The industry today
Disjointed processes. Decrease in staff productivity. Inability to provide exceptional client service. These are just some of the pain points plaguing the insurance industry today. You’ve likely seen these problems, as well as:
- Complicated workflows
- Repeat data entry
- No visibility or insights into business
- Extensive employee onboarding
- CSRs too busy to provide exceptional client service
Many agencies fall victim to these problems, and regress in the face of potential progress. But don’t panic—there are solutions to these issues, such as:
- Streamlined workflows on an easily adaptable platform
- Accurate data, entered only once
- Seamless information flow
- Elimination of low value work
- More time spent with customers
Sound like heaven yet?
“The Agent for the Future”
A perfect example of agencies that use similar resources to overcome industry hurdles are in Liberty Mutual’s The Agent for the Future™ program which define “Agents for the Future” as “customer-centric,” and playing “a critical role helping consumers protect what matters most.” Consequently, agents for the future also strive to create the best possible environment for their staff because employees that spend less time on mundane work are happier and can spend more time prioritizing clients.
Simply put, agents for the future provide their staff, as well as their customers, “with a first-class experience.”
Easier said than done, however, without the right tools.
Improving the insurance customer experience
To accomplish this, the Agent for the Future program states that agencies must invest deeply in technology and “bring the next generation of digital tools to life for their customers,” as well as their staff. Your agency must “adapt to customers’ rapidly changing preferences for how and when they want to do business” “by providing easy, time-saving digital tools, 24/7 customer service options and new, innovative products.”
In order to make more time for customers and meet their ever-growing expectations, you must eliminate mundane work for your staff and implement technology that allows them to make customers the number one priority.
Investing in agency management technology that simplifies your internal insurance processes will help you exhibit your agency’s fierce dedication to your customers and will get you one step closer to realizing your agency's ultimate potential.
The future is all BlueSky
Now that you know what characteristics make an agency for the future, what does this look like in practice?
BlueSky Insurance Agency, named one of the 2019 “Agents for the Future,” used to struggle with pain points of their own:
- Trouble maintaining a consistent client experience.
- Lacking the visibility needed for long-term business growth.
- Struggling to find a management system capable of growing with them.
BlueSky knew they needed an agency management system to address these struggles but balked at the idea of putting technology between staff and customers. However, BlueSky’s co-owner Linda Kennedy realized the benefits technology could bring: “It’s not about eliminating the human connection but using technology to make that connection even stronger.”
After instituting a management system, BlueSky was able to focus on maintaining a passion for the customer and was crowned the 2019 “Agent for the Future” for just that—adopting technology that streamlines processes within for deeper connection without.
With the right tools and a new agency management system, the agency gained visibility into customer retention, allowing them to focus on reducing churn and better understand business performance and customer health. Preventing staff from being overworked increased the ease of doing business, and helped the agency provide, according to Kennedy, “relevant valuable information to clients, when and how they want to communicate.”
Kennedy acknowledges, “We are not competing with our next-door insurance agency. We are competing on a broader level of what clients expect… What we need to think about as a business is how can we make it easier for our clients to do business with us?” For BlueSky, implementing a management system to improve business processes internally and meet client expectations was the winning option.
Modernize your insurance agency
Is your agency ready for the future? More importantly, is the future ready for you? Transform all the time wasted on unnecessary processes into time spent fostering client relationships, and you too could become an agent for the future. Adopt an agency management system today and watch your agency soar tomorrow.
Want to learn more about BlueSky’s road to modernization? Read the success story here.