Ensuring a standout agent experience
Our client is the pioneer and leader of the insurance franchise model. For nearly two decades, they’ve been cultivating a powerful network, now boasting over 300 agencies across the U.S. that serve individual and business customers and manage over $1.5 billion in annualized written premiums.
The company’s key to success is a custom-built, advanced CRM and agency management platform based on Dynamics 365. It acts as the central workflow hub, standardizing operations and quickly bringing new franchisees up to speed, ensuring a consistent and exceptional experience across the organization’s vast network.
Beyond sales, the CRM also empowers a dedicated post-sales customer service team. This strategic division allows franchisees to focus on expanding their customer base, while the client’s employees manage post-sales support. It’s a collaborative approach that guarantees effective support throughout the entire customer lifecycle.
The modernization challenge
The platform was crafted with input from franchisees and designed to optimize their productivity. It’s the main platform for policy creation, book management, and customer data. However, as the client continues its impressive growth, so do the user and customer expectations.
Driven by a commitment to continuous improvement, the company sought to enhance the platform with cutting-edge functionalities, including AI capabilities. The goal is to simplify workflows for both franchisees and employees, enabling them to serve both new and existing customers with greater efficiency.
Crafting seamless digital experiences
Our partnership began in 2024, with a clear objective: to infuse the robust CRM system with intelligent automations and AI-powered features. The core of this transformation centered on updating their Dynamics 365 for Sales foundation. The initial phase focused on standardizing the sales process, adapting the entire flow from initial insurance inquiry to policy generation. This change also necessitated comprehensive UI customization. Taking the helm from a global integrator, we navigated the complexities of integrating new CRM functionalities while protecting the client’s existing investment and ensuring its compatibility with the planned updates.
Speeding up sales cycles with an interactive pipeline view
Our top priority was updating the UI to empower franchisees with an agile, intuitive workflow. The cornerstone of the solution is a customized Kanban board we built in React and seamlessly embedded within Dynamics 365. This interactive tool provides agents with a dynamic visual of their sales pipeline. They can effortlessly drag and drop leads through sales funnel stages, assign relevant tags, and maintain an at-a-glance overview of their current pipeline.
The solution required intricate integrations and in-depth analysis for proper dependency management. However, the user interface ensures speed and convenience for agents directly within Dynamics 365 and was met with great enthusiasm from franchisees. This update was a result of our close collaboration with the client and proved our unwavering focus on delivering successful outcomes for them. By proving the value of Dynamics 365, we earned the client’s trust and our partnership continues to flourish.
Optimizing customer support
Beyond custom development for Dynamics 365 Sales, we also implemented Dynamics 365 Customer Service. This powerful addition provides a 360-degree view of customer service inquiries and, crucially, automates the case assignment process. The driving force here was maximizing automation, allowing the client to standardize operations and work more efficiently.
A key element of the solution is unified routing, which ensures that email inquiries are accurately directed to the most relevant agents through AI-powered sentiment analysis and skill-based agent assignment. The client’s employees manage an astounding 30,000 emails and 20,000 cases every month. Intelligent routing has dramatically shortened inquiry pickup times and reduced the number of emails requiring agent interaction, resulting in time savings and a significant improvement in the overall customer experience.
Streamlining customer service
Our ongoing collaboration extends to simplifying query resolution. With the upcoming integration of Dynamics 365 for Contact Center, the client’s customers will enjoy expanded communication channels, including text and chat options in addition to phone. We’re also enhancing self-service capabilities within the client’s customer portal.
The goal is for all customer communication to be centralized within Dynamics 365. This will foster seamless cooperation between the client and its franchisees, as both will be able to access and act upon the same accurate information. Data centralization also enables the configuration of automated marketing journeys over email and text. This unified approach directly translates to an even better customer experience.
Strengthening core systems
The implementation of Dynamics 365-based solutions allowed the client to retire some of their legacy software, optimizing both system architecture costs and ongoing management. Practically, it means their employees and franchisees now operate with greater efficiency using unified, centralized tools.
To further bolster internal operations, we’re working closely with the company’s business administrators to configure process templates, e.g. for cancellations or renewals. This empowers the client to define and automate new processes without the need for custom development, keeping all essential knowledge and tools within a single, powerful platform.
Currently, the platform serves approximately 1,300 sales users and around 250 customer service agents. As the organization plans to expand both its franchise network and internal operations, we remain a steadfast partner, providing ongoing platform maintenance and developing new solutions as needed.
Building a shared future
Over time, our collaboration has organically evolved into a true partnership. While we’ve taken responsibility for implementation, we’re equally committed to knowledge transfer and empowering the client’s in-house team. The goal is to enable their team to independently maintain and evolve the solution as they gain deeper expertise in CRM usage and development.
As the organization embarks on testing and developing new solutions on its own, we’re consistently there to offer strategic guidance and support, ensuring new additions seamlessly integrate and perform optimally within the entire ecosystem. We remain committed to the client’s vision and will continue to provide innovative solutions that empower them to achieve every ambitious goal.
