Insurtech in Türkiye: The Front End Is Modernizing — What About Operations?

When you say "insurtech" in Türkiye, what usually comes to mind is online policy sales, price comparison engines, and mobile apps. Correct — these have transformed and continue to transform. But the other half of insurtech is rarely discussed: the operations side.

Claims management, authorization workflows, assistance services, partner networks, customer retention. Here, paper, telephone, and Excel still hold weight. And this is where the real customer experience gets decided.

What's Happening on the Visible Side?

Over the last 5–7 years, distribution and sales in Turkish insurance have modernized significantly:

• Online policy sales: auto, mandatory traffic, health — buyable in minutes.
• Comparison platforms give customers choice.
• Mobile customer apps: policy view, digital card, basic claim submission.
• Insurtech startups: mostly focused on sales channels and distribution.

Investment, product, and user experience are maturing on this side. Customers now get a good experience for "buying a policy."

What's Happening on the Operations Side?

Policy sold — then what?

Here's the usual state:

• Claims process: customer calls, fills a form; adjuster is assigned; process is managed by phone; outcome comes days later.
• Authorization flows (in health insurance): manual messaging between the insurer and healthcare provider; customer waits in the middle.
• Assistance services (bonuses on policies: check-ups, boiler maintenance, air conditioning service, eye exams): partner network usually tracked in Excel; appointment scheduling by phone; reporting is manual.
• Customer retention: one touch at renewal time — silence the other 11 months.

This is where customers actually touch insurance. And this side has not modernized.

Why the Delay?

1. Regulation is heavy. Insurance is regulated; every innovation goes through compliance. Limited room to experiment.
2. Legacy systems. Most insurers run core systems from the 90s and 2000s. Modern integration is hard and risky.
3. Sales took priority. When investment is limited, prioritizing the visible side (sales) is natural. The "operations later" mindset is common.
4. Ecosystem is fragmented. Assistance services often work with 200+ partners (boiler technicians, opticians, HVAC installers…) — bringing them into one system is organizational work.

The Real Opportunity: Assistance and Retention

What's the biggest reason customers leave an insurance company? Not price — experience. If the customer had a good year-long experience as a policyholder, they renew. If not, they switch.

Assistance services are critical here. After the policy is bought:

• When can they use their free check-up right, and at which health facility?
• Whom do they call for boiler maintenance?
• How is the appointment scheduled, when will it happen, what happens on-site?

Today, in most places this process is:

• Insurer call center → manual appointment
• Notification to partner by phone
• SMS / call to customer
• Post-service result entered into Excel by hand
• Year-end report = incomplete data

Yet this process becoming digital, automated, and data-driven is technically possible today. And it maps directly to customer retention.

Operational Insurtech: A BenefitCodes Example

BenefitCodes addresses exactly this problem with BGPlus: a CRM platform that fully digitizes insurance groups' assistance service operations end-to-end.

What it does:

• Customer side: sees their entitlements, books appointments, gets reminders.
• Partner side: sees service requests, manages appointments, submits service results.
• Insurer side: the whole flow is live-visible; reporting is automated.
• Data layer: every service outcome is captured as structured data → AI-based risk scoring, health trend analysis, retention prediction.

Result: customer experience moves from phone/Excel to digital, the insurer gains real-time visibility, and retention data starts building up.

Türkiye's Advantage in Operational Insurtech

Türkiye is slightly ahead of the global average on the distribution side. On operations — it's not behind many developed markets. So closing the gap here turns into competitive advantage fast.

Assistance, health insurance operations, auto claims workflows — all have the foundation for strong insurtech solutions to be built in Türkiye.

Conclusion

The next wave of insurtech in Türkiye probably won't be at the front. The real competition will play out during the 365 days the customer holds the policy. Whoever digitizes those processes best wins retention and growth.

If you'd like to discuss modernization of an insurance operation, assistance services, or authorization flows, let's schedule a 30-minute call. We'd be happy to share the learnings from our BGPlus experience.