insurance crm

8/2/2019 Insurance Crm

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Insurance is a complex product where personalizedservice³achieved through an intimate knowledge of customers andtheir histories with an insurance company³is critical to making sales.As insurance options broaden and products grow more complex,customers seek superior, personalized service more than ever. With

the repeal of the Glass-Steagal Act in 1999, insurance companies faceincreased competition from banks and brokerages. With the enactmentof the Patriot Act, insurance companies need to ensure that they "knowtheir customers." The situation grows even more urgent when oneconsiders the bad economy that hurts investment income; as well asthe extremely narrow window of time wherein an insurance call centerrepresentative, agent or broker holds a customer's attention³and avaluable opportunity to cross-sell or upsell. It is at this precise momentthat these individuals have the chance to maximize these fleeting salesopportunities.To maintain competitive edge and viability, insurance companies are

focusing intently on delivering superior customer service. Acomprehensive customer relationship management (CRM) strategyaddresses three imperatives: Sum providing a unified enterprisecustomer view; Sum retaining customers with great services; and Sumcontrolling costs as the insurance company in question expands.These three imperatives form a unique interplay that maximizes saleswhile reducing operational costs³the equation for improved revenuegrowth and profitability.

Gain a Unified Enterprise View of Customers

Within many insurance companies, there is a wealth of valuableinformation about individual customers: you know who they are andwhat insurance products and services they buy. You know their historyof claims and the status of their accounts. You may even know abouttheir opinions and preferences, or whether promotions have attractedtheir response. But can you unify all these fragments into a completeportrait of this most important asset: your customer?

For insurance companies, "know thy customer" can be achallenging imperative. Customer data may be divided among productlines, or among legacy claims, policy and billing systems. If an

insurance company has expanded its customer base through mergersor acquisitions, its information may be even more fragmented.

CRM in insurance starts with a single, complete, real-timeenterprise view, so that call center representatives, agents and brokerscan understand and serve every facet of individual customers. Thislevel of holistic, personalized service can be the differentiating factorthat retains good customers and reduces churn³an important goal,



given that customer retention is profitable and new customeracquisition can be expensive.

Retain Customers With Great Service

Most insurance companies understand the virtues of a single,complete, real-time enterprise view of individual customers, and theyhave made great progress towards providing this view at customertouch-points throughout the enterprise. But it's critical to note that thisview should not be regarded as an end in and of itself³rather, it is arich foundation to be used as a basis for a deeper, more advancedlevel of customer understanding.

Consider how foolish it would be to try to sell automobileinsurance to someone who doesn't own a car. Without customeranalysis and behavior prediction, this is exactly the quagmire that callcenter representatives, agents and brokers find themselves in every

day. This advanced level of understanding is needed to help insurancecompanies predict customer behavior and align marketing, cross-selling and upselling efforts accordingly. By making customer analysisand behavior prediction data immediately accessible at the desktop,sales efforts are optimized and customer loyalty is strengthened, asindividual customers feel that their needs are understood and met in away that is fast and convenient.Predicting customer behavior for improved sales efforts is a three-stepprocess:Sum Profiling: Insurance companies first build a profile of informationabout customers who have previously exhibited a targeted behavior.Profiling requires rich customer data, including enterprise-widetransactional and behavioral data such as call center and accountholdings information. Other data sources include key performanceindicators and third-party demographics. An example of profilingmight be building a profile for customers who bought newhomeowners' insurance policies in the past two years. The goal is todetermine characteristics to look for in future buyers.Sum Modeling: By using data mining on the profile information,analytics can uncover the most relevant characteristics of the customersegment being analyzed. For example, the most significant attributes

of customers who bought homeowners' insurance are gleaned fromthe profile via the data mining application. Such characteristicscomprise the model of customers most likely to purchasehomeowners' insurance in the future.Sum Scoring: Insurance companies use predictive analytics to scoreexisting customers by comparing them to the model. Those mostclosely matching the characteristics included in the model are mostlikely to exhibit the targeted behavior. Given the example above, an



insurance company can rate its customers numerically to indicate howclosely they match the model of the person most likely to buyhomeowners' insurance.

Once customers are scored and the analysis pinpoints customersmost strongly correlating with the model, an insurance company can

address those customers, especially the top prospects. Customersscoring a nine or above might receive a special promotion forhomeowners' insurance, while a separate, incentive-based offer mightentice those scoring seven and above.

Customer analysis and behavior prediction can also be used toidentify life events and/or extended relationships, which can be highlyuseful in improving profitability from individual customers. Forexample, life events often trigger changes in insurance coverage thatcan be anticipated and leveraged with targeted offerings. You mightidentify health insurance policyholders who have recently had newchildren and offer them an attractive life insurance policy. Using a

single, complete, real-time enterprise view coupled with customeranalysis and behavior prediction, you may be able to identify gooddrivers among your auto policyholders who have children turningsixteen. It's time for a targeted offer to add the family's new driver tothe policy.

Control Costs While You Expand

Business expansion presents many positive opportunities toinsurance companies, including increased assets and broadergeographic reach to new customers.So how does an insurancecompany grow without sacrificing profitability? The company at handmust offer the same level of superior service that its customers havecome to expect³while minimizing operational costs that,paradoxically, have the potential to spiral out of control, as thecompany begins to serve an augmented and growing customer base.

The first key is to enable your agents, representatives andbrokers to identify and spend the right amount on each opportunity. Ahigh-value, low-risk customer, who carries policies over a long periodand makes relatively low claims, is an ideal subject for marketing andsales efforts targeted at extending his or her portfolio. Call center

representatives, agents and brokers need real-time access to thisbusiness intelligence, so they will know where to concentrate theirefforts in the limited amount of time they have the customer'sattention.The second key is to use the most cost-effective channelswithout sacrificing a high level of customer service. Call center, agents,email, phone and self-service portals³how can your employeesdetermine which channels are the most efficient and cost-effective fordifferent target audiences and desired behaviors? Again, using



customer analysis and behavior prediction, call center representatives,agents and brokers can target marketing and sales efforts throughdifferent channels depending on the target audience in question.Goingone step further, new and advanced email response, Web chat and self-service portal tools are drawing more and more customers to the Web

each day, enabling a consistently high level of customer service while"pulling" customers to a communications medium which is much morecost-efficient than the phone. Particularly valuable are Web-based self-service portals, which can function as a first and last point of contactand eliminate valuable time spent assisting a customer who can just aswell assist him or herself. Finally, Web-based interactions tend todeliver on the holy grail of customer service³speed and convenience.

The third key is automation of the more mundane insurancebusiness processes. Given the myriad systems in the insurance world³claims, billing and policy systems, not to mention automobile, home,life and health insurance subsystems for each one³CRM systems in

insurance will only add another layer of complexity, labor and expenseif they are not pre-built to connect with legacy systems and automatethe mundane work of keeping these systems updated. Automated,multi-step workflow capabilities are critical to minimizing these andother potential bottlenecks, such as the processing of trailingdocuments supporting a policy application³documents like expertappraisals, doctor's statements and/or proof of student status. Byautomating mundane processes and removing the paper trail, callcenter agents, representatives and brokers are freed up to focus onthe more strategic activities³like servicing customers.Today's insurance companies certainly face a daunting challenge in

maintaining and increasing their competitive edge. But by focusing on

three key imperatives³gaining a unified enterprise view of customers,

retaining customers with great service and controlling costs while

expanding³insurance companies can turn challenges into strategic

competitive advantage and enhance their long-term viability and

profitability.



Overview

Country: India

Industry: Insurance

Customer ProfileAEGON Religare Life Insurance Company Limited, launched in July2008, is a joint venture between AEGON, a leading life insurance andpension group and Religare, a diversified financial services group inIndia.

Business Situation

A new entrant in India, AEGON Religare did not have a customermanagement solution. To capture a dominant market share in thehighly competitive insurance industry, the company required anefficient solution to manage customers through the entire lifecycle.

Solution

To accomplish its goals, AEGON Religare opted to implementMicrosoft® Dynamics CRM 4.0 with help from Religare Technova, aMicrosoft® Certified Gold Partner.

Benefits

Improves efficiency across branches

Enhances customer satisfaction

Provides greater customization

´The solution creates an efficient working environment for us, and we

are seeing the results in more satisfied customers.µ-Srinivasan Iyengar,

Director - Information Technology & Change Mgt, AEGON Religare



Situation

AEGON, one of the world·s largest life insurance and pension groupsand Religare, one of India·s leading integrated financial servicesgroups, have come together to launch AEGON Religare Life InsuranceCompany Limited. This venture is dedicated to build a firm future,both for customers and employees and will continue to balance a local

approach with the power of an expanding global operation.

The company launched its pan-India multi-channel operations in July,2008 with over 25 branches spread across India. Its businessphilosophy is to help people plan their life better. It provides highquality advice to customers and offer superior customer service.

In an industry first, AEGON Religare Life Insurance offers policyservicing on the phone via Interactive Voice Response (IVR) System byissuing the customer a T-Pin for authentication. It is also the firstcompany to include the customer·s medical report in the policy kit.

In a servicing industry, Lead Management and Case Management are

the areas where a company has to concentrate more to makethemselves different from others. The main objective for AEGONReligare was to automate its sales force, customer service, andreporting systems.

Some of the other challenges faced by the company were:

Auto assignment of Lead to Direct Agency or Tied Agency as per-defined logic

Servicing City mapping for assignment of Lead

Pin Code mapping for assignment of Lead to Business Manager orAgent

Sending alerts to user

Escalation of mails of multiple Leads

Incorporating Non-CRM users in a case

Mapping Department with Assignment and escalation of the case

Auto assigning cases to Non-CRM user

There was a pressing need to incorporate certain processes.Elucidating the need for customer management solution, SrinivasanIyengar, Director - Information Technology & Change Mgt, AEGONReligare says, ´Customer-focused strategies require CRM solution tohelp acquire customers thorough various touch points and translateoperational data into actionable insights for proactively servingcustomers.µ As a result, the company decided to opt for a solutionthat would help it achieve competitive advantage.



Solution

AEGON Religare considered a number of options and decided toimplement Microsoft® Dynamics CRM 4.0, supported by ReligareTechnova, a Microsoft® Certified Gold Partner.

According to Srinivasan Iyengar, ´Our industry faces unique, multiple

challenges such as high levels of customer churn; attaining net growthin customer base; selling more products to existing customers toimprove profitability etc. Religare Technova which has in-depthunderstanding of the financial services industry and its demands isbest suited to partner with us in our endeavour to streamline.µ

The company selected Microsoft® Dynamics CRM 4.0 as the baseapplication for Lead Management, Service Management and CampaignManagement. It also has the facility to customize and get maximumoutput in terms of day-to-day data, which can be used for MIS reports.

The two important modules that were customized by the solutionwere:

Lead Management System: This is the most important system wherethe company interacts with prospects. To have better control, promptaction and outstanding service to the customer, a special logic isintroduced in the Lead Management System, which will automaticallyallocate the nearest agent for each Lead. An allocation SMS alert isdispatched to the agent along with the client details. The leads canbe generated by Web, internal portal, e-mail, SMS, phone or directwalk-in.

Case Management System: The client base can be retained and alsogrown by solving issues as early as possible. In this system, casesautomatically get assigned based on the reason type and severity. Allcase related activities are recorded in CRM Activities and have

escalation as well. The user defined escalations play a significant roleto follow and control the company process, and provide quick serviceto the customer. Cases can be raised by phone, e-mail, Web, orinternal portal.

´Microsoft® Dynamics CRM 4.0 is designed specifically to meet theneeds of client-facing staff of insurance companies,µ shares SrinivasanIyengar.

Some of the unique requirements addressed with the new solutionwere: Customer Service Automation, Lead Management, CaseManagement, and Campaign Management.

Commenced in September 2007, the implementation was completedby February 2008. The solution was implemented at the company·soffice in Mumbai and access was extended across all locations. AEGONReligare deployed the Sale, Marketing, and Service modules.

With Microsoft® Dynamics CRM 4.0, employees are better equippedto deliver highly personalized customer services and improve customersatisfaction. The company now has a solution that will support theteam·s growth for years to come.



Benefits

Microsoft® Dynamics CRM 4.0 allowed AEGON Religare a granularview of its customers, helping the company to design better products,improve service levels and reduce operational costs significantly.

Improves Efficiency Across Branches

AEGON Religare has more than 50 branches across India where leadsare assigned and cases addressed. ´Because of Microsoft® DynamicsCRM 4.0, all leads are assigned automatically and every lead isattended based on the assignment matrix,µ says Srinivasan. ´Inaddition, agents get the assignment alerts along with clientinformation, which ensures that services of all agents across India areproperly utilized.µ

Srinivasan says, ´With faster, automated processes on systems,employees can spend more time building customer loyalty. As a result,productivity has improved.µ

Enhances Customer SatisfactionWith a combination of easy-to-use customer interfaces and robustfunctionality, Microsoft® Dynamics CRM 4.0 delivers quick and easyaccess to customer information. Clients can reach the company by allpossible mediums like, direct walk-in, phone, e-mail and SMS. Thisintuitive access has improved both employee and customersatisfaction.

´The solution creates an efficient working environment for us, and weare seeing the results in more satisfied and successful customers,µsays Srinivasan Iyengar.

Provides Greater Customization

The solution also improves campaign management for AEGONReligare. It traps all promotional activities of the company. A custommade campaign, KILB ² Kum Insurance Lene Ki Bimari, was introducedby AEGON Religare and all leads were mapped with this promotionmanagement tool. The response of the campaign was capturedthrough Microsoft® Dynamics CRM 4.0.

By this the company will able to know the impact of the promotion. Inaddition, all leads will be attached with the latest active campaignwhich will help company take monitory calls.



About Religare Technova

Religare Technova Limited is the holding company for the IT businessof a large diversified Indian transnational business group. The ReligareTechnova umbrella includes Religare Technova Global Solutions Ltd.(formerly Asian CERC Information Technology Ltd and Capital MarketSolutions Pvt. Ltd.), a global leader in providing Enterprise Software

Solutions to the Capital and Financial markets; Religare Technova ITServices Limited, which provides Enterprise IT Solutions and ReligareTechnova Business Intellect Ltd., which provides KnowledgeManagement Solutions.

Currently with over 1500 employees and presence in over 10countries, Religare Technova is poised to be a leader in the global ITspace. The group entities have partnered with IT majors, IndependentSoftware Vendors (ISVs) and Internet companies to provide a broadspectrum of IT services, products and solutions to their customers.Religare Technova focuses on clients in key verticals such as Bankingand Financial Services, Insurance, Capital Markets and Health Sciences.

Microsoft DynamicsMicrosoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable businessmanagement solutions that enables you and your people to makebusiness decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics workslike familiar Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office, which meansless of a learning curve for your people, so they can get up andrunning quickly and focus on what·s most important. And because it isfrom Microsoft, it easily works with the systems that your companyalready has implemented. By automating and streamlining financial,customer relationship, and supply chain processes, MicrosoftDynamics brings together people, processes, and technologies,increasing the productivity and effectiveness of your business, andhelping you drive business success.

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