If you want to grow your agency, having the best technology solutions in place is absolutely key. It’s tempting to believe that a small agency doesn’t need to invest in technology because it doesn’t take that long to do everything manually right now. But if you’re looking to grow, the time to invest in better processes and systems is now: before you’re juggling more clients, more carrier partners, and more producers.
As an independent insurance agency, one of your greatest assets is your ability to offer clients the best possible insurance policies for their needs, regardless of the insurance carrier. To truly do this, however, your agency has to have access to the right insurance carrier partners.
For example, if the only insurance carrier partnerships you have in place are notoriously slow at processing claims, bad at customer service, and overpriced in their rates, your producers aren’t going to have much luck keeping clients. Even if you’re partnered with excellent carriers for some lines of business, you could be missing out on fast-growing new products if you don’t have partners who underwrite them.
Here are a few ways to explore and expand your carrier partnerships.
Many agencies are still relying on human power for administrative duties. Over time this becomes incredibly expensive, time-consuming, and inefficient. Studies show that even experienced workers can spend upwards of 30% of their time just trying to find the necessary data to complete their work!
Doing things by hand just doesn’t scale, especially if the task no longer requires a human touch. If you’re aiming to grow your agency’s book of business and revenue, but you still rely mainly on people power, you could find the fruits of your labor quickly eaten up by administrative and operating costs.
One of the best things you can do from a technology perspective is to create a single source of truth for your employees and producers. Nothing is more frustrating than repeated data entry and searching for information across multiple systems.
How you do this can range from the simple to the complex. You can go with a standard cloud-based shared drive like Google, SharePoint, or DropBox, or you can invest in any number of systems purpose-built for the insurance industry. The important part is having a system in place to organize information about your clients and prospects that is accessible in real-time to anyone who needs to access it. It’s also vital that this information is secure and not accessible to those who don’t need it. Taking things to the next level with two-way integrations, for example, between an agency management system (AMS) and a customer relationship management system (CRM), make your technology even more powerful.
Having the right people, the right partnerships, and the right technology are all key elements to consider when growing your agency. If you’re not already working with us, learn more about the benefits of partnering with Pie Insurance for your agency and your clients.
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.
