Custom Insurance CRM Development: How to Build It Right in 2023

Introduction

The proper choice of a custom software development vendor plays a pivotal role in creating an effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system for the Insurance industry. Effective, in the context of CRM systems in this industry, means capable of giving an insurance business the ability to manage interactions with its clients, policyholders, and customers.

When choosing a software development company for the development of an insurance CRM, business leaders should evaluate the vendor’s industry expertise, discover the possible level of integration of the new CRM system with their existing solution, and, probably most importantly, determine the level of data security and compliance policies that the vendor can ensure.

Additionally, the other essential factors that you should consider while choosing a custom CRM development vendor are post-release support and employee training possibilities.

In this article, we will take a close look at the process of developing a CRM system, focus on its most important aspects.

Custom CRM Systems in the Insurance Industry

The Role of CRM Systems in Overcoming Insurance Industry Challenges

Why in the first place do Insurance companies need modern CRM systems? In 2023, with the global insurance market on the rise, companies face intense competition like never before. They are dealing with more complex regulatory environments, evolving and more sophisticated customer expectations, and the necessity to manage larger amounts of data and improve operational efficiency.

CRM systems are able to address and contribute to solving some of these challenges by improving the following areas in an insurance company:

Customer engagement

With the CRM’s functionality to centralize customer data, businesses will be able to understand their customers better, personalize their customer interactions, tailor their insurance products, and achieve better customer loyalty and retention.

Data management and analysis

Another critical use of obtained customer data is the ability to make data-driven decisions, identify trends, and develop more precise marketing strategies and campaigns.

Automated marketing campaigns

With a modern CRM system, insurance companies are able to manage leads more effectively and automate marketing campaigns, which streamlines sales processes and allows your marketers to focus on promising leads instead of routine tasks.

Regulatory compliance

CRM systems can be configured to capture and store up-to-date compliance data, monitor adherence to regulations, and generate reports for audits, which will reduce the risk of non-compliance and associated penalties.

Customer service

The collected information allows customer service agents to access relevant information and respond, and solve customer issues faster. You can also automate communication workflows to keep customers informed on claim status, policy updates, and renewal reminders.

Cross-selling and upselling

You will also be able to identify emerging cross-selling and upselling opportunities and suggest relevant coverage enhancements. If you want to learn about more ways upselling can be improved in Insurtech, please check out our article Unlocking Insurtech Revenue: The AI-Driven Guide to Up-selling in Insurance.

Claims processing

Insurance CRMs also enable insurers to streamline and automate claims processing and accelerate the settlement process, which results in improved customer satisfaction.

Operational management

Ultimately, implementing a modern CRM system will allow the automation of a lot of routine tasks, like data entry or appointment scheduling, increase operational efficiency, and reduce human errors.

The Benefits of Custom Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems

So, to sum up, based on our experience, we can highlight the following tangible benefits to every insurance company:

• Enhanced Customer Relationship Management
• Improved Sales and Lead Management
• Streamlined Policy Management
• Enhanced Data Analytics and Reporting
• Automation of Administrative Tasks
• Enhanced Security and Compliance

Key Features of an Effective CRM for the Insurance Industry

The Insurance industry is constantly evolving, as the demand for any Insurtech solution is only getting higher. Add to the mix the fact that every business scenario is unique, and you will end up with no one-size-fits-all recipe to build a perfect CRM. However, based on our completed projects, we can highlight the core must-have features that you should consider.

Contact and lead management

It will be a good idea to start with the functionality for storing and organizing customer information. For that purpose, one should build a centralized database of contacts, leads, and customers for easy access and retrieval.

Policy and underwriting management

An effective CRM system should allow efficient policy creation, renewal, and management capabilities. Automated underwriting processes, risk assessment, and premium calculation should also be added. Integration with insurance rating engines and underwriting guidelines will be a nice-to-have feature too.

Claims processing integration

A great feature to add for streamlined claims handling is seamless integration with claims processing systems. There should be access to claim history and status for customer service representatives.

Customer communication and engagement

An insurance CRM should include a set of tools for managing customer interactions across multiple channels, including chat, email, phone, and social media. A set of personalized features like policy updates, renewal reminders, and claims notifications is a great way to offer customers a personalized experience.

Analytics and reporting

Advanced analytics and reporting functionality can help you effectively analyze the performance of each policy, monitor customer behavior and the key performance indicators (KPIs), as well as keep up with sales trends. Predictive analytics can also be implemented in order to identify cross-selling and upselling opportunities.

Document management

All documents should be easily accessible when needed for claim-related or customer inquiries.

Workflow automation

The workflows should include customizable workflows to automate some of the routine manual processes.

Mobile accessibility

If you don’t plan to build a custom mobile app, your CRM system should at least have a responsive interface for access on smartphones and tablets.

Security and data protection

Robust security features are a must for any solution in the Insurtech industry. This includes features like data encryption, role-based access control, and data backup. Compliance with current data privacy regulations is mandatory.

Customer self-service portal

You should include a portal for policyholders to access and manage their policies, view documents, and submit claims.

Integration capabilities

Your solution can have API support to connect with external data sources and services, including other insurance-related solutions, accounting systems, administration software, and rating engines.

How a software development company tailors each CRM system to meet the unique needs of each insurance business

With all the principal features discussed in the previous section, you may wonder how software development companies know what exactly to implement in each particular case. Tailoring each solution requires an understanding of the specific requirements and flow of the company and implementing cutting-edge technology. Let’s review the approaches that one can use to achieve maximum customization.

Consultation and needs assessment

It all starts with a conversation. To build a tailored solution, representatives from a software development company should conduct a thorough needs assessment in collaboration with your Insurance company. The vendor should get clear about all the vital business processes, future goals, most critical challenges, and specific requirements.

You need to provide as many details as possible, pinpointing the pain points and organizing software developer conversations with the key stakeholders, sales team representatives, and claim adjusters.

Customization planning

With the collected information, the vendor is able to outline specific modules, features, and workflows, identifying those areas where a custom CRM can really make a positive difference.

Data mapping and integration with existing systems

The next steps involve a vendor creating data mapping strategies to set up a seamless data flow between CRM and other systems, like accounting software, claims processing software, and policy management software. It is also important to have integration with all necessary industry-specific tools and services through APIs.

Iterative improvement

During the development of the CRM system and its early versions, the software development vendor should collect feedback from stakeholders and test users to identify the areas for improvement. When the solution is complete, the developers should be able to make iterative updates and enhancements to adapt the system for evolving business needs and changing industry demands.

Future Outlook: CRM Systems in Insurance

The world of technology is evolving fast, so there is a chance that the next big trend that will change everything is just around the corner. However, right now, in 2023, it is safe to say that we should expect even more integration of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, as the global AI market is set to reach $1.35 trillion in the next seven years.

Currently, AI and ML are already heavily integrated into CRM systems, offering such functionalities as predictive analytics, chatbots for customer support, lead scoring, and personalization.

In addition to that, we should expect a wider adoption of the Voice Recognition technology and conversational AI. As the number of voice assistants is expected to double from 4.2 billion to 8.4 billion by 2024, this trend will reach custom CRM systems in the Insurance industry as well. Voice-activated commands allow more natural interactions with CRM platforms, and if you add in Sentiment Analysis, you can gain additional insights from customer interactions.

If you don’t have the need to build a sophisticated custom CRM system from the ground up, we have good news for you. There is a diverse growing market with over 600 CRM systems, to cover your basic needs, including market leaders like HubSpot, Salesforce, Less Annoying CRM, and Freshsales. While they may not provide narrow functionality and lack customization, in some cases, they may cover the basic needs of an Insurance company and provide more automation and customer engagement.

In any case, with or without custom development, the future of CRM systems in Insurance is looking bright, and insurers can collaborate with software developers to keep up with the technological advancements and industry evolution. Along with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Insurance companies should consider, explore, and implement other popular technologies like Blockchain, the Internet of Things, and Big Data to maximize the value of their solutions.

Conclusion

Custom CRM systems play a transformational role in the insurance industry, driving innovation forward. Tailored solutions enhance customer relationships, improve operational efficiency, ensure regulatory compliance, and enable insurers to adapt to an ever-changing landscape. The right choice of a software development partner will help your Insurance company build a strategic tool that will help you thrive in a highly competitive and regulated environment.

We, at SPD Technology, are ready to build an Insurtech solution that will solve your challenges. In one of our recent projects, we’ve created a custom billing system, an Operational Data Maintenance (ODM) platform, and a self-service application for end customers that includes a personal cabinet, and related integration for a nationwide U.S. insurance company. The results of our involvement have helped the client to dramatically improve their mission-critical Insurance platform and helped them achieve several major business goals. If you want to discuss or start your project, please feel free to contact us anytime!