Blog

What is Insurance CRM?

CRM (customer relationship management) is a technology that helps insurance agencies successfully manage all sales and marketing processes. Insurance CRM combines a multitude of applications, producing a system that makes work easier and quicker for insurance agents, brokers, CSRs, and sub-agents. In order to run an insurance business successfully, it is necessary to have deep knowledge of clients’ needs, their product choices, and contract specifics, which may sometimes make it extra difficult to drive customers through the funnel to convert and maintain proper customer satisfaction levels. This is where CRM systems come to help.

Why Do Insurance Agents Need CRM?

Customer relationship management helps achieve a superior customer experience across all points of the customer journey. Did you know that the use of CRM increases sales by 29% on average? What this means is that businesses can strategically use CRM to see a significant rise in customer acquisition plus existing customer retention, which is generally the ultimate goal for any business. This makes CRM a vital tool for all industries, especially for highly competitive ones like insurance, where the customer relationship management role is pivotal.

Having the necessary information always at hand is highly important for insurance companies to be able to provide customers with the best possible service. By using CRM software for insurance companies, it is possible to quickly upload data on new contacts, store this information safely and securely, schedule interactions and create personalized marketing campaigns based on this data, improve post-sales customer care and claims processing, analyze aggregated data and make data-driven, well-informed sales and marketing decisions.

The Role of CRM in the Insurance Sector

Although the insurance niche is highly competitive, it is also a highly regulated field, which means that making insurance products drastically different from the competition is quite hard. So what can really make you stand out and provide you with a competitive edge is truly knowing your clients and being able to offer them exactly what they need, quickly. And this is exactly what customer relationship management can help you with. Here are the benefits that a properly set up and managed CRM can bring you: 

Improved Customer Experience

Making a customer feel special can go a long way, and here personalization is key. By providing agents with extensive information about a client, CRM allows them to offer policies that are right for their needs. Other important information that can be stored in CRM and used by agents is the client’s preferred communication channel, language, the history of policy purchases and inquiries, and more.

Adherence to Industry Regulations

CRM can help with maintaining data security for сustomer and prospect information. Both universal and industry-specific CRMs are obliged to comply with data privacy and security regulations, which means that CRMs are hosted on secure servers and users’ connection is encrypted. For added data security, your CRM admin should be able to schedule regular data backups.

Lead Prioritization

Modern CRM solutions provide lead scoring opportunities, thus helping agents focus on leads that are more likely to convert. To leverage this feature, you’ll need to define the criteria for eligibility, such as the financial status, age, interests, locations, and policy preferences. Once the criteria are set, the customer relationships management system distributes scores for each lead in the system, prioritizing where applicable.

Quick Agent Onboarding

CRMs provide the obvious benefit of storing all customer information in one place – this alone is a great thing for new employees’ onboarding. Besides that, you can set up templates for client interactions and schedule interactions based on certain triggers, and this can help eliminate errors and prevent agents from ‘losing’ contacts along the pipeline, which also makes onboarding go more smoothly.

Claims Processing and Management

Your CRM may have a claim management functionality that will provide policyholders with an opportunity to quickly submit their claims and track progress on their processing. On the other hand, agents can take advantage of task prioritization to work on the most urgent cases first.

Improved Data Management

Making insurance policies involves a lot of information, with each customer having unique requirements and circumstances. CRMs are well structured databases, so they enable agents to exchange, update, and access crucial data from any location at any time.

Enhanced Reporting and Analytics

Insurance CRMs gather data and can organize it for you according to a variety of KPIs. On top of that, these KPIs are also very often customizable. The CRM system can provide you with up-to-date, real-time information on sales metrics and statistics related to each agent’s individual performance.

How to Choose Your Perfect Insurance CRM 

Choosing the right CRM solution can prove difficult as there are many factors to consider. Here are a few basic questions to help you with your choice: 

• How many CRM user accounts will you need? What is your budget?
• Do you need your agents to be able to use CRM on the go, through a mobile app?
• What are the business activities that you plan to optimize with the help of CRM?
• What software integrations would be necessary for your CRM to fit into your existing IT infrastructure?

CRM for Insurance Agents – Key Features to Look For

Having answered the above questions, you may now be drafting a certain pool of must-have features for your dream CRM. Some of these may include the following:

Policy Management

It takes a lot of effort to create the ideal insurance coverage for each client. Insurance-specific CRMs can keep track of the various iterations of a policy that are currently in use and make it simple to access earlier versions.

Email Outreach

Insurance companies are constantly looking for fresh leads. CRMs often include email marketing tools, which are also the most effective method of generating leads. Templates can be used to design email campaigns. The interactions with the contacts may also start automated processes like making new client profiles.

Project Progress Monitoring & Agent Management

Agents frequently have a lot of jobs and projects to manage. These entail bringing up-and-coming leads through the pipeline and finalizing deals. CRMs have excellent project management tools that frequently leverage workflows to expedite processes.

Sales Commission Calculation

Commissions are a standard feature of business operations in any sector that depends largely on sales. CRMs for insurance providers may come with accounting and financial features like commission computation. Some even incorporate gamification for sales teams, coming with such features as a leaderboard.

Affiliate Marketing

Any company, including an insurance firm, can develop their client base by using referral marketing. CRMs are the ideal instrument to speed this procedure up because all the shared contact information between agents and businesses comes through and is stored in the system. Tracking referral points is also a feature that is a mainstay in many good CRMs.

Best CRM Systems for Insurance Agents 

As mentioned before, not all CRM programs are created equally, so consider examining each to see if it is the right fit for you. The most desirable options for the best CRM software and systems for insurance agents have been collected and observed, based on high ratings from real users, user-friendliness relative to similar programs as well as the inclusion of insurance-specific features listed above. 

Salesforce CRM 

Features: 

• Recognized leader – one of the richest functionalities of any CRM
• Impressive integration opportunities
• Powerful AI to leverage best features

Drawbacks: 

• The learning curve may turn out to be very steep
• Not the most affordable pricing

Plans & Pricing: 

• Salesforce offers a free trial, the pricing plans range from $25 per user per month to over $300, the monthly fees varying depending on the needs of each business.

As a leader in the CRM niche, Salesforce offers a multitude of features and add-ons, and some of them are crafted specifically for insurance companies. These add-ons include insurance product administration, insurance policy administration and insurance claims management. It should be noted that Salesforce is definitely not the cheapest CRM, and the add-ons specific to the insurance sector come at a hefty cost. The pricing plans range from $25 per user per month to over $300, the monthly fees varying depending on the needs of each business.

Salesforce can be integrated with numerous other solutions, and its AppExchange marketplace offers various applications, both free and paid, to extend your CRM functionality. Also, Salesforce proudly leads the innovation in the CRM industry, which allows its users to leverage powerful AI features out of the box, at no additional cost.

One of the disadvantages of Salesforce may be its steep learning curve, which is no wonder given its extensive functionality, meaning that for small businesses and simple CRM operations Salesforce might be too complex. Another drawback is that Salesforce needs a quite complex configuration, customization and administration, all of which might require professional assistance. 

Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM 

Features: 

• A lot of room for customization and personalization
• Easy to adopt if your company already uses other Microsoft products

Drawbacks: 

• As with many first-class products, it is rather expensive

Plans & Pricing: 

• No free trial opportunities, Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM will cost $65 per user per month for the main sales module

MS Dynamics 365 offers extensive CRM functionality that insurance companies can leverage. It provides a convenient way to manage both policyholder and broker contacts and allows building custom pipelines for efficient deal management. If your organization already uses other Microsoft products like Outlook, then getting used to the CRM interface should be easy. Pricing is flexible and depends on the modules (or ‘apps’) your business requires. The sales module is $65 per user month, though with other modules it is discounted. Incorporating Microsoft Dynamics CRM into your IT infrastructure and integrating it with the solutions of your choice without professional help might be quite challenging. 

Do you need help evaluating your insurance company’s CRM needs and choosing the best solution? We at OMI can help you make a well-informed decision and create a thorough plan on how to integrate CRM into your existing IT infrastructure and business processes. Our job is to help you make the most of your CRM investment and just help you streamline the work of your agents, boost sales, and improve customer service. Get in touch with us for a consultation.

HubSpot CRM 

Features: 

• Very beginner-friendly and can sync with Google products
• A starting free package is functional enough to be used as is
• Easy creating and managing of invoices and quotes
• Many integrated website tools for bringing in quality leads

Drawbacks: 

• May seem a bit too generalistic – doesn’t focus solely on insurance

Plans & Pricing: 

• Along with the free plan, you can purchase different versions for $45, $450 and $1200 per month (if billed annually), for a limited quantity of users

HubSpot provides many features besides CRM that can be useful for marketing purposes, including site chatbots, email marketing, and site contact forms. Although basic CRM functionality comes at no price at all, advanced options for sales and marketing can be quite expensive – from $45 to $3200 monthly for Marketing Hub (if billed yearly) and up to $1,200 monthly for Sales Hub. At the same time, HubSpot provides wide integration opportunities and even has a developer platform for building custom applications. 

Radiusbob CRM

Features:

• Top insurance industry focused CRM for insurance agents
• Powerful marketing/sales automation feature sets
• Great at helping organize your workflow with tools like calendars, tasks and reminders
• Includes VoIP functionality such as one-click dialers and call recording

Drawbacks: 

• May get pricey, if a lot of users are involved

Plans & Pricing: 

• $34 per month for one user at its basic plan, also offering a free trial

Unlike other CRMs on our list, this one was developed specifically for the insurance sector. Radiusbob’s automation tools include workflows, SMS, email marketing, quote generation, responders, task assignments and many more. There are 4 monthly payment plans to choose from Agent ($34), CSR ($68), broker ($149), and agency ($292). Its lead and pipeline automation includes automated workflows, lead distribution and relationship nurturing, as well as the ability to send 2,000 text messages per month. The integration opportunities are quite limited though, and so is customization. This might be a good solution for small-size agencies and individual agents.

Less Annoying CRM 

Features: 

• A great fit for smaller-sized companies due to affordable pricing models
• Very simple and intuitive to use without sacrificing functionality
• Its task and pipeline management is immaculate

Drawbacks: 

• Not the most reasonably priced option for bigger companies
• Doesn’t offer a mobile app

Plans & Pricing: 

• A free trial is an option, the price is fixed at $15 per user per month

Less Annoying CRM is targeted at small businesses and designed to provide essential features rather than the most features. This makes it user-friendly from the start and includes quick setup and configuration. On top of that, you get free technical support by email or phone, even if you aren’t a customer. The monthly price for Less Annoying CRM is simply $15, with no hidden fees, no contracts, and that is why they call it ‘less annoying’. It has an easy-to-navigate sales pipeline and lead tracking tools, custom options available for select alerts and actions such as renewals or birthdays, and expansive training tools including webinars, videos and support hubs. This solution doesn’t offer a mobile app.

AgencyBloc 

Features: 

• Very industry specific – tailored for life and health insurance
• Offers powerful marketing automation opportunities
• Effectively manages contacts and prospects 
• Enables the monitoring of insurance sales reps figures and commissions

Drawbacks: 

• Can feel relatively expensive and the pricing model is not transparent

Plans & Pricing: 

• You have a free trial option, while the pricing starts at $70 month (depends purely on the AgencyBloc’s quote for your specific insurance business)

AgencyBloc has been around the block for a while now. Offering a CRM tailored to the life and health insurance sector, commissions processing, and integrated business and sales automation, AgencyBloc is an agency management system that aids life and health insurance agencies in maintaining and expanding their company. 

Choose the Best Insurance CRM for Your Business

Specialists at OMI will provide you with full-cycle CRM solutions, including project assessment, installation & integration and product support.