Insurance Mobile App Development: Everything You Need to Know

According to a recent forecast by Statista, the global insurance market is estimated to reach $8.4 trillion by 2026 making it one of the leading players of the digital business landscape, 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 insurance 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. 

Mobile insurance apps for insurance agents and customers maintain a touch of finesse considering the diversified nature of operations while helping in increasing customer satisfaction, user engagement as well as sales. There are a lot more benefits for insurance companies that are looking to invest in insurance mobile app development. To explore these benefits, you would definitely need a mobile app development guide aligned with the insurance market needs. 

This blog will help you understand how to build an insurance app that can scale your business, insurance app features, and cost of insurance mobile app development.

Why Does An Insurance Company Need a Mobile App: Understanding the Benefits of Insurance Mobile App Development for Your Business

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. 

Insurance mobile app development 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 insurance app development 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. If you build an insurance app, it 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. Also Read: How Data Analytics is Driving Innovation in the Insurance Sector

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 web app development is all you need to initiate growth in your insurance business. A dedicated insurance mobile app development company Los Angeles can ultimately help you understand the benefits in detail by analyzing your custom business requirements.

Types of Insurance Apps

The types of insurance apps you can develop for your business depend on the niche your organization operates in. In general, the Insurtech domain has witnessed six different kinds of insurance app development that are further based on financial aspects you need to protect:

Life Insurance Apps

Life insurance app development services can help you create an app for the users that can help them streamline their routine processes, such as: 

• Choosing the right policy as per their requirements
• Review the terms and conditions of every possible available to them
• Complete the data-sharing process online
• Use a dedicated payment gateway
• Get instant notifications
• Calculate the rate of interest automatically
• Get 24×7 customer support 

Vehicle Insurance Apps

Vehicle insurance apps act as digital saviors for users that have met with an accident and wish to take claim for their assets. The vehicle insurance apps help the users to:

• Take and upload pictures of the accident site in real-time
• File an asset claim on the spot
• Get a repair estimate and the related functionalities
• Upload relevant data like images, videos, documents, police reports
• Access documents with ease

Property Insurance Apps

Property insurance app development allows you to create a robust mobile app that offers users a seamless way to insure their property, jewelry, artwork, real estate, etc. The app is capable of streamlining a way via which the users can:

• Choose an appropriate policy
• File claim at the right time
• Receive regular reminders on property maintenance
• Track the property for damages

Health Insurance Apps

Health insurance app development is a sure shot way to create a mobile app that offers the users:

• The choice to get insurance across different medical disciplines
• Choose their preferred doctors
• Book appointments in real-time 
• Access their documents and complete the formalities online
• Search for appropriate health plans
• Compare the prices for multiple pharmacies and clinics

Travel Insurance Apps

Travel insurance app development allows organizations to offer a range of services to their user base that allows them to:

• Minimizes the risk in emergencies 
• Covering unforeseen medical expenses
• Reimburse their medical expenses in an accident
• Get a claim against luggage loss and trip cancellations
• Get instant cross-border access in emergencies

Business Insurance Apps

Business insurance app development is capable of safeguarding multiple business investments made by users by allowing them to:

• Select the right insurance package according to their business size & nature of risk
• Get instant claims on loss and fraud by easily uploading documents
• Minimize the loss by settling an insured event

What are the features of an insurance app?

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. 

Apps have a strong backend. They withstand peak rises in traffic, or offer optimum performance 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 when you wish to build an insurance app:

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. 

Bonus Read- Telematics Insurance: The Next Technology Frontier For Your Business

2.  Policy Details 

This page integrated during car insurance mobile app development 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.

3.  Quote & Filters

Quotes and filters are few of the necessary features to be taken into perspective when you build an insurance 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 insurance app development 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.

4.  File a Claim

Integrating a claims-filing section remains the most prioritized stage of insurance web app 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.  

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 order to build an insurance app that resonates with every user base, it is vital to offer automated billing for EMIs or a single click payment process. 

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, when you develop an insurance app, remember to integrate a Request a Call Back or Connect with a Representative option. In-app call functionality is the one of the most sought-after insurance app features that will serve to make the app what it actually is, a disaster averting, quick response machinery.

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 you develop an insurance app that 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. 

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.

Tech Stack to Build an Insurance App

The development process chosen by the dedicated insurance app development company and the underlying platform are the two primary factors that determine the selection of libraries, languages, frameworks, development toolkits, and programming methods for building a robust insurance app built with AI capabilities. The choice of the tech stack is crucial to ensure the app’s stability, scalability, and security. Take the implementation of technologies like metaverse in the insurance industry as an example.

Legal Compliance Requirements for Insurance Application Development

When developing insurance apps, ensuring legal compliance is crucial to avoid regulatory issues and protect user data. This includes adhering to industry-specific regulations such as GDPR for data protection, PCI-DSS for secure payment processing, and state or national insurance laws governing policy management and claims.

Moreover, if the app is for the medical domain, you must also adhere to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Additionally, insurance application development must implement strong authentication methods, provide clear terms of service, and ensure transparency in handling customer information to build trust and avoid legal liabilities.

How to Develop an Insurance Mobile App for Your Business

The development process to create a user-centric InsureTech mobile app, custom to your business, includes four stages. To gather initial customer feedback, it is recommended to develop an MVP first, and after it gains traction in the market, you can then switch to a fully-fledged mobile app that is bound to pave the way for business success. 

1. Discovery Phase

The discovery phase includes conducting an in-depth analysis of the InsureTech sector that further defines the overall development process involved. The development team first creates a blueprint of developmental activities, sets the development milestones, and outlines the major app features to be integrated. 

The purpose of the discovery phase is to ensure that all team members have a clear understanding of the expected deliverables. The major advantage of gathering this information upfront is that it allows the development team to make informed choices and develop a comprehensive project plan that resonates with the brand voice.

The processes involved in a discovery phase include:

• Market analysis
• Competitor analysis
• Cost analysis

2. Design Phase

The design phase of the insurance app will help you understand how the app will look after its completion while offering you a legitimate idea of how it will function. 

It is first recommended to start with a design prototype that can help you adjust the user flows. In addition to this, a product prototype will also help you guide in the development process while further acting as an elevator pitch for the investors too. 

The blueprint that has been generated in the discovery phase will offer the designers a clear idea of the multiple technical requirements as well as the overall business idea. The UI/UX design phase will help you get the following:

• A UX wireframe
• UI design of the different app screens
• A working app design that is clickable
• A collaborative design file

3. Development and Testing Phase

During this phase, the working UI/UX design gathered from the design phase will be transformed into a functional mobile app. The process includes a combined effort from the backend and frontend programmers. 

Furthermore, to ensure timely delivery, it is recommended to have a project manager oversee the development process and establish the milestones so that the developers adhere to the strict guidelines. This will help to keep the project on track and ensure that all goals are met within the specified timeframe.

After the competition of the frontend and backend development process, the quality assurance engineers run a series of tests to identify any potential vulnerabilities in the endpoints and user interfaces. These tests are capable of ensuring the overall security and stability of the app. 

4. App Deployment and Maintenance

The next step of the development process is to launch the platform on both Apple App Store and Google Play. It is crucial to prioritize user feedback immediately after the product launch. By studying and applying users’ feedback, you can ensure rapid improvements and updates when necessary. 

The main aim is to increase the number of users, as this will lead to more feedback, which will ultimately improve the quality of our platform and insurance offerings. Continual feedback will be used to address complaints and suggestions to enhance our product.

Related Article: Health insurance app development: A cost, features and benefits analysis

How much does it cost to build an insurance app?

To give you a rough estimate, the cost of insurance app development varies between $35,000 to $250,000. There are several factors that further affect the insurance app development cost such as the location of the app development agency, the UI/UX design of the app, its feature list, tech stack, the development process, etc.

In simpler terms, a highly complex app with an extensive feature list will increase the cost of insurance app development as compared to developing an app which is less complex and has minimal features. Let us try and offer you the estimated insurance app development cost as well as the time frame as per multiple app complexities.

THE AUTHOR

Peeyush Singh

DIRECTOR & CO-FOUNDER