When it comes to investing for your financial future, putting a little away each month adds up to a lot. The same is true for your insurance agency workflows: shaving off a few minutes here and there adds up quickly, resulting in hours of newfound productivity. Use that extra time wisely and you’ll have fewer service complaints, increase customer retention, and have a bit more time to spend with your loved ones.
So – how do you start cutting time from your everyday processes?
See how personalized workflows can improve your processes.
1. Audit your agency workflows
Start by recording time spent on agency processes, ranging from updating policies to printing and distributing certificates. Get realistic about how much time you’re spending on daily procedures versus how much time you should be spending on them. Reach out to colleagues, research processes averages, and track employee norms to create a target number.
Sample processes to target
- Management system data entry
- Certificate creation and distribution
- Document storage and organization
2. Create consistency
Does your agency have formalized, documented operations standards? If not this is a great time to create something. Use the goals you’ve established to write up standard workflows. Automate wherever you can, relying on integrated systems within your agency management system among other resources. Consult your staff, asking how they perform tasks and which methods they find most efficient.
Read about the power of integrated systems.
3. Train your producers, CSRs and other staff
Once you have a system together, have an all-staff training. Recruit key staff members from each part of your agency to help administer training. Be ready for push back—take each criticism as an opportunity to improve. Encourage employees to communicate ways to make things run better. This will help you find a universal approach everyone can get behind.
4. Revisit regularly
Your agency will change, and your processes and procedures need to adapt. Build in regular reassessment of your agency workflows to continue improving. Ideal times for process reviews include when you acquire a new agency, update your management system, or hire multiple new employees at once.
To effectively improve your agency workflows, you need a management system with the right capabilities and adaptability to meet your needs. Our Partner XE management system is designed to make your agency more efficient with capabilities such as integrated systems and personalized workflows. Get in touch to find out more about how Partner XE can help you meet your agency’s goals.
Sarah Deak has been contributing to the SIS team since 2013, covering topics like agency perpetuation, workflow improvements, data security, and marketing. She has a background in small business, working with organizations to improve their online presence and client engagement. Sarah also writes for the SIS newsletters and website, and counts herself lucky to hear from our many passionate, hard-working clients for our client stories. Her favorite part about working for SIS are the dedicated, service-minded people.