Natural disasters. Extreme weather. Catastrophic loss. Hard-to-place risk. You don’t have to look far across the insurance landscape to understand why we’re in a hard market and why it’s so severe.
Because the current market is on everyone’s minds, we included questions about how agencies are managing in our annual survey of agency professionals. The results, published in The insurance agency workforce: Talent, tech, and the hard market, showed that agencies across the spectrum are all dealing with the issues this current market brings.
The numbers show agencies are adding new tech to help them manage—25% of small agencies and to 41% of larger ones are augmenting their tech stacks in response to market conditions. And interestingly, professionals in every size agency are turning to insurance knowledge databases.
In fact, 63% of agency professionals either agreed or strongly agreed that the insurance knowledge database is the tech they need to navigate the hard market.
Insurance knowledge database for the win
Nellie Massoni, director of product management, oversees Vertafore’s insurance knowledge database solution: ReferenceConnect. She knows the product inside and out and can account for its power in the market.
“An insurance knowledge database is a library, a phone book, a search engine, and your friend who knows everything about a niche topic—rolled into one tech powerhouse. It puts critical insurance-specific information in one place for agents to access. When this solution is part of the tech stack, every person in an agency, from the owner to the receptionist, has instant access to answers. “
Information empowers agent-client relationships
What are the make-or-break factors for agencies navigating this challenging market? Finding new sales opportunities, building client relationships, and finding efficiencies that reduce time, work, and cost.
Agencies reaching into the market to write new business don’t have time to conduct extensive research into classification codes, state requirements, limitations, and carrier appetites. When clients are inclined to DIY research for policies, an agency is under more time constraints to capture their business.
Agencies need to be able to pursue new business, but it’s equally important to avoid chasing business they can’t write. Information about coverage restrictions, difficult risk placement, and carrier coverage appetites can keep agencies from chasing business that doesn’t pencil out for them.
Relationships weather the hard market
Massoni insists that the insurance knowledge database is prime for building and supporting relationships with clients—ones on the horizon and already in the book.
“It’s important for agents to become trusted advisors for their clients. In this market, where people are looking on their own for coverage, it’s critical. The best way to build trust is to be informed and prepared.”
When this technology is on the professionals’ desks, trusted advisors are equipped with information to anticipate a client’s next steps or future needs. A skilled independent agent can speak knowledgeably about market forces and trends. Clients turn to them when premiums rise or coverage shifts.
An empowered staff is an effective staff
What is an agency’s best protection from hard-market challenges? A prepared and knowledgeable staff. From the producer who has clocked 40 years to the CSM who was hired yesterday, providing access to a deep well of industry data is vital to building an agency that can weather the market storms.
The newest employees must get up to speed fast; an effective onboarding process is the best way to get newbies on their feet. The insurance knowledge database is the best tool for teaching employees what they need to know to be successful. Not only do novice employees gain access to insurance industry information, but they also interact with an agency’s documents.
An insurance knowledge database delivers benefits beyond onboarding. Producers have the data they need to explore new avenues. Servicers can access the information they need to submit policies. Risk profiles and coverage checklists, Service codes, state laws, carrier forms, industry news, and trends—it’s all right there.
“Insurance is complex and data-heavy. The less time professionals have to spend searching for information, the more time they spend on what matters—building relationships, advising clients, and growing the bottom line. Data management is heavy for any agency, but technology eases the burden,” said Massoni.
Better communication with carriers brings it all home
Working effectively and efficiently with carriers—the exchange of information, policy quoting, and logging in and out of websites—is essential to any agency’s success.
With an insurance knowledge database, agencies can access a carrier’s documents—forms, appetites, and other carrier-specific information. They can also receive real-time updates and navigate between carrier websites within the database.
Through these processes, agencies can also truly learn about carriers’ appetites for risk. Massoni insists that having real-time access to a specific carrier’s information is the unsung benefit of this solution.
“Carriers have appetites for underwriting certain risks. Not every carrier writes every policy. So, to pursue different lines of business or niche coverage, agencies have to know which carrier will write which policy. It takes forever for a person to do this level of research. However, with this technology, the information is almost instantaneous.
It’s also a benefit to understand which carriers have increased appetites for certain types of coverage. For example, one company I know ran a special on auto-rates for 80-year-olds. They changed their appetite for this type of risk and notified agencies. Those fortunate enough to get the information capitalized on the great rates.”
Insurance knowledge databases: The solution that grows
Agencies know they need technology like an agency management system. But Massoni asserts that agencies of all sizes should consider an insurance knowledge database as part of their core technology stack as well.
“Yes, it's an extra expense, but the time and effort it saves usually offsets the cost of including it in a tech stack. Small agencies grow by expanding into different lines of business, developing resilient relationships with clients, and investing in efficiencies. All of this becomes possible when you have a repository of industry information at your fingertips.”
Nearly two-thirds of our survey respondents said this technology is helping them as the hard market continues. No wonder. It’s a powerful solution that surfaces the right information to the right people at the right time, empowering agencies to move forward.
Read the Independent Insurance Agency Workforce Report