Development of CRM systems for an insurance company

In the insurance business, trust plays a crucial role, so it is important for companies not only to attract new customers, but also to effectively serve existing ones, increasing their reputation.

Using a modern CRM, you can automate most of the bureaucratic procedures, get accurate analytics and start more targeted advertising campaigns that will help grow your business.

There are two main types of CRM – boxed and custom. In the first case, you are offered to use a ready-made solution with a monthly service fee. Such systems have a large number of modules and can be deployed in a few days.

On the one hand, it looks good, but in practice, boxed CRMs are designed for widespread use – not only in insurance, but also in sales, warehouses, beauty salons and other business areas. Therefore, even with all their functionality, they are only able to superficially solve real problems.

Custom CRMs are the other side of the coin. As a rule, they do not have a lot of functionality, but each module is designed for a specific purpose and is aimed at solving certain business problems. For the same reason, the interface of such systems, as a rule, is more minimalistic and user-friendly, since there is nothing superfluous in it.

Developing custom CRMs for insurance agents can seem quite expensive, or even prohibitive for some companies. However, this is the kind of investment that will grow your business and pay off in the short term.

As we have already said, individual CRMs are created based on the needs of a particular business, so their functionality for different companies can vary significantly. Nevertheless, we propose to consider the main modules, without which it is difficult to imagine the operation of such systems in the field of insurance:

• Automation. CRM can track the duration of contracts, calculate the optimal terms of the transaction, and store information about customers: documents, personal data, and so on. Therefore, the reissuance of policies can be carried out in a few clicks, which will greatly simplify the interaction.
• Maintaining a customer base. With the help of CRM, an insurance agent can track all stages and history of interaction with each client in all channels – by phone, in a messenger or in social networks. This will help to establish a more effective interaction with existing and potential customers.

• Distribution of notifications. Using CRM, you can set up automatic notifications to your existing and potential customers. For example, these may be messages about the imminent end of an insurance policy with a proposal to extend the contract.
• Marketing tools. In a highly competitive environment, insurance companies must conduct high-quality marketing. With the help of CRM, you can segment your audience and launch the most targeted campaigns with a high ROI.
• Reports and analytics. Use analytical data to control your company’s processes, identify strengths and weaknesses, and make informed management decisions for its development.

There are many processes going on behind the scenes of the insurance business, so in order to create a truly useful and effective software, it is important for developers to build close communication with the client. To do this, we prefer to work according to the SCRUM methodology.

The meaning of SCRUM is quite simple – the entire amount of work is distributed among team members and performed in short sprints. Each sprint has a clear deadline and goal, thanks to which the customer always knows exactly what work is being done and what the result will be. In addition, after the completion of each sprint, the completed work is presented to the client. Thus, with each new iteration, CRM gets better and better, and the team and the client always have room for new ideas that will make the final result as high quality as possible.

In addition to the methodology, there are development stages – this is the so-called CRM life cycle. Let us consider in more detail what work is performed on each of them.

Stage 1. Gathering information

CRM development for insurance companies starts with research. At this stage, developers need to study your company’s internal processes, your experience with similar studies, and expectations from the new system.

To get answers to these and other questions, we organize online or offline meetings with client representatives.

Stage 2. Design, documentation and technology selection

After collecting information, the design stage begins – the developers create a prototype of the future system, which includes:

• mockups of unique pages;
• description of all the functionality and tasks that it solves;
• navigation system between screens;
• the technological stack that will be used in the production process;
• development plan.

Then we arrange another meeting with the client to coordinate our vision with his views and wishes. As a rule, in the process of dialogue, new ideas arise that are quickly integrated into a ready-made prototype.

Stage 3. Design development

With all the multitasking of CRM, it is important that it is easy and comfortable for insurance agents to use it in their daily work. To do this, at the stage of creating a visual environment, a UI designer is connected to the project.

As a rule, in order to take into account all the functionality of CRM and the peculiarities of its use in each company, the design is developed individually. However, if the budget is limited, we can also use ready-made template solutions, such as Vuexy. But you need to understand that in this case you will have to make compromises with convenience.

Stage 4. Programming

The development of the software part is considered the most difficult and time-consuming stage.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that most customers do not know programming languages, which makes it difficult for them to comment on their part until the entire CRM is working as a single mechanism. To eliminate obstacles in communication, we involve team leaders for the presentation of such sprints.

These are the most experienced developers who can explain the principle of operation of a particular function in simple words, answer questions and give timely advice.

This part of CRM production can be divided into two components:

• Frontend. Assumes the implementation of the client part – the one with which end users interact. The choice of technologies depends on the platform, for example, for the web version of CRM, HTML / CSS / JavaScript or reactive frameworks Vue.js / React.js can be used, and for mobile applications: the programming language Swift – for IOS and Java / Kotlin – for Android .
• Backend. The backend is the server part of the project, which is responsible for storing data and operating the functionality. For its implementation, the following technologies can be used: for web and mobile applications – Python/PHP/Node.JS programming languages and Django/Flask or Yii2/Laravel frameworks. For the desktop version, C/C++ languages can also be used.

Stage 5. Testing

Most sprints involve QA engineers – quality assurance specialists. They test the implemented functionality, identify bugs and control their elimination. After the development is completed, acceptance testing is also carried out, which allows you to make sure that the CRM is ready for release.

Stage 6. Technical support and development

After deploying CRM, users may encounter unexpected errors at first.

Such problems are quickly resolved within the framework of technical support.

In addition, as the company grows, you may need to implement new functionality. Unlike boxed solutions, individual CRM can be improved at any time – developers study new requirements, develop additional modules and implement them into the existing system in the format of a new patch.

CRM is an automation tool. With its help, you will start serving existing customers faster and better, increase the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, and free up insurance agents’ time that they spend on bureaucratic procedures. This will help accelerate the growth and profitability of your business.

AVADA MEDIA has extensive experience in developing CRM systems of varying complexity. To work on such projects, we use only innovative technologies and employ already formed teams of specialists, thanks to which we can guarantee a high quality result.