What if you could predict the future? What would you do with what you know?
Well, in a way you can… for your agency.
It’s been said the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. With customer insurance data analysis, you can look at how your insured have behaved and use that information to grow your client base. But you need to be careful. Spotty data leads to inaccurate readings and bad predictions.
Tracking Customer Data
Chances are you already have access to all the customer information you need; it’s just a matter of intentionally tracking it. Utilize your agency management system to strategically capture:
Customer engagement: how often you interact with your customers and how they engage with your marketing efforts. Your management system’s notes feature and email integration are handy here.
Get more tips on how to improve your agency’s marketing here
Referrals: know where referrals come from (online, in person, via a specific marketing campaign) and when they happen. Paying attention to cycles of when more referrals come in helps you capitalize on opportunity.
Policy renewal dates: too many agencies lose customers simply because they weren’t paying attention. Know when your customer’s policies are up for renewal and give them some extra communication and support to guarantee they stay. Do the same for prospects, tracking when their policies are up and reaching out at just the right time.
Customer milestone dates: add birthdays, anniversaries, and other important dates to your customer profiles. Set reminders and send a celebratory email or card. This small gesture helps build your connection.
Premium/commission amount: getting a read on customer premium or commission amounts helps you prioritize your development approaches. It doesn’t mean paying attention to some customers while ignoring others, but instead aids in putting the right amount of resources into each customer connection.
Keeping Data Clean
After you set a plan in place to deliberately capture customer information, you’ll need to ensure the data you’re working with is clean. Follow these tips to keep your customer info up to date and accurate:
Keep daily policy and commission information accurate and correctly matched with daily policy downloads
Stay on top of manually entered/non-downloadable policies
Ensure cancelled and rewritten policies are adjusted to reflect the correct transaction type, ensuring New Business reports are accurate
Set up regular data checkups, going through your data in chunks and cleaning up any issues
Reporting on Customer Data
Once you have your customer data tracked and clean, you can use it to generate reports. These reports are your key to planning an effective marketing and retention strategy for your agency.
Your agency management system should have standard and customizable ways to report on your agency data. If you’re not familiar with your reporting features, now is the time to learn!
At a recent Partner XE training, we covered this important topic, helping our agency partners understand how to pull data to best serve their individual agency. You can check out more of our training offerings on our website or get in touch to see how SIS and Partner XE can serve your agency’s needs.
The savvy small business is owner is always working to improve operations. Whether it’s boosting customer retention, reducing process time, or another small move that makes a big difference, the biggest hitch is coming up with that “new and improved” method. Where can you go to get inspired?
One of the best ways to gain new business perspectives is to talk with other professions. And the best place to connect is online. Insurance agency websites, blogs, and other online resources instantly connect you with countless industry professionals. Below is a list of the reliable, up-to-date, and relevant online agencies resources to help infuse your agency with inspiration.
Top Independent Insurance Agency Websites
Check out these top independent insurance agency websites and bookmark each for future use:
Agent Council for Technology (ACT) This open forum group offers targeted content on industry tech. Through podcasts, webinars, and other online mediums, ACT addresses workflow issues facing independent agencies. Check out their site for info on marketing, cyber security, customer experience, and other relevant technology-focused topics.
Property Casualty 360 From the experts at the National Underwriter Professional Network this news resource targets buyers and sellers in property and casualty insurance markets. P&C 360 relies on market data and industry trends to drive their content. Topics include compliance and legal updates, continuing education opportunities, and industry news.
Get tips on how to make your agency website a top resource for your customers
Insurance Journal Insurance Journal is one site with multiple information streams: blogs, videos, podcasts, and newsletters among other resources. The site covers breaking industry news and provides award-winning commentary on insurance market trends.
Recommended Agency Blogs
Another great resource is agent and agency blogs. Some notable industry blogs include:
SteveAnderson A long-time industry thought leader, Anderson has been a licensed independent agent for 30 years. He provides engaging, insightful information on technology trends to improve operations and boost an agency’s bottom line. Through frequent posts, podcasts and his Steve Anderson’s TechTips newsletter, Anderson speaks directly to agency needs.
BizzGrizz Brent Kelly is a speaker, trainer, and coach with 15 years’ experience in the insurance industry. His blog focuses on topics to engage agencies in leadership, communication, and growth. He is a frequent contributor to Property Casualty 360 and other well-respected industry publications.
The SIS Blog We may be biased, but we work hard to ensure we’re up to date on industry trends and provide engaging content for independent insurance agencies. Our posts, eGuides, and other resources come from conversations with our clients, ensuring we’re hitting what matters to agencies From cyber security to customer engagement, we make an efforts to provide variety, clarity, and relevance.
What did we miss?
This list only scratches the surface on valuable online agency resources. Let us know what we missed! Contact us to share your favorite sites. We’ll update our list as it grows through your suggestions.
Berndt and Murfin Insurance Agency Client Stories Getting Started Training Support Partner User Community Agency Information Based in Portsmouth, OH (3 locations). Founded in 1921 18% commercial and 82% personal 30 employees Dan Cassidy “… I’ve seen the alternatives....
At this point in the digital age, most agencies are aware of the benefits of going paperless. Your agency can save time and money by offering paperless quotes and the ability to esign insurance documents, among other paperless processes. Eliminating paper frees up physical space in your office and makes it easier to find what you need. And, most importantly, more and more of your customers will expect paperless processing.
Planning for your exit from the independent insurance agency you helped build, whether passing it on to family or not, is rarely an easy task. However, succession planning is a necessary part of running a successful business, and it’s important to start the process sooner rather than later.
Two major factors to consider when succession planning are who will be involved and what components need to be included in your plan.
Who to include:
Business attorney
Tax professional
Successor(s) (internal or external)
Spouse and/or other family members involved in agency operations
Your list may expand beyond these key people, such as partners or advisors, but be careful not to include too many ideas and opinions. Although it is helpful to solicit the advice of others, ultimately you are the decision maker for your agency.
What to include:
Total cost of your agency: this should be revised regularly, including any outstanding debt.
Impact on employees: are there staff that will be leaving when you do? Staff you want to stay? You may want to “bonus out” the first group and provide a “stay bonus” (i.e. 50% more than a usual bonus) for the second.
Client care plan: Think about how to inform clients of your departure. This should include a transition plan for introducing clients to your successor. It’s important to have little to no interruption in client care.
Mentorship for successor(s):It’s best to have two successors for each principal owner. Look for younger agents so they have a longer potential tenure at your agency. Be intentional about mentoring these successors, including bridging the relationships you’ve built over the years and passing them on.
Your goals: These will differ by owner and, with multiple owners, may involve some compromise. Be clear about what you want whether it be a certain amount of cash intake, continued involvement in agency decision making, or a distinct perpetuation of agency culture.
When it comes time to roll out your succession plan, make sure you’re ready to retire. Although you may stay involved in your agency’s operations and/or decision making, it’s important to be prepared to spend less time focused on your agency. Invest in other interests, setting yourself up for success in other ventures.
Moving on from your agency can be difficult, especially because of the relationships you’ve built with your employees, partners, and clients. We at SIS value such relationships, which is why we provide pieces such as this for our clients and partners. We realize your agency is more than just a business, and treat it as such with our dedicated staff and individualized client care. To find out more about the SIS community, visit our website or contact us at [email protected].
The coronavirus pandemic accelerated trends in several areas, including digital insurance customer service. A recent survey showed that almost 90% of American consumers think customer service is more important now than before the pandemic took hold of the world.
Consumers not only expect more from service providers, they also have more options, meaning they’ll choose an agency that offers quicker and smoother interactions over one that’s, say, unable to process esignatures. As your team transitions back to the office, now is the time to reevaluate your customer service tools and processes to keep up with expectations.
Everyone loves to get two for the price of one. It’s the beauty of doubling your money and getting more done in half the time: a win-win for all. The digitization of insurance has made that “two for one” thrill possible with insurance marketing tools that double as customer service tools, too. And it all begins with data.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digitation across industries, and insurance was no exception. Part of the acceleration included a rise in direct-to-consumer (DTC) purchases. More people started buying goods and services online, cutting out in-person or phone interactions. That rise in DTC increased access to customer data.
“We saw a company that reminded us of our agency.”
This is a sentiment we often hear from our Partner Platform agencies – that they saw themselves in our team and us. That’s what makes us more than a provider but a real partner with each agency we serve.
The community we created echoes that partnership: it’s fueled by innovative collaborators in our agency, technology, and industry partners. With their help, we’re able to stay ahead of the curve and equip our Partner Platform agency management system and insurance CRM to harness future opportunities while providing the service and care our agency customers appreciate today.
At this point in the digital age, most agencies are aware of the benefits of going paperless. Your agency can save time and money by offering paperless quotes and the ability to esign insurance documents, among other paperless processes. Eliminating paper frees up physical space in your office and makes it easier to find what you need. And, most importantly, more and more of your customers will expect paperless processing.
Planning for your exit from the independent insurance agency you helped build, whether 