It may not be what it’s always been – and it may surprise you how preferences have changed. Advancements in insurance tech and changes in purchasing patterns mean your current and prospective customers may be looking for something more. Though you’ll have variation among different generations, there are commonalities within what your customers are looking for to get excellent service.
What Customers Expect from Your Agency
There are a few stand-outs in terms of customer
expectations. Some of those top areas are:
Personalized content. A recent EIS Customer Compass research study discovered 20% of
customers said a “lack of personalization” was the “main reason” they switched
insurance providers. Customers are looking for messaging and coverage that
speaks to their specific needs. In fact, agencies that increased
personalization had an over
80% customer retention rate.
Better, faster communication and claims
processing. A
DXC survey found 42% of respondents thought their insurer needed to improve
their claims processing technology. 70%
of those surveyed said they wanted to be able to text their insurance
agency securely. Customers simply expect more from all areas of service.
In-depth knowledge. Along with advanced
technology, customers want expert advice. Accenture
found almost 50% of insurance customers trust a human over an automated
advisor or chatbot. And
75% prefer to talk with a person before making a purchase. You need to up
your data so you can provide the detailed expert guidance customers want.
How to Deliver
How can you equip yourself to provide personalized
service, expert advice, and efficient communication? Start with these key
technologies:
Have you properly equipped your insurance website
for sales? Almost
three-quarters of insurance shoppers go online to do research and obtain
quotes, so you need a quality website to attract those sales.
This shift to online prompted our Partner Platform team to think more about agency websites and how to optimize them for sales and service. We now work with agencies to help them create a custom site to grow their business after seeing several common mistakes. Here are some of the ways we saw agency websites missing the mark – and how we helped them correct their missteps.
Yes, you want your site to give visitors an idea of
who you are and what you do, but there is such a thing as too much information
online. Your site should focus on the essentials: your agency brand, the
services you offer, and how to get in touch. Too much text is overwhelming and
can turn away a potential customer.
What to do: If you’re having trouble being
concise, use videos as an alternative to provide deeper descriptions of your brand
and service.
Complicating Design
There is a lot that can be done with a website
these days, but you want to be careful about going overboard. Too many dynamic
elements can cause your site to render differently on mobile devices and even
from browser to browser. More
than half of internet users said they wouldn’t recommend a business with
poor mobile design, so you need to ensure your site renders well no matter what
device visitors use.
What to do: To ensure your site will render
well on any device, begin with the mobile design or design both mobile and
desktop versions concurrently.
While pricing and service offerings are certainly
important, you don’t want visitors to lose sight of who they’re researching or
doing business with. Your brand is the most valuable element you have to offer,
and you want people to associate the positive experience they have with your
name.
What to do: Use your branding colors
throughout the site and have your agency name, logo, and (if short enough)
motto on a sticky menu that users will see no matter where they are on your
site.
Confusing Navigation
The last thing you want is for users to get lost when
they’re on your site. If they came there to see your auto offerings or request
a quote, it should take them only a few seconds to find what they need. If your
navigation isn’t properly organized or seems confusing, it will be difficult
for visitors to find what they need, and they may abandon your site.
What to do: Use sticky drop-down menus so
users can navigate to any part of the site no matter what page they’re viewing.
Decentralizing Data
The prospect and customer information you gain from
your site’s interactions needs to be stored in your management system. When all
your prospect and customer data is in one place, it’s easier to see what certain
groupings or individuals need and the best ways to serve those needs. When your
data is decentralized, or you enter it manually, you lose efficiency and sales
opportunities.
We’ve crafted our agency
website offerings to address all these common errors, including the
critical system integration that brings agency efficiency and effectiveness to
a new level.
See samples of our
website offerings and hear from Partner
Platform agencies about how the Partner Platform system and team can
help you do more for your prospects and customers.
Are you intentional about your insurance agency marketing? If
you’re sailing by on your current client base and waiting for the phone to
ring, you’ll soon be left behind. As
one of our clients recently said, the “order-taker” agencies are quickly
becoming a thing of the past. With most potential customers searching for
insurance online, you need to be thoughtful about your agency brand and how to get it found. [SD1]
Your first step is a healthy assessment of your agency’s
brand and marketing strategy. Gather your team, survey your customers, and take
a look at how you’re seen. From there, think about how you want to be
seen and get steps in place to make that happen.
2. Define your brand
Before you can start marketing your agency, you need to have
a solid base of who you are as an agency: your brand. Do you have a
specialization? Are you known for serving a particular geographic area or type
of business? Think about what it is that sets you apart and build your brand
around those strengths.
Once you know what to show off, get it out there.
At a minimum, have an agency website and app. Both these tools are critical to
getting your name out there. Add a social media presence only if you can
maintain it well. You’ll need to share something once a week at a minimum. Otherwise,
your social page will look outdated and reflect poorly on your agency.
Increase your presence with photos and videos
showing off your agency personality – staff pictures, images of your community,
and other visual aids give visitors a picture of what is most important in the
industry: relationships. A blog is an excellent tool to expand on who you are,
including highlighting your service and expertise, both of which are critical
to bringing in new customers.
Make it easy for people to get in touch with you.
Include easily identifiable “contact us” forms on your website and respond
quickly to social media and other inquiries.
And create ways to gather potential customer
contact information. Have a pop-up asking website visitors to sign up for an
email list, request contact information when signing up for an in-person or
online event, and collect emails when visitors request a quote or to view
expert content. The more ways to can gather contact information, the better.
Once you have that contact information, get it
organized in your agency management system or CRM, and reach out. As we said,
those who passively wait for customers to reach them are falling behind.
Be active about gaining contacts, too. Ask for
referrals from current customers and see if they’re willing to write a positive
review on sites like Google, Yelp, and AngiesList to help bring in more
business. The more access points and outreach you can muster, the better.
Get the Tools You Need to Make Marketing Easier
The marketing tools of today are less about
advertising and more about building a relationship. While price and policy
matter, it’s who you are and the expert service you provide that makes the
difference.
We know and value building these relationships,
which is why we built our
Partner Platform system to help agencies improve service with time-saving
systems. Our integrated accounting and policy downloads, customer-service tools
like integrated VoIP and automatic caller profile pop-up, and targeted sales
and marketing systems like our
integrated CRM and marketing automation are all designed to automate
tedious tasks so agencies can focus on people and service.
Learn more about what these tools can do for your
agency, increasing efficiency in time-consuming tasks so you can focus on relationships
and service. Get in touch
with us here, at [email protected],
or by calling us at 800.747.7005, Option 6.
As we recently heard from one
of our Partner Allies, one of the most significant challenges facing
independent insurance in the next ten years is how to keep up with the progress
of digital insurance technology while maintaining a personal connection with
customers.
Studies show customers want agencies to use more
tech and increase service personalization. A
recent PWC survey found 41% of insurance customers said they’d switch to a
new provider if that provider were more digitized than their current one. And the
recent COVID-19 pandemic shutdown exposed more people to digital service speed,
causing a lasting shift in expectations.
How can your agency harness digital insurance tech’s speed and efficiency without losing your signature personal touch?
There are a few essential tools to add to your
digital insurance toolbox right away. Each hit at the heart of efficiency for
you and your customers and, if used correctly, can strengthen your relationship
with your customer base.
Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) Software: By name, a CRM is built to improve
customer relationships. In insurance, the agency management system works with
the insurance CRM. While you leverage your management system to build current
relationships, the insurance CRM holds data on your interactions with prospects
before they become customers. That’s why it’s so critical that your management
system and CRM work together (or better yet, are integrated together) to provide
insight to each prospect and customer, helping you see the big picture of
customer preferences. With this knowledge, you can improve your overall
outreach approach and apply a more personalized touch to individual prospects, customers
and customer segments.
Marketing automation: With marketing automation, you can better understand your customer’s communication preferences. Some individuals or groups may prefer a text over an email, while others may want a phone call. Once you know how your customers like to keep in touch, you can automate some communication with customizable messaging to keep engaged in-between personal outreach.
Text messaging: Recent studies show text message open rates go as high as 98% – meaning you can almost guarantee your texts will be read by customers. And, texting is becoming more popular among consumers, especially Millennials and Gen Z.
Beyond
improving outreach, texting is quite valuable when it comes to gaining time-sensitive
information like accident photos or appointment reminders, too.
Client Portals: Client portals are essential customer service tools. More than 60% of customers say they prefer to monitor their insurance claims status with digital tools. Client portals provide more transparency to customers and give them 24/7 access to information like their current coverage, payment dates, and printable ID cards. This wealth of self-service information increases trust and makes it easy for customers to connect with what they need.
How to Set Your Agency up for Digital with Partner
Platform
With these digital service tools, you can improve
service to create life-long customers, decrease acquisition costs, and increase
referrals for a net gain across your business. Yet,
nine out of ten insurance agencies say their “legacy software and
infrastructure” creates a barrier to digitization. To get the most out of
this amazing communication technology, you need to start with a foundation that
makes digital possible.
For more than a decade, the team at Partner
Platform has worked to create a system and infrastructure that is robust,
intuitive, and designed to grow. Our innovative system starts with our agency-friendly
management system. It builds from there with a host of digital engagement
tools like integrated texting, Client Portal, CRM and marketing automation, and
VoIP integration, among other tools.
Identifying the right insurance sales software and
systems requires understanding the balance of quality and quantity for valuable
insurance leads. The concept of “living
on renewals” is great – until it’s not.
Intentional, proactive, professional insurance sales demand the right
mindset, strategy, and systems to make the desired impact in an independent
insurance agency.
Rethinking your insurance sales software and systems doesn’t have to be a major project. Start with knowing what you want, bringing that into your sales mindset, and finally acclimating to new tech. It only takes a step at a time.
Know What You Want: Quality or Quantity for
Insurance Leads
Most agencies desire quality over quantity. Quality
insurance leads resemble your best clients and provide your agency with the
greatest opportunity to deliver your unique expertise and the right coverage at
the right price. Your number of insurance leads depends upon available
resources to respond quickly and professionally, engaging with leads the moment
they show interest.
A quick response will improve your close ratio and the
likelihood a prospect becoming a long-term client. Regardless of the quality or
quantity debate, the meaningful question is how to capture, organize, and
communicate with the individuals or businesses seeking a policy.
The most significant shift you need to make as an
agency is to focus on the importance of new business acquisition via better
communication. This is a long-term
goal that can be executed on in the short term. Perhaps you’re already
there as an owner or agent, but you need to motivate your agents to do the
same. Long-term, you’ll need a shift in processes and infrastructure, but in
the short term, you need to shift where agents spend their time: communicating
with prospects and customers.
Part of long-term thinking is a shift to focus on customer
retention and growth rather than exclusively net new business. On-boarding
a new customer requires multiple times more resources than growing a current
customer through cross-selling, up-selling, or gaining referrals. Communicate
the value of service and customer growth to your team to help you stay
competitive in the long-run.
The prospect of adding new software can be the
biggest hurdle for an agency. Implementing insurance sales software is an
intentional effort to support your growth goals and develop systems to purposefully
build new relationships and win new business.
Through the simple implementation of an integrated
CRM, your agency can implement more effective and dependable client and
prospect communications. Coupled with integrated marketing automation,
you’re able to respond faster to inquiries and stay connected consistently.
Change is difficult for any business, and your
agency is no exception. As you move to rethink your sales mindset and systems,
there are many paths you can take to get to your goal.
When you’re ready, let the experts at Partner
Platform guide you to discover the best insurance sales software options for
your agency. Our hands-on team will meet with you to discuss the outcomes you
want and provide you with the insurance sales resources and support you need to
make those outcomes a reality.
Digital insurance options opened up new markets and improved communications for agencies worldwide. However, this growth goes hand-in-hand with the rise in cyberattacks over the past few years.
Recent reports estimated cyberattacks increased between 200% and 300% in 2020 and are doubling again. Similarly, ransoms from cyberattacks are rising by between 50% and 80%, making it a more attractive scheme for cybercriminals.
Labor market changes contribute to increased cyber-vulnerability as well. More people are working remotely, and their home offices may not have the same security measures as their company. Similarly, the recent labor shortage means companies are hiring more people more often and, in their haste to fill positions, may not provide ample cybersecurity training for new hires.
Independent insurance agencies are starting to feel the heat. Though independent agencies provide a level of personalized service and care big names never can, insurtech’s sophisticated insurance software is beginning to bridge the gap.
According to experts at PropertyCasualty360, “With increased competition from insurtechs and rising labor costs, in order to stay competitive, companies need to…provide a seamless omnichannel experience.” That means broadening how you’re serving your customers, keeping up with evolving customer demands.
Do you have the right insurance software to meet these growing customer needs?
Digital insurance is the future. According to Reuters, over $10 billion were invested in digital insurance technology in the first nine months of 2021 alone.
But, a rise in digital insurance tech use doesn’t mean a decline in demand for people in the industry. J.D. Power found that agencies that increased their “digital offerings” didn’t necessarily see a boost in customer satisfaction. While customers value the speed and efficiency digital tools offer, they also need that human connection.
