Mobile app development guide for the insurance industry

Last Updated: Sep 05, 2020

Published On: September 5, 2020

Table of Content

Why Does An Insurance Company Need a Mobile App?
Universal Features for Insurance Apps
How can Appinventiv help you with Insurance mobile app development?

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We are talking about an industry that is estimated to reach almost 6.4 trillion USD by the year 2025. The global insurance industry is one of the leading players of the digital business landscape amounting against all odds. The insurance industry is known to maintain multiple touchpoints with its clientele. The rapid and recent technological advancement has seen the insurance sector introduce fleets of new digital solutions that place them right at the fingertips of people. As a result of this wave of digital transformation, pre-existing companies and startups in the insurance market are exploring the prospects of mobile app development. With this development in the business landscape, even the modern customers have become accustomed to utilize services online and insurance products are no different. Insurance products such as mobile apps for insurance agents and customers maintain a touch of finesse considering the diversified nature of operations. Mobile insurance apps help with customer satisfaction, user engagement and increased sales. There are a lot more benefits for insurance companies to invest in mobile app development. To explore these benefits, you would definitely need a mobile app development guide aligned with the insurance market needs. It is to serve you with the right knowledge that we have this mini mobile application guide ready for you to take your first steps towards creating innovation in your insurance business. This guide will help you with how insurance app development can scale your business, insurance app features, and cost of mobile app development.

Why Does An Insurance Company Need a Mobile App?

Insurance, by tradition, has been powered by middlemen. Although taking them entirely out of the picture may not be plausible, mitigating their involvement will grow profit margins, naturally. The mobile apps for insurance agents and users allow real-time B2C interaction, without intermediaries. The positivity also flows down to the customer experience, which can never be exaggerated. And insurtech would be too smart for its own good, not to explore this option. There are three main components that play a vital role in formulating the proverbial pyramid of an insurance company. The pyramid which had played a major role in helping Wefox raise $110M in 2019. This includes the insurer that incorporates and markets financial products and the third-party entities that provide the services covered by the insurer. And the third is the end-user, the customer who has opted in to be insured. Mobile insurance solutions offer the following advantages to insurance companies at the top of the pyramid:

1. Establish Customer Contact

Buyers are more conscious of spending than before. As per stats, 85% of the customers conduct online research before placing their purchase order. Insurance mobile apps make a fine impression in convincing people of instant support in dire need. A study discovered that up to 63% of its sample population was inclined to communicate with a chatbot. Therefore, we have reason to believe registered policy-holders will prefer to download and track policies over mobile. Building on this, they can draw a comparison between multiple products and shortlist the ones with better benefits.

2. Increase User Reach

Experts believe in providing good customer service and turning clients into business affiliates. Referral programs can get you more buyers to loop in provided your mobile insurance solutions are state of the art. There are dual benefits to this. First, optimizing customer recruitment cycles would free up time for insurance agents to target bigger, better clients. And second, you can advertise your mobile insurance platform in related apps to target more customers with semantics marketing.

3. Study Customer Data

The insurance industry can tap into mobile analytics which they can analyze to an extent like never before. Insurance applications can easily gather the following types of structured data:

Identity Data – This includes name, D.O.B, physical address, telephone information, email Id, and/or links to social media profiles such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
Quantitative Data – This is transactional data such as bank account details, credit score, frequency of payments, etc.
Descriptive Data – Insurers may need their customers to disclose property details, car ownerships, professional standing, educational background, along with the family tree.
Qualitative data – This includes subjective/behavioral details such as favorite color, hobbies, etc.
Collecting such vivid information, companies operating in the insurance market can subsequently filter the best-fit prospects for upselling.

4. Facilitate Convenient Services

One of the most common KRAs of those in the finance-frontline is client visits. This could be either for background checks or personal form submission or a routine update of information. Be that as it may, the current COVID-19 crisis does not permit face-to-face screenings. Moreover, the coronavirus onset has led to a rise in demand for insurance applications. So this provides us with sufficient facts to state that insurance app development is all you need to initiate growth in your insurance business. You might want to look into the detailed process of mobile app development to access technical insights.

Universal Features for Insurance Apps

Experts recommend seeking reliable mobile app development guidance from professionals that have appreciable experience in creating cutting edge on-demand digital products. Coupling experience with client feedback rather than loading an app with features just to make it look fab is the first step towards successful mobile insurance apps. There has to be synergy between the color palettes, smart use of white spaces, typographic fonts, and strategic positioning of icons and images. Only then does an app have a life of its own. After taking care of such design elements, we can refocus our aim towards integrating the right feature sets. To give you an overview of the Fintech sector that is attracting investors’ attention, there are four categories of apps that can be developed in the insurtech domain:

Life Insurance mobile apps
Car Insurance mobile apps
Travel Insurance mobile apps
Health Insurance mobile apps

Apps have a strong backend. They withstand peak rises in traffic, or if the company decides to implement a new software system without many amendments to the architecture. It is essential to list the mutual features that can be found in all of the above categories. These features formulate the kernel of a general application guide for Fintech app ideas. Barring few niche specifications, the following features remain steady and ever-present, especially during the insurance app development of any kind:

1. Admin Panel

This is the introductory page where the basic information about the insured person is displayed. Make sure it is lean, clean along with clear call-to-action buttons. Take the Geico insurance app for instance. It’s a car insurance app and hence the profile page displays information related to vehicle IDs, roadside assistance, payment buttons and an option to switch policies. Pretty simplistic. insurance app admin panel

2. Policy Details

This page displays the details of the policy, the manner, and the extent of your benefits. Continuing the same example, since Geico is an auto insurance app for Android and iOS users, it displays information about several policies that a single user could be enrolled into such as one for the car, the other for a bike, and so on. insurance app policy details feature

3. Quote & Filters

A very useful feature particularly in insurance app development. In the previous section, we listed the kind of data that an insurer could collect through a mobile app. The Quote-tab offers a feature where the app can fetch your data from its records and either connect you to an insurance agent or directly state the price of a policy. Assuming the company has the resources to work with Big Data, it can pitch discounted prices or more benefits to customers based on their frequency of asking/exploring new policies. insurance app quotes and filters feature

insurance app quotes and filters feature

4. File a Claim

Integrating a claims-filing section remains the most prioritized stage of financial application development. The run-around days to lodge claims are a thing of the past. Submitting proofs should be as simple as clicking a picture, be it from the scanner of the app or the camera of the phone. If the entire process can be concluded on a single page, all the better. insurance app file a claim feature

5. Payment Gateway

No points for guessing, integration of payment gateway is super necessary for any form of insurance mobile app development. The gateway should accept payments from all major network providers such as Visa, Master Card, etc. In addition to that automated billing for EMIs or a single click payment process should be integrated. insurance app payment gateway feature

6. Customer Support

Chatbots are not extraordinary anymore. Automated responses act as a quick-fix for run of the mill questions. But what about accidental circumstances? You can’t expect a user who’s stranded with a broken vehicle to rely on pre-feeded answers. As a result, integrate a Request a Call Back or Connect with a Representative option. Such in-app call functionality will serve to make the app what it actually is, a disaster averting, quick response machinery. insurance app contact feature

7. Push Notifications

Businesses, in general, don’t miss opportunities to enter a new market segment, let alone insurance companies. The latter might even tweak its business models, should the need present itself. You need an excuse for giveaways and so do the customers for buying your products. Therefore, send regular push notifications informing people of their outstanding sum and any upcoming policies they can swap their current ones with.

8. Document Upload/Storage

How would the customer upload their documents, let alone a photo, if the insurance application development did not incorporate it? Not only must the mobile app allow document upload from local file directories but also import, if need be, from third party servers as in the case of emails. insurance app document upload feature

For reference, Appinventiv – the Clutch backed top Fintech app development company – has worked with over 12 Fintech companies whose solutions facilitate a user base of over 5 million people. Based on this grind, it can be concluded that the above features are commonly found in most trending Fintech apps, if not all. But what about domain-specific areas? Of course, the features would differ as would the architecture. But at a B2C level, we can broadly state in-app features for a few domains, as we’ve done below. insurance sector wise features table

How can Appinventiv help you with Insurance mobile app development?

Your insurance app development can be successful if you join hands with an experienced Android app development company. The combination of high quality apps and low app development cost can expand your business. You can also figure out the app development cost by the type of app you prefer to scale for your insurance app development. Appinventiv guarantees scalability with expertise in application’s consultation, UI/UX design, testing and deployment. We also offer cross android app development across all platforms so that your services are available to all. Connect with us and if there is anything under the sun in Fintech/insurtech that you’re interested in, we’d be happy to burn our night lamp for you.

Avinash Sharma

Solution Architect

Avinash Sharma is the go to person for someone stuck in the glorious mesh of Android world. Currently associated with Appinventiv as a Solution Architect, Avinash has a knack for finding answers to areas that are yet to be explored. A strict out of the box thinker, he ensures that every blank space of Android app development process’s SDLC is filled.

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