Agent Connectivity: Give Your Reps Tools to Drive More Business

What's this article about? This article describes ten ways agents can improve efficiency and drive more business for the insurance companies with which they work by using enterprise content management software. Web-based collection of information, search, access, review, quoting, distribution, and compliance are discussed.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Nowhere is this truer than in the birth of the modern insurance industry and its continual transformation. The industry we know today was born after the Great Fire of London in 1666, which burned more than 13,000 homes and left over 100,000 people homeless. Nicholas Barbon opened the first insurance company in the aftermath, lessening people’s fears while taking advantage of business opportunity. The delicate balance between managing calculated risks to generate a profit—while protecting the people’s interests— always was, and still is, challenging. The sophisticated enterprise technology of today, however, makes it possible to play the insurance game and win, yet serve the people well.

Agents play a critical role in the satisfaction of Insureds, working hard to make efficient, intelligent choices on their clients’ behalf. As middlemen in the insurance process, they typically have access to a wide array of carrier choices, and are a driving force in the success of the companies whose products and services they sell. Serving agents efficiently and making their jobs easy and cost-effective is the goal of any carrier who plans to be in business for the long term.

A Web-based enterprise content management (ECM) solution that is integrated with your quoting, underwriting, and claims software lets authorized agents access data securely wherever they are, view it however they desire, and act on it promptly. More importantly, it increases their trust in your company. When your agents are confident that data is accurate, timely, and complete, they can take opportune and appropriate actions on behalf of the people they represent. A list of ten ways ECM can help them to be effective—and ultimately help you increase business—is provided below.

Ten ECM Benefits to Help Your Agents Succeed

ECM software that is integrated with a carrier’s critical business systems can help agents to:

1. Collect (information) easily.

Selling insurance is cumbersome. It involves considerable data collection. Carriers rely heavily on agents to gather materials efficiently that are needed in order to grow their business and maintain a positive cash flow. Enterprising agents want to serve as many customers as they can and retain them as long as possible. Any way that carriers can alleviate the unwieldy process makes agents more eager to do business with them. Technologies resulting in better, faster, more cost-effective service are extremely attractive.

ECM integrated with desktop scanning, online electronic forms, bar code readers, and digital pens coupled with e-forms delivers a giant step forward in efficiency and speed. Agents and their clients can provide data quickly that can be indexed internally for subsequent search, where its value is shared by everyone who needs it. Self-service becomes easier with electronic forms, giving clients ownership over information accuracy and completeness. ECM lets agents work faster and more efficiently wherever they are, at any time.

2. Search effectively.

Web-based, digital management of documents dramatically facilitates search capabilities. It allows agents to access data they need regardless of the source. Scanned papers, emails, faxes, electronic forms, and even audio and visual files are all searchable in one central digital repository, eliminating time-consuming duplicate searches. Thorough categorization, which surpasses encyclopedic indexing, eliminates frustrating searches for multiple parties that share the need to access documents.

3. Access appropriately.

ECM that centrally administers and accesses several applications eliminates multiple logins. At the same time, it helps you secure data according to what agents (and other employees) are authorized to view. Software that includes robust Web services increases functionality (such as adding buttons within familiar software application screens for frequently used searches), eliminating the learning curve, and delivering information quickly. Frustrating searches through multiple files in mixed paper and electronic media are replaced by a single, global search. Each quest delivers results pertinent to the task at hand, shortening turnaround times. This makes the agent’s job easier and allows him or her to focus on additional new business.

4. Review thoroughly.

Quick access to reliable information facilitates processing, letting agents synchronize data for faster review. Business process management tools let you make it easy, standardizing the packaging of documents needed for new policies and change requests. Alerts are sent automatically to the appropriate rep when everything is received. Agents waste less time and are ready to act as soon as all documents are in place. Online access to all documents helps your agent make informed decisions. Commission statements and other key documents can also be stored centrally and made available securely online, an added incentive to drive the revenue stream forward—and upward.

5. Quote competitively

Although ECM software isn’t required in order to provide effective quotes, it does provide the carrier with valuable insights into the agent’s clients, helping to measure and mitigate risk. It can also guard the agent against oversights and protect the insurer from claims of negligence. Take, for example, a client who has home insurance and has filed two claims for sinkhole damage in the back yard. Let’s assume the client applied recently for thirdparty liability insurance and neglected to mention the sinkholes on the application, a significant indicator of potential risk that the agent missed. Integration of the quoting software with ECM would make it easier to spot the oversight and amend the application. When a visitor to the client’s property stumbles, resulting in a broken leg and medical bills, your company would have quoted and ultimately collected the appropriate (higher) premium, and would be better protected against claims of injury and other damages.

Electronic access to all of the information needed to create, verify, and communicate appropriate quotes quickly gives your agent an edge over the competition. It helps your agents close deals using the right information, before competing offers of coverage result in lost sales for your business.

6. Decide quickly.

By collecting a client’s data from multiple applications over time, both agent and carrier have a clearer picture of true risk. A robust ECM system with Web services integration that is designed for insurers gives your agent the ability to view multiple applications simultaneously. An ECM system also allows agents to request routine lists or specific data and display them on their familiar screens. By collecting, synchronizing, and analyzing data digitally, decisions are made quickly and agents are more productive. Remote access lets them make informed decisions on the move, sometimes enabling straight-through, on-the-spot application processing. Rather than the client remaining uninsured for another day, the customer is covered quickly. You collect your premium faster, and the agent is happier.

7. Act intelligently.

ECM lets you establish business rules in your standard underwriting process that help your agents succeed the first time. Scanning and importing of data eradicates errors from improperly keyed information; guards against incomplete forms; and provides an easy but secure overview of all information relevant to an agent’s clients. Business process reporting tools make it easy to see which agents drive business forward. It also provides important demographic information that helps them target new business more effectively. The knowledge provided by ECM puts the tools for agent success, acknowledgement, and recognition in your hands, helping you keep agent morale high and improving retention in the long term.

8. Distribute efficiently.

Effective content management helps your agents access the documents and information they need efficiently, enabling them to distribute work for processing easily via email. Processing times are shorter, and policies are issued more quickly. Customers are insured more quickly, minimizing their risk while increasing the bottom line for your company and its agents.

9. Satisfy immediately.

Technology’s ability to deliver information quickly has resulted in customers demanding and expecting prompt service. ECM diminishes the need for 24/7 administrative staff support. It gives agents what they need faster, with less stress and fewer errors. Global oversight of a client’s account any time, anywhere, helps the agent communicate effectively and knowledgeably with the client, making it easier to provide sound advice. This increases customer retention, loyalty from the customer to the agent, and, consequently, agent loyalty to the carrier, helping you to compete.

10. Comply completely.

One of the greatest advantages of ECM is its unrelenting tracking of transaction details. In today’s climate of constant litigation, tedious insurance audits, and the move toward e- Discovery, attention to detail and timely, unquestionable proof of compliance are vital. ECM, including the reporting capabilities of robust business process management tools, can replace hundreds of hours of unproductive quests through mixed media with quick, centralized, and productive electronic searches. False claims against your company or its agents can be extinguished with indubitable proof, protecting honest agents and your company’s name before credibility is undeservingly damaged.

Summary

Simply stated, a well-conceived and properly implemented ECM system allows agents to handle more clients and increase their earnings potential by working more efficiently. No longer subject to your business hours or support staff’s availability, the answers they need lay before them, just a few clicks away. By underwriting more business, faster, they can earn more—faster—for themselves and for your business. Morale soars, along with their income and profits. With some help from you and smart ECM tools, agents can play the insurance game better and smarter, winning the trust of their clients while increasing your company’s sales and ability to compete. Everyone benefits.

When choosing an ECM vendor, make sure the company has the same connectivity to the insurance world and to their customers that you have – or want to have - with your clients. Make sure they have high-performance software that will scale and grow with your changing needs and domain expertise to address every business requirement. Most importantly, make sure they have a reputation for the kind of customer service that you – and ultimately your agents - would be proud to call your own.

Managing, mediating, negotiating, and representing client needs against company regulations requires prompt and thorough information. Just as in Nicholas Barbon’s day in the aftermath of the Great Fire, managing calculated risk while serving the public interest is challenging. Today, agents don’t have to be everywhere at once to get the answers they need. By placing the right tools in their hands, they can serve you and their customers well.

For more information or to schedule a demonstration, please Contact DocFinity now.