This year continued a trend of technology’s growing influence in the insurance market and all industries at large. We saw a shift where more clients embraced agency software and integrated it into their regular systems and processes. This growing interest and influence prompted our Partner Platform and SIS teams to ramp up our tech focus, including several blog posts on this highly relevant topic.

Data

Leveraging technology to gain and analyze data was one of the hottest topics of the last few years. As competition in the insurance market increases, agencies need ways to set themselves apart. Our industry partners and clients alike told us that data is the key to differentiation. It improves lead targeting to increase close rates, streamlines claims processes, and is essential to service personalization, a must-have for all industries today.

Some of our top data posts of the year include:

• What’s the Deal with Data? Why You Need Insurance Tech Data and How to Use it – Details the best agency software to capture and analyze data and how to put what you know to use.
• All About the Data: Using Insurance Marketing Tools to Improve Customer Service – Looks specifically at how to gather and use customer data to improve your service and gain better-targeted leads.

Cyber Security

With more data sent and stored, your agency is open to more risk. Malware attacks increased by 358% in 2020 alone. Agencies need to pay attention to how they’re handling and storing data, ensuring they have the best measures in place to protect it. Our experts spent time on this critical topic in posts like:

• Insurance Software Security: Keeping Your Agency Safe Today and Tomorrow – Outlines the possible threats you can face and what you can do to combat them. Includes specific tech you need along with best processes to keep data safe and how to train your staff to stay vigilant.
• Six Ways to Keep Your Agency Secure in the Digital Insurance Age –  Looks at the top ways you can keep your agency protected, using everything from the right anti-virus software to implementing strict password requirements and data restrictions in your agency.

Customer Service

Customer service expectations took a massive leap in 2020 and 2021. Customers now expect more personalization, quicker transactions, and more ways to get answers and implement changes independently. We looked at the many ways expectations changed through our posts this past year. A few of the top ones include:

• The Pandemic Changed Digital Insurance Customer Expectations, How Your Agency Should Change, Too – Looks at the specific ways that customer expectations have changed and gives practical tips on ways to update your systems and service to adapt.
• What Customers Want and the Insurance Sales Software to Get It – Hits at the top big changes in customer expectations and how you can leverage agency software to meet and exceed needs.
• What Insurance Tech do Agency Customers Want? – There was a lot of talk around insurtech this year, much of which can be overwhelming, especially to small to mid-sized agencies. This post looks at the essential tools you need to meet customer expectations and keep your agency evolving.

Sales and Marketing

Sales and marketing are always a challenge for growing agencies, but new customer expectations and the explosion of digital service in the past few years have added a new level. Depending on the agency, these changes could increase or decrease the sales and marketing challenge. We hope to make these customer expectations and tech advances an asset to your outreach with these posts:

• The Key to Stepping into Insurance Sales Software – Adding new technology to your agency can be intimidating. With this post, we look at how to assess which sales tech you need and the steps to implement it smoothly in your agency.
• The CRM for Insurance Agents: A Step-by-Step Guide – CRMs have been a staple in numerous industries for years, and insurance is embracing the power of this sales technology. This post offers a clear guide specifically for insurance agencies to leverage this powerful technology to improve their sales prospecting.
• Let Us Help Your Agency Grow: The Top Insurance Prospecting Software from Partner Platform – Not to brag, but we know insurance prospecting software. In this post, we detail what software we offer and how our agencies use it to grow their business

Get More Agency Resources Here

These are just a few of the many agency resources available for free on our website. You can see all our educational posts on our blog. And, dive into our online guides and other resources covering topics like how to hire great producers and leaders and how to get effective digital marketing on a budget.

We look forward to sharing more in 2022 and beyond!