Insurance is now digital insurance. The same goes
for almost every consumer sector – from banking to healthcare and beyond, most
consumers are finding what they need online.
But just because people are searching for what
they need online doesn’t mean they only make purchases via digital means. Customers
still want that personal connection, they
just want to get business done faster.
This is the conundrum of the independent insurance agency – responding quickly, yet personally, to prospects and customers. These statistics tell that story.
Stats on the Move to Digital
Almost 70% of consumers searched for
insurance online before making a purchase
When they started searching, 68% of insurance
consumers didn’t have a specific company in mind
Close to 75% of customers who attempted
to make an online insurance purchase encountered problems
Approximately 67% of Millennials say they
want digital shopping experiences
More than 70% of consumers aged 55 and over say
they want online chats or video to replace in-office claims processing
Stats on the Desire for Personalization
66% of consumers said they would share
“significant data” to obtain personalized services (up 54% from two years
ago)
Close to 50% of insurance customers said
they’d trust a human advisor over an automated chatbot or web system when
making a claim
88% of insurance customers demanded
additional personalization, such as personalized call experiences
After running an online search, 78% of
consumers call a business to make a purchase
Look into how to integrate your systems, like
your email and phone, among others, into your agency management system.
Improve information flow with digital
document storage and a CRM
system to hold customer and prospect information. And improve your website
with a simple, branded, easy-to-navigate site and an integrated client portal
to streamline customer service access.
Each of these innovations can upgrade your
internal processes, increasing your customer response times and bringing
high-quality service to prospects and customers quickly and efficiently.
See how you can find all these tools in one
intuitive management system: get in touch with us at
800-747-7005, option 6, or at [email protected].
Small businesses point to accountants as some of the most important professionals for their business. That may be because 60% of small business owners say they don’t know the first thing about finance and accounting. As a small business owner, you can probably relate. Many independent agency owners find themselves in an accounting crash-course when they start or take over their business. How can you beat the odds to get a grasp on your agency’s finances and position yourself for future growth?
The answer is quality insurance accounting
software and training. In fact, close to 65% of small
business owners make use of accounting software. With the right technology,
you can make your agency finances more manageable and even find a way to bring
on an expert with the money you save. To get you started, here are some of our
best insurance accounting posts.
1. Getting Your Insurance Finances in Order eGuide
More than just a blog post, this
eGuide provides a wealth of tips on how to get your agency finances set up
right. With a solid base, you’re ready to delve deeper into assessing your weaknesses
and opportunities.
4. Ask the Experts: Top Financial Questions and Best Accounting Software for Insurance Agents
Before we talked to our accounting experts about
perpetuation and M&A, we looked to Donovan, Sullivan, and Ryan CPA and
Partner Chris Ryan and our in-house expert, Director of Product Management
Bryce Lee, to talk best accounting software for the independent agency. In
this post, Chris and Bryce cover common accounting questions, how to face
challenges and the best tools to manage accounting in insurance.
5. Five Insurance Agency Accounting Blogs to Add to Your Summer Reading List
We pride ourselves on bringing our readers the best
agency accounting information, but we know we can’t contain it all. This
post highlights some of our favorite blogs for the latest in insurance
accounting and finance.
Get the Right Accounting Software and More from the Experts at SIS
If you think gaining insurance referrals is more effort than it’s worth, you’re underestimating both the ease of gaining referrals and the impact of the payoff. Nielson found 84% of consumers trust recommendations or referrals over all other forms of marketing, and people referred by a friend are 4x more likely to make a purchase. Deloitte found those referred customers have a 37% higher retention rate than other customers.
On a global scale, 2020 has been extremely challenging. The crises of this year have impacted each of us at a personal level. Whether it’s the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, an unstable economy, or divisive politics, we all had to sort our way through this year in unique circumstances. But we have all gotten through it – thanks to enduring support.
As customer
expectations adapt in all industries, insurance is no exception. Customers seek
a more personalized experience, based on rapid digitization. Companies are gathering
information on client preferences and adjusting quickly to meet their needs.
Yet, many independent agencies find it difficult to capture and analyze the
wealth of data needed to meet these expectations.
Marketing
automation + an insurance CRM are building blocks to capture this meaningful
information and turn it into relevant action and communication. Each has its
own benefits, but agencies need both to make a real impact. Studies show
businesses that combine these tools increase lead qualification by more than 450% and sales productivity by close to 15%.
The combo of
marketing automation and an insurance CRM allows agencies to see data at a
granular level, revealing customer insights and new market opportunities. Each
works on a different end of the sales funnel to help agencies bring in more
customers, improve service, and expand business.
Marketing
automation software is designed to streamline and automate marketing
tasks. Leverage marketing automation to get to know customer habits and launch
targeted outreach campaigns. Schedule and track each campaign and use the data acquired
to identify new markets and dial in on winning marketing techniques.
Some of
marketing automation’s main benefits include:
Segmented marketing lists by interactions, interests, preferences, etc.
Automated content distribution based on list segmentation
Scheduled drip campaigns based on actions such as website visits or email response
One
system for lists, content, and distribution to clients
Integrated
email, texting, and letter campaigns
A
library of professionally written marketing content
High-impact
templates that can be customized for any agency
Marketing
automation allows agencies to program high-impact client communication tasks so
they can do more in less time. Though the beauty of automation is powerful,
it’s missing one critical element: the human touch.
CRMs
(Customer Relationship Management systems) bring that human touch. The
human connection brings the personalization prospects need to become customers,
and customers need to become long-term clients. While marketing automation
provides context on where a lead came from and what they’re interested in, a
CRM helps producers implement a targeted outreach strategy to bring the
lead home.
Critical
CRM uses include using it to:
See the
complete prospect journey, including the last contact
Understand
a particular individual’s or segment’s interest and concerns
Receive
daily reminders to stay in touch and follow-up at a determined pace
Send
alerts to remind of scheduled calls, meetings, renewal dates, or other
important events in the prospect or customer’s life
Get the Sales and Service Solutions You need with Partner Platform
Partner
Platform brings the power of the CRM and marketing automation combo, along with
a connected Client Portal, Agency-Branded
Mobile App, and website, providing
all the data agencies need to customize interactions for their prospects and
customers.
And, we
continue to add tools to grease the wheels of the CRM-marketing automation
machine to meet the growing demands of our Partner Platform agency family. See
for yourself – view a demo or contact us at [email protected].
If you think gaining insurance referrals is more effort than it's worth, you’re underestimating both the ease of gaining referrals and the impact of the payoff. Nielson found 84% of consumers trust recommendations or referrals over all other forms of marketing, and...
Digital insurance matters. According to McKinsey & Company, agencies that “digitally transform stand to gain satisfied customers, lower operating costs, and achieve higher growth.” Going digital doesn’t mean moving all your operations to A.I. and forgoing a physical location; it simply means moving towards meeting customer needs, improving processes, and protecting your business.
Last year, we began planning our 2020 Partner Platform National Learning Event. While we expected it to be different from our 2019 event, we never anticipated the COVID-19 global pandemic challenges. Yet, our innovative and adept team and SIS partners readily came together to form our first Virtual National Learning Event.
