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

Sources: LSA, Accenture Insurance Blog, Accenture

What Does This Mean for Your Agency?

If you’re like most independent agencies, you’ve got personalization down. How can you improve your speed of response and ease of access?

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].