As a modern independent agent, you have a lot on your plate. From keeping up with the competition to sourcing new business opportunities, it can feel like moving at 100 miles per hour. And without the right systems in place, it may feel like the only option is to put an exceptional, time-saving business model on the back burner.
The good news: there are ways to improve the independent agent experience. Give producers time back to focus on maintaining vital relationships with clients and improving business processes.
Here are four effective ways to improve the agent experience for the benefit of your independent agency.
1. Increase visibility into business processes.
Lack of visibility adds unnecessary time and effort onto staff to seek out information for themselves. Without the proper tools, like a modern management system, this can take away valuable time staff needs to focus on revenue-generating activities. With the proper tools, it’s as quick as snapping your fingers.
Seeing a complete view of the day’s work on a day-to-day basis allows more efficient workflow management, productivity, and consistency. Producers won’t have to spend hours deciphering tasks because they will already be deciphered for them, and can more easily focus on maintaining relationships with clients through efforts like retention.
2. Connect to carriers quickly, in real time.
Trying to create a quote for a customer or updating policy information can take hours, or even days, to complete. Faxing or mailing paper documents back and forth, playing telephone tag, and constantly transferring information to and from different systems has been the name of the game for so long. Not anymore.
Connectivity is key for an instant experience. That’s why it’s vital to implement a management system that connects to carriers quickly, knocking time off going back and forth between carrier’s system and your agency’s system.
Update policy data and status information from personal and commercial lines in less time than it takes to curate a single email. With the right technology, you won’t have to spend eons communicating with carriers—all carrier information is at your fingertips, updated and in real time, so you can quote, rate, bind, and transfer policy information to your clients with ease.
3. Automate outreach to end-insureds.
Say goodbye to manual sales and marketing outreach efforts that take time away from staff. And don’t worry—this doesn’t render your staff obsolete. Instead, it lends a helping hand to lessen an intensive workload and provides employees with business insights they might not have otherwise.
Automation through a modern agency management system allows staff to deliver the right information to the right client at the right time; through this tool, agents utilize the data they already have to execute personalized outreach, which makes the process that much easier.
By using your own data to reach out to your end-insureds, sales and marketing automation will allow your producers to more easily service existing customers, or identify prospects and cross-selling opportunities with their leftover time. According to Insurance Business Magazine’s article, “How marketing automation can shake things up for insurers,” leveraging marketing automation can lead to a 95% retention rate—9% higher than the industry average.
4. Invest in modern insurance technology.
Think the above is unattainable for your independent agency? Think again. With the help of dashboard tools, connectivity tools, and campaign technology that automates processes for you, these results can be your reality.
Modern technology is the future for the insurance industry, especially as customer expectations and technology innovations continue to evolve. Breeze Insurance mentions that “global investment in insurtech rose from $348 million in 2012 to $4.15 billion in 2018.” Things are only looking up for technology in the insurance sphere, and agencies who implement it in their business are one step ahead of a ground-breaking game.
Invest in the best Insurtech the industry has to offer and increase efficiency with a modern agency management system that will help you get one step closer to your growth and efficiency goals.
Interested in adopting modern agency technology to save time and improve the agent experience in your business? Read our management system guide to help you decide which system aligns best with your agency’s goals.