Customer Relationship Management in Insurance sector

IntroductionOur insurance CRM helps general & life insurance companies enhance customer satisfaction. CRM next boosts revenues by streamlining processes, improving intermediary management and providing actionable intelligence at front-ends on a single technology platform .CRM initiatives at insurance companies often have annexed visions due to the complexities involved in creating a single repository of actionable data. These initiatives become departmental in nature, point solutions that quickly become part of the problem.

CRM in Insurance An Introduction, presents the insurance scenario and focuses on the opportunities this lucrative business offers both to the insurers and the customers. It also illustrates how insurance companies gear up to the challenges thrown by customers and the competitive environment itself by embracing CRM. Divided into two sections Global and Indian Perspectives, the book deals with the complexity of the insurer-insured relationships. It etch uses insurance professionals and students alike. Background

Insurance products are becoming more commoditized.

Customers are being influenced by multiple channels to make their buying decisions.

Advertising efforts are being countered by comparison portals, insurance advisors and corporate alignments.

A large share of business is driven through intermediaries where information challenges exist foreffective management without the implementation of CRM for insurance.

Companies continue to face stiff revenue targets spread across too many stakeholders. Stakeholders struggle to deal with too many processes, systems and geographies.Challenges

Effectively collaborate with network of agents and intermediaries to get better visibility of sales processes, reduce cycle times and prevent revenue leaks?

How to provide valid, up-to-date intermediary-wise performance data to help relationship managers drive revenues?

How to influence corporate buying decisions, while working to forward relationship width?

How to ensure optimal service quality to customers & intermediaries, across a multi-source eco-system?

How to evolve a complete 360 view of customers along with their policy holdings, risk profile, premium payments, claims history, to judge true value of relationship?

How to tap complete household/ account potential to offer personalized products as perrequirement and propensity, using cross-sell/ up-sell techniques?

changing insurance regulations? How to provide proactive real-time insights into processes for actions, with intelligent reports & dashboards?

How to comply with ever.

4 Key Reasons for Implementing CRM in InsuranceInsurance is a volatile sector. Reputations can be damaged and restored within a span of months and government imposed regulations can make margins appear and disappear almost magically. The sector however is one of the most dynamic in the Indian business landscape and the keenness of international players to invest in it bears testimony to the massive potential it holds. In the domestic space too, there have been some massive transformations, LIC faced competition for the first time in decades in the life insurance segment with the pie in the non-life and health insurance segments being shared equally. These developments in the sector have made it even more important for companies to be abreast of the latest tools and solutions so that they can be a part of the race where some of the best names in the international market have already made their presence felt. With the lobbying for removal of the FDI cap of 26% in insurance getting more intense by the day, it is clear that the sector is on an upward incline for a major boom. Streamlining business operations and managing customer data therefore have assumed more importance than ever - the role of CRM in insurance sector is now crucial.

The winning factorWhile the banking sectors business does not completely depend on the customer database, the insurance sector cannot exist without a solid set of databases that include existing customers as well as prospective ones. Procuring these databases is also a major challenge in this sector and therefore optimum utilization and proper management of the data could well be the winning or losing factor for a player. In an industry where the competition is so intense, making customer related data accessible to the sales, management and customer service team in the most efficient, cost-effective and timely manner is a challenge for any CRM solution provider. . Ensuring that the firm is in line with the IRDA regulations and there is ample scope for the launch of a new marketing strategy is no longer a decision made randomly by the board, but a logical deduction from the CRM data that is on the table todayIntegration and segregation:Two of the biggest functions of CRM in the present market scenario are therefore integration and segregation. Integration of the data from across the various departments and technical, meticulous and efficient segregation of this data related to claims, policy holders, expired/ new policies, corporate clients, prospective clients, third party policy sellers and agents among others is thus essential. A company choosing to upgrade their existing CRM or implementing a new one to keep up with competition should therefore look for high levels of customization when it comes to these two processes.Customer grievances

No matter how good an enterprises CRM solution, sales, marketing and customer service department, grievances will remain. While 100% customer satisfaction and claim settlement is an illusion, companies have no choice but to strive for it.

Some of the common complaints against insurance companies remain delays in claim settlements, inefficient customer care officers, cumbersome paperwork and opaque claims processing routines. Insurance players in the health and life insurance space have to be doubly careful when it comes to handling customers, sentiments can run high and the media can be quick to spread disrepute. Single point of contact for most departments related to customers, easier navigation, interactive online and telephonic presence with friendlier call center executives are some of the solutions that can be implemented apart from high-end CRM solutions.Changing landscape

The customer today has more money and knowledge than ever before. Impressing them with typical CRM tools like seasonal and birthday greetings is no longer effective. The need of the hour is comprehensive KYC packages where personalized and customized services are provided. With the rapid expansion of the customer base, risk management has also emerged as a major challenge and CRM solutions can go a long way in helping companies implement effective measures to manage risks. Solid portfolio management used to be a manual process even a few years ago as there was a great deal of analysis and inference involved. Today, however, CRM solutions have the power to replace the analyst and come up with inferences that can help the sales team make clear decisions.. Solution providers for CRM in insurance sector are likely to look at the potential of this market and therefore come up with better-customized, efficient, real-time and cost-effective solutions for the insurance sector with special features for Big Data, social CRM, email syndication, two-way SMS and more.

4 CRM Strategies Spell Insurance Industry SuccessRisk is a relative concept .When it comes to innovation, the insurance industry often gets a bum rap: slow to change, reactionary. One Dream force 2011 session, The Next Generation of Insurance, was even subtitled Rethinking a Laggard Industry.

Now, the insurance industry may be slow, but Id never label it as lagging. Relatively speaking, the industry has been fairly aggressive in introducing new products and services to meet its customers needs. The insurance industry is also built on the notion that its managing risk. By avoiding risky bets, insurers have historically made money, because theyve been able to invest the money from customers premiums, and pay out less than they take in, thus generating profits. With a sure bet, why should the industry risk changing too quickly?

How CRM Helps Lower Costs And Increase Profits

1. Contact center optimization: For insurance companies, their first customer-service goal is to ensure that all inbound calls get solved by the member services agent who first picks up the phone. Of course, insurers have been focusing on the contact center for some time. But theyre coming back, since more business is now happening online. In addition, there continues to be a clear relationship between technology investments and business returns, as expressed by the number of calls per hour that agents can handle.2. Sales force transformation: Insurance companies often change and adapt their products to suit the needs of evolving markets, and to capitalize on new opportunities. For example, the life insurance industry has become expert at handling the complicated payouts that can be required after one of their policyholders dies. But to keep retooling their products and services, insurers typically require more flexible sales automation tools, not least to enable salespeople to remain up to date on all of the latest offerings.

3. Mobile sales automation: one prominent life insurance firm recently Which salesperson today doesnt sport a smart phone, tablet, or several of each? Accordingly, tapped Innoveer to help make its CRM software more mobile. The business driver is simple: to provide field agents with rapid access to complete customer and broker details, so they can more rapidly court customers with profitable proposals.4. Social Monitoring: While insurers arent adopting social technology as quickly as some other industries, such as high-tech companies, they are beginning to pursue projects that help them monitor social networks for favorable mentions, as well as distraught customers who need assistance.

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4 Key Reasons for Implementing CRM in Insurance

Insurance is a volatile sector. Reputations can be damaged and restored within a span of months and government imposed regulations can make margins appear and disappear almost magically. The sector however is one of the most dynamic in the Indian business landscape and the keenness of international players to invest in it bears testimony to the massive potential it holds. In the domestic space too, there have been some massive transformations, LIC faced competition for the first time in decades in the life insurance segment with the pie in the non-life and health insurance segments being shared equally. These developments in the sector have made it even more important for companies to be abreast of the latest tools and solutions so that they can be a part of the race where some of the best names in the international market have already made their presence felt. With the lobbying for removal of the FDI cap of 26% in insurance getting more intense by the day, it is clear that the sector is on an upward incline for a major boom. Streamlining business operations and managing customer data therefore have assumed more importance than ever - the role of CRM in insurance sector is now crucial.

1. The winning factorWhile the banking sectors business does not completely depend on the customer database, the insurance sector cannot exist without a solid set of databases that include existing customers as well as prospective ones. Procuring these databases is also a major challenge in this sector and therefore optimum utilization and proper management of the data could well be the winning or losing factor for a player. In an industry where the competition is so intense, making customer related data accessible to the sales, management and customer service team in the most efficient, cost-effective and timely manner is a challenge for any solution provided. Ensuring that the firm is in line with the IRDA regulations and there is ample scope for the launch of a new marketing strategy is no longer a decision made randomly by the board, but a logical deduction from the CRM data that is on the table today.2. Integration and segregationTwo of the biggest functions of CRM in the present market scenario are therefore integration and segregation. Integration of the data from across the various departments and technical, meticulous and efficient segregation of this data related to claims, policy holders, expired/ new policies, corporate clients, prospective clients, third party policy sellers and agents among others is thus essential. A company choosing to upgrade their existing CRM or implementing a new one to keep up with competition should therefore look for high levels of customization when it comes to these two processes.3. Customer grievancesSome of the common complaints against insurance companies remain delays in claim settlements, inefficient customer care officers, cumbersome paperwork and opaque claims processing routines. Insurance players in the health and life insurance space have to be doubly careful when it comes to handling customers, sentiments can run high and the media can be quick to spread disrepute. Single point of contact for most departments related to customers, easier navigation, interactive online and telephonic presence with friendlier call center executives are some of the solutions that can be implemented apart from high-end CRM solutions.4. Changing landscapeThe customer today has more money and knowledge than ever before. Impressing them with typical CRM tools like seasonal and birthday greetings is no longer effective. The need of the hour is comprehensive KYC packages where personalized and customized services are provided. With the rapid expansion of the customer base, risk management has also emerged as a major challenge and CRM solutions can go a long way in helping companies implement effective measures to manage risks. Solid portfolio management used to be a manual process even a few years ago as there was a great deal of analysis and inference involved. Today, however, CRM solutions have the power to replace the analyst and come up with inferences that can help the sales team make clear decisions. Solution providers for CRM in insurance sector are likely to look at the potential of this market and therefore come up with better-customized, efficient, real-time and cost-effective solutions for the insurance sector with special features for Big Data, social CRM, email syndication, two-way SMS and more.Role of CRM in Insurance

Customer Relationship Management, or CRM, is a catalyst in insurance industry growth. Replacing the traditional in person encounter of door-to-door sales, the CRM system engages solid business relationships to meet customer demands for better results. Customer relationship management technology is proficient in qualifying leads, policy administration and streamlines various work functions to successfully service an insurance business. Continuing developments are providing the insurance industry with customized solutions to satisfy consumers and increase profits.

1. Customers

Success in the insurance sector originates from positive customer relations. Using CRM for your insurance book of business allows you to track leads, maintain customer profiles, provide more personalized service to meet specific needs and build customer loyalty. Tools for communication, such as email, enable lead, client and contact management.

2. Marketing

CRM offers a model for effective product management. Combining CRM solutions with industry legacy systems immediately channels product enhancements while tracking new product releases. This advancement allows insurers to meet the needs of policy holders within a shorter product development cycle.

3. Productivity

Productivity and sales performance can be monitored with CRM tools. Results can show which objectives are being met as well as areas needing improvement. After implementing a CRM system, a leading insurance brokerage and risk management consulting firm was able to meet set goals on performance metrics for 7,000 global employees, according to Salesforce.com. Contact center solutions improve claims procedures, providing first rate customer service while meeting business requirements.

4. Organization

The processes of underwriting, claims processing and support are well structured using industry software to produce positive results. Claims solutions have provided built-in analytics, enabling an insurance carrier to save $4 million annually and achieve 1 percent reduction in loss ratio, according to Oracle's website. This type of efficiency strengthens relationships and keeps work processes at a high standard

5. Industry Growth

The insurance industry has experienced broad strides within its corporate structure in addition to the field division. Alleviating risk, meeting diversity needs, improving financial challenges and employee operations are some of the successes that customer relationship management has brought to the insurance industry. More insurance companies are using advanced CRM technologies to meet the needs of an increasing customer base for better retention rates and profitability. Software developers have recognized this growth and are adapting technologies by offering solutions specific to the insurance industry's needs.

CRM Techniques

Maintaining good relationships with customers is important in securing further business. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is at the heart of all customer-focused businesses. Repeat business is important to most businesses, and maintaining positive relationships with customers is vital in helping to maximize the amount of business transacted with them. Maintaining good relationships with existing customers is also a form of indirect marketing, as existing customers are then more likely to recommend the business to others.

1. Tracking Customer Contacts:An important aspect of CRM, is tracking and logging all contacts with customers and prospective customers. The nature and outcome of all contacts should be monitored to identify areas of potential conflict before they arise, and to understand which contact experiences customers are happy with and which ones may need adjustment. Follow-up calls to customers after any support or service interaction must be sensitively managed, as it is possible to annoy customers by initiating too much customer communication.

2. Staff Development

Staff need to be aware at all times of the prevailing business culture regarding customer relationships. A key area to look at is the development of communication skills. This is particularly important in businesses employing technical support staff. It is important that technical staff, who have one-to-one contact with customers at times when customers are experiencing problems, understand the importance of maintaining a positive, personal approach in all dealings with customers. Understanding how to resolve the technical issues that the customer may be experiencing is important, but supplying the customer with a positive experience may be the difference in retaining the customer and the customer looking else where in the future. All staff who come into contact with customers or their representatives should receive ongoing training in the development of interpersonal skills..

3. A Customer Experience Strategy

Defining a customer experience strategy involves identifying the level of service the company expects to provide to its customers. For example, a customer experience strategy might include the goal that there must be a response to all customer complaints within a certain time, if the complaint could not be resolved with the initial contact. Another might be to ensure that customers deal with one particular person in the resolution of all issues, or the processing of sales and delivery of goods and services. Staff should be made aware that the defined customer services policy is important to the business, and not an optional set of guidelines. The customer policy must be effectively communicated to all staff at all times, and staff should be encouraged to participate in the development of customer experience stategies, bringing the results of their experience to the process.

CRM IN LIFE INSURANCE CORPORATION INTRODUCTION

Present market driven society largely depends on customer satisfaction and loyalty to sustain their presence in market and remain customer friendly among competitors. Service industries mainly depend on their customers service and relationship to enhance business and to reach out more new and new clients to add existing list. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool popular in the present business trend as majority of the service industry implemented this technique to remain number one is their segment and also brings new changes in its services and products. Library and Information centers come under the service sector need to adopt CRM technique to improve in its overall service and products development. Basically libraries are categorized into four kinds viz Public, Academic, Industrial and Research and Development. Collection, services, information products and clients varies from these different libraries according to organization purpose. Recent surveys predict that reading habit decreased in students and more spent time in cyber centres to chat with friends or surfing mail only few among them using it for professional enrichment. Librarian/Manager priority is to taken care of every visiting library customer demands and requirements. Only satisfied customer could be the repeated customers and influence others to make use of library and information centers services and products at large extent. Many of the university libraries wore desert look without expected number of students, research scholars and teaching and no-teaching faculties reduced library visiting by saying so many reason of improper arrangement or library not equipped to deliver expected service or library staff not cooperative. To implement CRM method in Library and Information centers not required any dedicated and available softwares in the market. Most of the libraries in present days automated with available local software to open software, to manage routine activities of department it facilitate to track all the operations. CRM tool ultimate goal is customers satisfaction and loyalty. To nurture these characters in LIC make use of automation software to analyse customers demands and expectations through statistics that help to design prototype of how to carry out CRM implementation. Earlier customers are having much patience to wait for addressing queries or delivering services. The invasion of ICT made everyone (library customers) to access needed information without wasting the time, it thrown challenge to library services to adopt novel method to satisfy. In this juncture librarian/Manager has to play key role to retain existing customer and add new customer through deliver satisfactory services to them. Only happiest customer visits the library again and again and brings their friends to also. Later they converted into loyal customers would bring brand image to the LIC. Library staff behaviour is crucial to understand customers requirements and expectations. Especially library staffs who work in help desk/circulation counter have the chances of interact customers regularly should not replies in sulk way or just shows fingers at someone else to transfer their responsibility to their queries or assistance if they sought. COMPANY PROFILE

The LIC is the largest life insurance corporation in India & countries largest investors . It is fully owned by the government of India. It also fund close to 24.6% of indian government expenditure. it has assets estimated of Rs.8 trillion (US$ 178 billion). It was founded in 1956.CURRENT STATUSOver its existence around 50 years. LIC of India which commanded a monopoly soliciting & selling LIC in India created huge surplus contributed around 7% of India GDP in2006.The organization now companies 2048 branches ,109 divisional offices ,& 8 zonal offices & employee over 1,002,149 agents. The corporate office of LIC is in Mumbai. It also operates in 12 other countries. LIC started business with around 300 offices 5.6 millions policies and corpus of INR 459 millions(US $ 92 million) as per the 1959 exchange rate of roughly Rs. 5 for US $ has grown to 25000 servicing around 180 million policies and corpus of over Rs. 8 trillion. The recent economics times brand equity survey rated LIC as the number one service brand of the country.

CRM ProcessA typical insurance company has a huge customer base, varied product lines, multiple distribution channels, and a market with a geographical spread. To effectively interact with customers and design suitable products, the insurers' CRM strategy has to fully utilize the potential of technology.

The CRM process in an insurance company could be divided into six steps.

1. CRM InitiativeInsurance business has been traditional and conservative compared to other financial service markets. Hence making changes in the way business is run by introducing new technologies could generate resistance and slow down the adoption of CRM. The insurance company should first educate and communicate with employees at all levels.

2. Identifying CustomersKnowing our primary customers like policyholders, beneficiaries, insured, agents or brokers is important while customizing and developing the CRM strategy because these answers can significantly change how the design and implementation of the product is done. A customercentric insurer must have a clear understanding of each of the customer segments and build an infrastructure and strategy to provide them with products and services that address the needs of each segment.

3. Collecting and owning customer dataTo gain the maximum benefits of a total view of the customer, insurer should capture and combine customer information obtained from Zonal offices, Divisional offices, Branch offices, Agents, along with the customer data from the existing system. This information gleaned from these sources must be combined with personal interactions.

4. Develop a definite ROI strategyThe insurer must have Returns on Investment (ROI) measurement in place to monitor effectiveness and to justify future investment in CRM technologies. Instead of just hoping to have better results, the company has to develop businessfocused ROI criteria that will enable it to define, measure, and analyze the impact of CRM processes and technologies on the business.

5. Create a realistic budget and timelineThe CRM budget and timeline should be as realistic as possible, ensuring that any project vital to the CRM deployment is completed within a timeline. Updating administrative systems, updating websites, and web-based channels help the organization to stick to the time schedules. A realistic budget helps the creation of these instruments.

6. Seek experienced resourcesTechnological challenges, such as integrating existing IT system with customer- centric solutions, may create challenges for insurance deployments. Hence, to implement the CRM solution, insurer should ensure that the CRM seller and the company's IT professionals have the technical proficiency and experience to integrate their resources towards customer oriented solutions.

CRM Training for AgentsIt is the task of the top-level and middle- level managers to train their agents to practice relationship management and build relation ships with their clients.

1. The agents should be trained to analyze their environment (society, friends, peer groups, etc) and build good relationships with their environment because a good marketer first forms relationships and then sells his goods.

2. An agent should prepare a profile of the prospective targets (or potential clients)

3. He should be trained to interact with them.

4. He should be trained to build the customer database and classify them into potential and existing customers.

5.The agents should be trained to get the feedback of the customers because insurance selling is a confidence building measure where a relationship is built between the client and the agent, which lasts for a long duration.

Customer relationship in Indian insurance IndustryDue to competition, insurers have taken initiatives by adopting technology to improve their services to the policyholder in achieving lower turnaround time for insurance of policies, customers servicing, complaint redressal and customer education. Business processes have been computerized to keep track of the policies issued right from inception to maturity, covering all aspects of administration, underwriting, claims, commissions and insurance accounting.

Insurers have set up their websites for disseminating timely and complete information to the policyholders so as to provide value added services to customers. Financial planning tools, information about products, commission details, premium calculators, NAV quotations, FAQ, etc, are made available to customers. A number of insurers are designing enterprise portals to enable policyholders to query the status of their policies to make on-line premium payment and provide a forum for registering/seeking redressal of policy servicing related issues. Insurers have implemented facilities to pay premiums through non conventional channels such as credit cards, ATMs, online payments, standing instructions, etc., in order to provide hassle-free modes of payment of premium.

Automated complaints management process, tracking them from lodging of customer complaints till redressed, have been put in place by the insurers to handle any delay in the settlement of claims. Toll free numbers and call centers have been put in place for better customer reach. Insurers have also taken initiatives in developing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and grievances management process.

We can expect a further improvement in the customer service levels with:

* Electronic submission of proposal forms* Electronic transfer of medical data* Automatic underwriting to reduce time taken* Direct debits/electronic payment of premiums* Easy withdrawal facilities* Regular updates on the policy status

Facility for the customer to procure data from the company website regarding premium calculation, proposal tracking, daily NAV, switch funds, stock market alerts and recommendations.

ConclusionInsurance players should not be carried away by the apparent high-sounding appeal of the CRM solutions. They should rather aim at acquiring what suits their needs. It should be realized that it is for the enhancement of customer satisfaction and in the process, business growth, that a proper CRM platform is required. As such, it calls for a proper understanding of the customer's needs and desire. For a CRM system to be effective, it must integrate analysis from all customer touch points, balance customer and shareholder value, and drive business process refinement across the enterprise. Only then can the success of a proper implementation of CRM be ensured.

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