Agency Management System Best Practices, Agency Operations, Marketing
Your Insurance Software Can be a Valuable Marketing Tool
A 2009 JD Powers report stated that “In this mature market, individual insurance companies tend toward a zero sum game, where the growth of one company, comes at the expense of another. To grow, an insurer must both protect its current book of business and conquest new customers.”
Most new customers, then, come at the expense of another insurer. Which side of the equation would you rather be on? How are you targeting those folks who are shopping?
Your Agency Management System Provides a Framework for Success
Focus can make all the difference. Because it gives you the ability to run queries to pinpoint your mailings to a specific demographic, track conversations, and schedule follow up calls, Partner XE helps you focus your efforts efficiently and effectively.
We have talked about some of the ways you can use your Partner XE agency management system to target, mail to, and track conversations with your current clients. Although the parameters used for your queries might be different, you can do the same for prospects.
Import Prospect Lists for Expanded Reach
You can run lists out of your Partner XE prospect database OR you can import a list into the system, and run your query to target a specific demographic. As long as your list is in Excel or CSV format, you can import it into your system using the utilities tab. This feature can be very beneficial for a new producer, especially one who has purchased a prospect list from an outside source.
If you need assistance in maximizing the marketing potential of your Partner XE agency management system, just give us a call at 800.747.7005, Option 2.
Agency Management System Best Practices, Agency Operations, Marketing
Use Your Agency Management System to Streamline Your Marketing
Arthur Middleton Hughes recently wrote an article for The Database Marketing Institute called “Increasing Insurance Customer Retention.” Many studies, he said, show that $1 paid towards customer retention increases profits by more than $5 spent on new customer acquisition.
Steve Anderson, who publishes the monthly “Anderson Agency Report,” cites that customer retention is the first priority of an agency’s marketing execution plan for creating a profitable book of business.
Communication is Critical
Effective communication with your clients is one of the keys to keeping them satisfied. As you know, you cannot write the policy and then forget about it until renewal time rolls around. In order to truly develop the relationship with the client, the renewal process should start immediately after the first process is sold.
Social media is all the rage these days, and, yes, it is a good strategy for keeping in touch with customers and prospects. It is not, however, the only strategy. It is a part of the big picture, which includes more traditional methods of communication – mail, email, and, of course, the telephone.
Using Your Insurance Software Makes it Easy
Fortunately for you, your Partner XE agency management system automates a lot of the activities required to send mailings via e-mail or traditional mail methods. With a few clicks of your mouse, you can run queries using any number of parameters (from clients with birthdays in the month of February, to clients with homeowner insurance but not auto, or clients who have homeowners insurance, but do not have earthquake coverage). You can also print letters, print envelopes and export email addresses directly from the system. Want to use an outside service provider to send your materials out? No problem! Simply export your targeted lists out of XE by right clicking on the grid and selecting the export function. Best of all, everything you do can be tracked within your agency software for measurable results.
If you need assistance in maximizing the marketing potential of your Partner XE agency management system, just give us a call at 800.747.7005, Option 2.
Agency Management System Best Practices, Agency Operations
Getting the Most out of your Partner XE Agency Management System
Have you ever gotten a new phone, new camera, new tv, new anything for that matter and been so thrilled with how much better it was than whatever you had before, that you never really took the time to read the manual and take advantage of ALL it had to offer? As time strapped as most of us are these days, it would be simple make the same mistake with your insurance software. But, why skim the tip of the iceberg? You’ve invested in the technology, and at SIS our goal is to help you get the most out of your investment. Hence we will periodically post some simple, time saving tricks such as these:
Keeping Employee Client Profiles Clutter Free…
- When you or your employees have a Client Profile in your Partner XE insurance software and it lists your agency email address, you may notice with the Outlook Add-In, incoming emails may be flooding to your own Client Documents section.
- You can prevent the Outlook Add-In from adding email to your own Client Profile by removing the check from the “Allow Auto-Add” for that email address from the Email/Web tab in your Client Profile.
- Removing the check from “Allow Auto-Add” for any Client email address will also prevent emails from being attached to those Clients.
At SIS our Customer Service Team regularly answers questions such as this and makes suggestions to improve our clients’ productivity and profitability. Have a question? Wondering whether there is a shortcut for what you are trying to do? Contact us at 800.747.7005, Option 2.
Agency Management System Best Practices, Agency Operations
Time-Saving Partner XE Tips
A client once pointed out that “we’re agents, not techies. We don’t have time to sit down and play with this machine and figure out what it will do.” He was right. It is our job to help you use your Partner XE insurance agency management system to its fullest – to work as efficiently as possible. Here are a few agency management software “Search” time savers to keep in mind:
Did you know…
Web-Based Search will instantly stream results options as you input the search term in your agency software:
- From File, select Web-Based Search from the drop-down menu
- Select the category you want to search (Client, Policy, etc.)
- Begin to enter the word, name or phrase you’re searching…
You can access Policy Details directly from the Partner XE Client Search screen:
- Click the Open Policy Details icon located in Client Search Summary.
- Click Yes to lock for Editing if that option pops up.
- This takes you directly into the Policy Details screens. There is no need for you to open up the Client Summary if you don’t need to go into it.
Agency Operations, Cyber Security
Partner XE’s Software as a Service model, which gives you secure online hosting for your agency management system, will protect your data in the event of an emergency. It is up to you, however, to make sure that all your data and records are in the agency software system, that you utilize DOCBox to its fullest, and that you go paperless as much as possible. It is also up to you to have appropriate lists of contact information handy, to know your carriers’ CAT plans, and to take a variety of other disaster preparedness steps which fall outside the realm of your insurance agency software.
Because of the importance of this subject, and our commitment to helping you grow, we would like to share an article on the subject, entitled, “It’s Time to Update Your Disaster Plan,” written by Jeff Yates, Executive Director of ACT (Agents Council for Technology) (need link). Among other things, his recommendations include:
- Pre-plan. Have redundancy in communications, Internet access, and back ups.
- Make arrangements with third party emergency resources.
- Become paperless; implement download & real-time.
- Understand critical nature of good data back-ups to recovery.
- Take advantage of wireless technologies for voice and data, as well as the portability of PCs and portable devices.
- Have emergency contact info for employees, customers, carriers, and third party emergency resources. Have needed lists of information.
- Make sure employees & customers know how to reach you.
- Know your carriers’ CAT plans.
- Carefully evaluate the E&O exposures that arise in these situations and manage them.
We encourage you to read Jeff’s complete article.
You can also see other articles and tips on agency technology at the Agents Council for Technology website.
