EFU Life Insurance company has launched its mobile app, EFU Life PlanIt. Available at both iPhone and Android, the app is clearly targeted towards more tech-savvy people and provides details about its products. In this post we have reviewed the application in details and covered all aspects of it.
App Design
Starting with the design, it has a clean interface with prominent buttons and a slider on the left side of the screen. Most of the functions directly relate with login credentials that do not have ‘Register’ option, meaning only customers holding policy can access that features.
Once a policy holder logins, he can get more details about the company, read more about available products and find contact details in case they want to discuss queries with relevant people.
Anything for non-customers
There are two options available for non-customers to use. Need Analysis Tool and Tax Saving, both can be used for calculations purposes though they come with their own shortcomings.
Need Analysis Tool
Need Analysis Tool allows you to select from different requirements (Investment, Saving, Retirement Plan, Loan, Build Your Dream House etc) based on current marital status (Young & Single, Young & Married, Married & Kids, Nearing Retirement) . Once selected, on the next screen you choose various financials inputs relevant to your need. For example if you are looking for Child financial plans, it further refines by asking for Child Education or Child Marriage. If you choose Child education plan, it then take different inputs such as current fees per annum, number of years after which you need this money and other inputs. Though the inputs are easy to choose by using a slider however knowing such low penetration of insurance and bleak understanding of insurance products, EFU should have made this more simpler by having help content or icons that explain each item.
As you move forward with this tool, it gets a bit more cheeky. Once you select the relevant financial figures and click Next, the next screen will ask you to register. It requires some details, including name and email address, and clicking next will show you the calculations based on your previous inputs. If you want to adjust some figures, you will again have to fill the registration form. So each time you will use the tool, you would have to fill the form.
An email is sent to you on each form submission (all fell in spam folder in our case) and it is an irritating process. Unclear if someone with login credentials will go through the same registration process or not but there is little incentive for a non-customer of EFU to use this tool.
Tax Saving
Tax Saving tool is much simple. In fact, it is too simple to be of much use in any case. On first screen you select if you are salaried or non-salaried, and on next screen you input figures such as income, bonuses, insurance premium etc to find out how much tax you would save. Having no Insurance premium gives you no result, so the tool only works if you pay premium on insurance. Still a useless option for non-customers.
Verdict
EFU Life PlanIT is good, clean app that fulfill many requirements for EFU customers. There is little incentive for non-customers to use it and some of the features are irritating, overall it is targeted only towards tech-savvy customers of EFU to benefit them and may be potential life insurance seekers but there is a lot more to be done. Overall its a step in the right direction knowing the exponential uptake of smartphones and faster internet in Pakistan
