Insurance Companies today are compelled to improve processes related to customer service, marketing and management of their channel partners (Branches, Agents, Brokers & Institutions). Competition in this industry is driven by the hi-end technology; it is also subjected to financial backing and market garnering tactics; mergers and acquisitions are the major occurences which means a constant re-defining of the business policies.

Techonolgy has given the customer an edge by giving him the essential knowledge and timely product information. Since the customer is well informed of the product and its benefits, selling has become doubly difficult for those still focusing on traditional parameters such as premiums, Management costs and Agency commission.

The new market scenario in this industry can at best be summarised as mature, technology-driven, knowledgeable customers, tight rope-walking because of time and cost, shrinking bottom line, high cost of servicing the clients to satisfaction, and several other economic pressures. All these have resulted in the following vagaries which merit immediate attention.

Marketing

• Polices to maintain existing customer
• Attract new customer
• Value added services to existing customers

Partners

• Dissemination of informaton on quality
• Updated Product knowledge and its benefits

Information on existing and extended call centres, effectively.
Optimising the service mechanism with high-end productivity. Optimisation of database products.

For the three circles to be unified and to ensure the required output, it needs a consistent and fool-proof system to avoid any communication gap.