/ML also empowers decision dashboards for higher management based on this data. These dashboards are business indicators and drivers for the future roadmap.
To Conclude
The deployment of CRM can further enhance the Customer Experience of both internal & external customers. As the CRM system is pure ‘Customer Focused’, the more it is effective, the higher is the business results and customer satisfaction.
Insurance industries should focus on the full adoption of CRM to ripe its benefits. Again the pillars for success are People, Process & Technology. CRM offers structured processes & the latest technology. Enforcing users to use CRM and training them accordingly completes the circle.
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Global iTS is a leading Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP and CRM Partner, headquartered in the UK. With 300+ clients, successfully proven implementations, an excellent support system by our experienced domain specialist, and a good track record of customer retention. Also, it has a strong foothold and customer base across other GCC countries (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, UAE, and Qatar).
Global iTS is mainly into the specialized requirements in Financial Services and Insurance sectors focusing on Digital Transformation journey in Retail Banking, Commercial Banking, Insurance Providers, Private Equity, and Investment Banking by bringing Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, and Robotic Process Automation technologies and enhanced their productivity and profitability. We bring in over 15 years of international expertise to digitally transform any aspect of a client’s business.