Your agents have a lot on their plates. Today’s savvy insurance buyers expect a personalized and responsive relationship while also being empowered to complete key purchasing and renewal tasks online on their own time. Automating tasks is one way your agency can please both your policyholders and your agents.
Automating insurance agency tasks can help agents be more efficient. For example, automating regular client communications allows you to stay in touch and continue to build trust and rapport with less effort. With the right tools, the process can be simple—and seamless.
Another benefit of automating tasks is that automation bakes in consistency. Your agency likely has established office policies, procedures, and processes. Once you find a process that works for you and your client, you can put automation to work for you.
You’ve got to strike while the iron is hot. When you get a lead, time is of the essence. Customer relationship management (CRM) software can help you build a workflow to ensure that leads are contacted promptly and adequately nurtured down the sales funnel. For example, you can automatically create a task for someone to follow up with a new prospect or schedule a follow-up email a certain number of days after sending an application for insurance.
You also can automate ongoing lead-nurturing tasks, such as emailing leads when you add a new insurance product and sending welcome letters. Software like MailChimp and Constant Contact make this easy.
Automation software allows you to assign prospects to agents. Then, you can easily view your entire team’s workload, evenly distribute tasks, and use automated workflows to be sure that every client receives consistent, appropriate follow-up.
While some customers will conduct most of their business online through your website, you’re still going to get some calls. CRM software can automatically record phone calls and import valuable information from those phone calls into a database. Automating call reminders means that no opportunity to connect with a lead is lost.
Even if you don’t want to invest in a full CRM solution, there are still ways to make it easier for customers and prospects to schedule appointments with agents. Software like Calendly and You Can Book Me lets you specify which hours you’re available for meetings. Leads, colleagues, and clients can book time on your schedule without a flurry of emails clogging up your inbox.
You’ve probably seen it while surfing the web: you’re visiting a website, and then a box pops up, asking if you need help. These automated chatbots are a simple way to provide instant answers to prospects and policyholders alike. Consider adding a chatbot to your website or Facebook page to provide instant answers to common questions. They’re easier than email and increasingly popular with younger customers.
As we’ve mentioned earlier, email is a powerful tool for following up with and staying connected to leads. Use automated email marketing campaigns to remind clients to review their insurance needs, send out anniversary or birthday messages, or reignite cold leads with information about saving on insurance. Simply create an email template and define the appropriate parameters (For example, send a policy anniversary message three days before the policy end date). The system will then send the email on the appropriate date to ensure nothing falls through the cracks. And, most email automation systems will help you personalize email messages with each customer’s first name, policy expiration date, company name and more.
According to the Big I’s 2020 Agency Universe Study, 64 percent of insurance agencies communicate with policyholders via text. Like email reminders, you can automate text communications to your customers’ smartphones. And, with the right configuration, all text conversations can be automatically captured in a CRM database to refer to later.
Proactive communication around policy renewal time is essential for client retention. Get a head start on policy renewals by sending an automated reminder to the agent of record and an email to the policyholder. An early start on this process will ensure everyone is on the same page and reduce stress for everyone involved.
While you may view social media marketing as a necessary evil, there are ways to take some of the pain out of the process. Services like Buffer and Hootsuite enable you to schedule posts to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more in advance from a single dashboard. Consider setting aside an hour or so at the end of the month to write and schedule all of your posts for the next month. Then, it’s off your to-do list. Well, until next month!
It’s true that setting up automation takes some time and may require a chunk of your budget, but it’s an investment that will reap big rewards.
Thanks for reading our educational resource! Any above reference to a specific company, method, or product is meant for educational purposes only and is not specifically endorsed by Pie.
