3 Ways to use Your Partner XE Agency Management System to MakeYour Business More Profitable
There are many ways to use the Partner XE Agency Management System to increase profitability for your agency. For starters…
1.) Information, Information, Information
Partner XE has a number of prebuilt reports an agency can run to gain insight to what is happening in their businesses. Don’t see what you want? You can easily create a custom report to get the exact information you are looking for.
Examples of how to use reporting to increase profitability:
Learn which lines of business are most profitable and adjust your marketing to sell more of those lines.
Identify common characteristic of your clients and target more people like them.
Run a Premium by Carrier By Line of Business report to get a good understanding of how you are doing with a certain carrier, where you are selling well, where you are not and if there are other lines of business available that you might be able to focus on.
Identify cross-sell and upsell opportunities and market accordingly.
Determine which of your producers are producing and which are not. Then dig deeper to find out what the high producers are doing that the others are not to teach that throughout your agency
And much more.
All of these reports can easily be exported to Excel with two clicks of the mouse or you can print letters and envelopes for everyone on the list for direct mail marketing campaigns.
2.) Increase Efficiency with Commercial Downloads and Real Time
We are committed to making the lives of our clients easier and more productive. One way Partner XE does that is through the ability to download commercial lines policies – eliminating the need for manual entry and increasing the amount of time you have to focus on sales and customer service.
In addition, thanks to Real Time, agencies using Partner XE can pass client information already entered in their agency management system directly to the carrier website to pre-fill required information, improving accuracy, saving time and freeing up more time for selling.
3.) Track and Monitor Sales and Marketing Efforts with To-Do Lists
The Marketing To-Do List within your Partner XE agency management system can serve several purposes. Most importantly though, the To-Do List will help you keep track of the different stages of your various sales and marketing campaigns. To keep Producers/CSRs on track for each step or follow up, these To-Do Lists have reminders that can be set to show up on your “desktop reminders list” when a follow up is required or scheduled. Since there are often multiple people involved with a single marketing campaign, the To-Do Lists can also be assigned to multiple users so when one person has accomplished their steps they can assign the To-Do List to the next person so they can take over the marketing workflow. In short, no many how many people you are marketing to, no matter how many people on your team, using the To-Do lists correctly will ensure nothing slips through the cracks and everyone is accountable to their own action items – which ultimately should lead to closing more business!
Partner XE from SIS is an easy to use, online hosted insurance agency management system with logical workflows, exceptional download and comparative rater integration capabilities and best in the business Outlook integration. If you are not already using Partner XE and would like to learn why so many agencies are switching to our system, give us a call at 800-747-9273 or fill out a short contact form and we’ll be in touch. You’ll be glad you did.
Love it or hate it, the internet economy and the “need it now” mentality that goes with it is likely here to stay. In this age of constant innovation and increasing technology, independent agencies that will prosper are those that will incorporate new technologies and adapt to new rules, use effective systems and processes to metamorphose around them and harness the power of available productivity tools.
Getting Started
The first step to improving any process is to gain a full understanding of the way it being done now. Many independent insurance agency owners, caught up in the day to day drama of running a business, find it difficult to make time to document procedures to realize the full potential of their agency management system and other tools — and even more difficult to implement and enforce them.
Borrowing from a lean manufacturing philosophy, the primary goals behind implementing documented systems and processes are to identify inefficiencies, reduce time spent on individual transactions, increase productivity (sales), while executing processes that consistently focus on customer value.
If you have not documented your processes and procedures, the first step you’ll need to take is to identify how things are currently being done and map each process from start to finish.
Get your team together to review the processes and collectively identify information bottlenecks and areas for improvement that are negatively affecting your bottom line.
Get input from the entire team on the areas where improvement could most directly affect their ability to sell more.
Prioritize improvements based on ease of implementation and overall impact.
The 6 Stages of Business Process Improvement
Once you have documented your processes you can focus on improving them. As indicated in the Harvard Business Press’ “Pocket Mentor: Improving Business Processes”1 a business process improvement cycle has six stages. Although complex improvements will take more time at each stage than simple process improvements, the stages apply to both.
Plan
What is your overall goal driving the need for improvement?
Analyze
Do you have documented workflows that leverage your technology?
Are these workflows built into your technology?
Redesign
Adjust documentation of procedures to reflect new goals/ processes
Acquire Resources
Is there technology available to improve this process?
Can I outsource activities ( like marketing) and ultimately improve my bottom line?
Implement
Continually Improve
Review processes regularly (at least once a year) to insure you are taking advantage of all available resources.
In analyzing your current workflow, you may find that simple, yet effective, adjustments can be made just by getting everyone in the office to uniformly take advantage of tools you already have (like a digital document storage system, Real Time or a uniform to-do list. You may also find that you don’t have the necessary tools or resources to get things done and need to make some adjustments.
Partner XE from SIS – an online hosted, feature rich, affordable, easy to use, scalable agency management system designed to streamline workflow and increase productivity for independent insurance agencies of all sizes gives agencies the tools they need to succeed.
Find out why so many independent insurance agencies are switching to the Partner XE agency management system. Call 800-747-9273 or click here to schedule a free agency management system assessment and consultation.
Resources
[1] Harvard Business Press. Pocket Mentor: Improving Business Process. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2010.
Many independent insurance agents are challenged with the inefficiency that comes from dealing with different carrier interfaces. Duplicate entry, multiple passwords and too much time spent on training waste both time and money. One way to simplify processes is to adopt new workflows and /or systems that leverage Real Time tools.
To help get the word about the benefits of Real Time, there is a widespread initiative afoot known as the Real Time/ Download Campaign (www.getrealtime.org). The Real Time campaign is dedicated to improving the competitiveness of the independent agency distribution channel through a streamlined and efficient workflow approach.
Increased efficiency = more time for selling
As the following figures put out in a recent Real Time Campaign Statement indicate, a large number of agency management system users (63%) are already employing Real Time to access multiple carriers at once for a significant increase in productivity. Consider:
The use of Real Time rating tools for personal lines saves agencies an estimated 68 minutes per employee per day.
About three fifths (62 percent) of those using Real Time rating also use Real Time inquiry and service transactions through agency management systems.
Real Time inquiry and servicing are saving 50 minutes daily for those employees using the functionality.
Room for improvement
Turn those figures around though and a full 37% of those surveyed are NOT taking advantage of the benefits of Real Time. Whether this is because they are working with agency management systems that do not employ the technology or whether they are just hesitant to use it is not clear. Regardless, for an agency looking to curb inefficiency, the use of Real Time should be part of day-to-day business operations.
Employ best practices
For those who have Real Time capability, but just aren’t sure how to use it most efficiently, we’d like to share Agency Real-Time “Best Practice” Workflows & Implementation Strategies, recently published by the Get Real Time campaign and touted as “ a road map for implementing ‘best practice’ real-time workflows.”
The time is now
For those not using Real Time, there is no better time than the present. As Daniel Burrus, CEO of Burrus Research, a research and consulting firm that monitors global advancements in technology driven trends, wrote in The High Risk of Wait and See, “One thing that’s certain regardless of industry or profession is that we have massive business process transformation taking place. Which processes? Virtually all of them: purchasing, logistics, accounting, sales, marketing, communications, collaboration, innovating, educating, training, managing, releasing new products, engaging our employees…the list is endless. We’re transforming all of these things plus more, and if you don’t initiate the transformation, someone else will.”
Find the right agency management system
If you are using an agency management system that does not support Real Time, consider switching to Partner XE from SIS, a feature rich, affordable, easy to use, scalable agency management system designed to streamline workflow and increase productivity. With Partner XE and Real Time you’ll be closer than ever to straight through processing.
Find out why so many agencies have been switching to Partner XE insurance agency management system from SIS. Call 800-747-9273 or click here to get in touch with a representative.
On behalf of the entire SIS team, I would like to take a moment to thank you for helping us make this past year one of tremendous innovation and progress.
2011 saw a 50% increase in the number of individuals using Partner XE. While this is undeniably good for our business, it is also good for yours. These increasing numbers make continuing product investment possible and collectively strengthen the voice of the National Association of SIS Partner Agents (NASPA).
So much has happened over the course of the last year, that I’d like to take a moment to reflect on what we’ve done and where we are going. Here are some of the highlights from 2011:
Ongoing Product Development:
2011 saw two different version releases of Partner XE as well as the release of a new and improved Outlook Plug-in. These releases combined to provide you with:
Enhanced marketing campaign functions,
New searches and reports,
Enhanced certificates workflow,
The ability to open documents with a Windows default viewer,
Improved ACORD 125 forms printing,
New accounting reports,
Improved server communication, overall performance and response time
And much more.
New streamlined features in the Outlook Plug-in include the ability to sync recurring appointments, add an entire email folder to Partner XE at one time and tag emails with a category.
Increased Service Staff:
In keeping with our commitment to providing excellent customer service, we have increased our service staff by 50% over the last six months. We’ve also added experienced developers to accelerate the pace of product enhancements and adjustments. With these additions, we now have the operational scalability we need to best serve our customers now and well into the future.
A New Online Resource:
In addition to increased service personnel, we’ve also created PartnerNet , a centralized online support website intended to reduce the volume of service requests and allow our service staff to delve deeper into product and workflow issues as needed.
Increased Capacity & Security:
Not only have we improved our product and added staff, we’ve also upgraded and migrated to the latest Cloud technology for increased system performance and capacity and added a redundant offsite backup to insure that your data is safely stored in multiple geographic locations.
What you have in SIS today is a growing organization focused on continuous improvement. We are committed to making Partner XE and our service delivery the premier solution in the industry for our customers.
Having invested in technology, people, and process to scale, we are now well positioned to do that and are looking forward to more improvements and an even broader customer base in 2012. We’re working with NASPA to form workgroups defining priorities and deliverables, because the old adage is true:
3 tools insurance agencies can use to maximize their Facebook reach
While there is a lot of buzz about social media these days, there are still quite a number of folks who question its effectiveness as a marketing tool. Some because they don’t understand it, others because there only exposure has been seeing updates about their neighbors new dog, or what their old high school friend is making for dinner. In reality the practice of using Facebook as a marketing tool is alive and well in both the B2B and B2C sectors.
In case you are wondering if Facebook is really a good place to create brand awareness for your agency, consider the following stats (taken from Facebook).
Facebook has more than 800 million active users
More than 50% of these active users log on to Facebook in any given day
The average Facebook user has 130 friends
The average Facebook user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
But just having a company page won’t do much for you. Just as with any other form of marketing, you need a consistent and well thought out plan in order to make the most of Facebook. You also need to know how to use the tools it has to offer.
Reading the following article is a step in the right direction.
In a recent article for ACT, Three Tools for Maximizing Your Agency’s Facebook Reach, Progressive’s Kevin Ament gives an easy-to-understand primer for agents looking to expand their sphere of influence in the social media world – specifically with Facebook.
He explains step by step how you can effectively use the Tagging, Questioning and Contest features to “extend your reach on Facebook, engage existing fans and build connections with other businesses in your community.”
Tagging – “By tagging their Facebook pages, 1,000 additional fans (primarily small business owners and motorcycle owners) have the opportunity to see your update.
Questioning – “As your fans vote, the poll posts to their individual News Feeds, bringing your philanthropic message to their friends and family.”
Contest – “Using a third party vendor, Facebook allows you to host contests on your agency’s page. You can choose from several different types, including photo, video, sweepstakes, trivia and more. These contests can be used to build Facebook fans, generate customer engagement, and leverage your fans’ networks to generate prospects and build broader awareness of your agency.”
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