InsurTech Tools for Every Business Category

by Business Strategy

The last decade has brought major technology changes for the insurance industry, and behaviors have changed in an industry that was previously labeled “old-fashioned.”

Insurance companies are investing in tools to stay efficient, competitive, and modern. In this blog, we’re outlining four categories that have seen an increase in investment, with examples of popular insurtech tools in each category.

Data Analytics

Good data is an essential part of any business, as it helps improve operations, give customer insight and build reports. Accurate data analysis is key to uncovering both growth and savings opportunities, which is why many insurtechs have made investments to gain visibility of customer and operational data.

EOX Vantage offers insurance-specific products that help improve operational efficiencies through analytics. Mike Fieseler, VP of Business Development, explains that by looking at data, insurance organizations can find out:

  • “Where are they successful? Where are they not?”
  • “What type of potential customers are out there?”
  • “Why has the organization not been successful in certain areas?”

Analytics help bring smart visualizations to make the data easier to understand and act on. And tools like EOX Vantage often have these visuals pre-formatted, meaning you don’t need an extensive expert background in data science to organize the information.

Sales

Modern sales solutions make it easier to manage prospects, qualify leads, and pursue new clients. And very often, they integrate with a customer relationship management (CRM) tool, or act as one on their own. Many independent agencies attempt using a generic sales automation/CRM and try to make it work for writing and renewing policies. This often ends up being both tedious and costly.

AgencyZoom is a insurance-specific sales software that provides tools for producers and agents focused on automating the creation of new leads and opportunities and following that through to the servicing of the account once the policyholder becomes a customer.

“What AgencyZoom brings to the independent agent is a purpose-built sales automation tool that was designed just for their needs”, said Doug Mohr, Vice President Industry Relations & Partnerships for Vertafore. “For the agency that does not have a large IT staff to build customization into a generic CRM tool, AgencyZoom provides an out of the box solution for the producer to manage their book and track new leads.”

Effective sales tools create efficiency in following the prospecting process from lead all the way to a renewing policyholder.

Marketing Automation

While there are many large, well-known tools for marketing available, few are specific to the needs of an insurance business. They’re also typically too expensive and complex for smaller agencies, where there’s often no full-time dedicated marketing manager.

Your website is an integral part of your marketing strategy. It’s your digital storefront and a key part of your local marketing presence. According to Agency Revolution evangelist Joel Zwicker, “when someone visits your website, they should know what you do, how you’re different, and how to contact you, all within 5 seconds.”

To do so, you need to invest time in a good website, and make updates consistently. Agency Revolution’s FUSE automation tool is made for insurance agencies, and helps make those actions easier. It includes pre-written content and templates, and is affordable for agencies of all sizes.

Once your website is ready, you can turn your attention to other marketing tools for social media, digital advertising, and email automation.

Customer-Facing Tools

Once you acquire a customer, it should be easy for them to do business with you, and easy for them to pay – especially if we’re talking about insurance. At ePay, we believe getting paid should be the easiest thing you do.

Many people don’t even have checkbooks. Your customers should have payment options based on what’s convenient for them. We offer an array of features that go the extra mile in terms of customer experience, like automatic payments, invoice notifications, and the ability to save payment information.

One of our integration partners, Pathway, created an insurance-centric portal that consolidates the documents, payments, quotes and other things your customers might need to access on a daily basis. Investing in your client’s experience allows you to build stronger relationships and retain loyal customers.

Make the Change

For many years, it seemed like the industry was change-resistant. The pandemic forced many companies to adopt more tech-forward solutions, and now more and more companies are asking “why didn’t we do this sooner?”

Change can be scary, but getting left behind the curve while your competitors and customers seek out easier ways to do business should scare you more. The reality is that insurance organizations are investing in technology and employes and customers will move with the current. Do your research, shop around, and start investing in the tools that will make your organization thrive.

This PFC Keeps Growing with Digital Payments

by Client Spotlight Series

Agile Premium Finance (Agile) is one of our longest-running partners and in many ways we have grown up together. Agile has been offering digital payments through ePayPolicy since their founding in 2017. President & COO Bob Przespolewski describes the relationship this way: “We’ve grown together to provide our customers an easy and convenient tool to make their ACH or credit card payments online.”

Providing convenience and efficiency

As a premium finance company (PFC), Agile services P&C agents and their insureds nationwide. “We provide convenient and efficient premium financing solutions to our customers to improve cash flow, preserve working capital, and retain funds for projects, expenses, and investments,” explains Bob.

Offering digital payments aligns perfectly with Agile’s innovative approach and service philosophy of convenience and efficiency. Agile is one of the rare ePayPolicy clients that started their business offering digital payments from day one.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Why ePayPolicy?

Bob says: “There was never a question of whether or not we would be accepting digital payments. Our biggest question was who was going to be our business partner.”

Agile’s main concern was the security of information collected and the ability to pass that information seamlessly from their system to the payment processor. “We did review other vendors, but there was no doubt ePayPolicy was the only solution that made sense for our business,” Bob says.

Note that data security has always been a top priority at ePayPolicy. Agile Premium Finance handles a high volume of large premium payments and could not risk a data breach. Our PCI Level 1 compliance status gave (and continues to give) them peace of mind.

Smooth implementation

“Launching ePayPolicy was one of the smoothest launches we’ve experienced. They were there to answer our questions and make sure we were all comfortable with the process,” Bob recalls.

How Agile uses ePayPolicy

Agile accepts both down payments and monthly installments for insurance premium finance agreements from their insureds.

“The ability to accept payments digitally is the most convenient and efficient option for our insureds, our agents, and for our team,” says Bob. He continues, “Customers have the choice of ACH or making credit card payments online through our portal, utilizing our pay-by-phone system, or setting up a monthly recurring payment.”

Yet even with all these options to pay digitally, many insureds still pay by check. He says that Agile will always accept checks. But as early adopters of digital payment, they appreciate and continue to promote its many benefits—for all parties involved.

Bob’s accounting teams also utilize ePayPolicy’s reports to reconcile accounts on a daily/monthly basis.

The biggest benefits of ePayPolicy

Bob doesn’t hesitate on this question. “The ease of my insureds making their payments, or my customer service team making payments on behalf of our insureds.”

Favorite feature

“The integration to our Premium Finance Software is the key feature for us,” says Bob.
In fact, when asked how ePayPolicy could improve, Bob suggested we ”continue to work on expanding integration options with outside vendors.”

Advice for other PFCs

Bob Przespolewski is unequivocal in his recommendation. “There is no question that every PFC should be accepting digital payments and there is no one easier to work with than ePayPolicy.”

“There is no one easier to work with than ePayPolicy.”
—Bob Przespolewski
President & COO, Agile

 

About Agile Premium Finance

Agile Premium Finance is a Division of Valley National Bank and a leader in the insurance premium finance industry. An innovative and progressive organization, Agile Premium Finance serves agents and their insured(s) across all 50 states, providing convenient and efficient premium financing solutions to customers to improve their cash flow, preserve working capital, and retain funds for projects, expenses, and investments.

Customization is King at This Insurance Firm

by Client Spotlight Series

Universal Insurance Programs (UIP) has been using ePayPolicy for three years. According to Business Operations Manager Edin Nadarevic, their primary motivation was to streamline internal processes. He says, “We did collect electronic payments, but it was done manually in-house. We know that checks will never go away entirely. The reason why we decided to use ePayPolicy is to free up our accounting team to focus on tasks other than chasing down payments.”                                

Why ePayPolicy

“Applied EPIC® is our agency management system and they recommended ePay,” Edin recalls. “We looked at other vendors, of course. But most were too broad and would not fit into our processes—or integrate with EPIC. We knew quickly that ePayPolicy understands our world and would suit our business best.”

Promotion Leads to Adoption

Edin understands marketing and the power of promotion to change behavior. He consulted with ePayPolicy and worked closely with the UIP marketing team to ensure consistency of client-facing communications with the firm’s branding. They added integrated hotlinks of the payment portal to their policies and invoices, to staff email signatures and, of course, the firm’s website.

According to Edin, “It took about a year, or one full cycle, to teach our clients (agents and brokers) to fully embrace digital payment. Now they love it!” He adds, “It’s so easy that sometimes our insureds pay us directly.”

Favorite Features

For insureds, Edin cites two:

  1.   “One big plus is not having to create an account. As an insured I want to pay my premium and go about my business. With ePayPolicy you can just enter your information and you don’t have to create an account.”
  2.   With ePayPolicy, ACH and credit card fees are charged separately from the premium and passed along to the insured. However, according to Edin, “The UIP management team* decided to absorb the ACH fee, since it’s a smaller amount than credit card fees.  It’s definitely been a strategic advantage for us.”

And Edin’s own personal favorite feature:

“I love that we can create the custom buttons. Our invoices, our signature pages—we put yellow “Pay My Bill” buttons everywhere!”

Biggest Internal Benefits

Reliability and efficiency top Edin’s list. “I like that it gets the job done and everyone gets their job done. We just set it and forget it. It always works, and has never stopped working!”

He continues: “ePayPolicy has minimized a lot of manual work for our accounting team. We get our weekly and daily batches and that’s amazing!” Edin oversees multiple departments and says they are all are on board. “ePayPolicy has positively affected our entire business. We can all collect premiums. Everybody here knows how to take a payment. Everyone—from administrative staff to the president—has the payment button.”

Advice to Others

Edin says: “Do it! You can test it out for a month and walk away. There’s no risk, no contract.”

But he fully expects you’ll stay. “Once you set it up, tell everyone about it. Put those payment buttons everywhere! Have all your clients go through a whole annual cycle with ePayPolicy, and you will love it.” 

About Universal Insurance Programs

Arizona-based Universal Insurance Programs, LLC (UIP) was established in 1992 to provide comprehensive coverages to business professionals across the United States. UIP offers uniquely tailored insurance solutions for niche markets including self-storage facilities, salons, day spas and tanning salons.

  

*UP’s Chief Emotional Officer (CEO) Morgan (aka Morgie) supports this policy—and everything that makes people feel that “insurance is a good thing.” Digital payment through ePayPolicy gets an enthusiastic “paws up!”

SeibertKeck Makes “Easy” a Client Value Proposition

by Uncategorized

SeibertKeck is on a mission to change the insurance buying experience. The 100+ year-old, Akron-based agency offers personal and business lines, employee benefits, bonding and professional liability coverage through 17 offices.

EVP of Sales & Operations Tim Able says: “There’s a perception that insurance is hard. We constantly look for ways to make the client experience easier. We push our team to be on the edge of what’s coming, to be subject matter leaders in our field. We offer in-house 24/7/365 claims, and we’re always looking for new technology partners.”

Introducing Digital Payments

SeibertKeck introduced digital payments via ePayPolicy in early 2020. Tim explains the driving forces behind that decision. 

  1. “We have a large book of personal lines, but most of that business is direct bill. As most agencies can relate, the pain was with our agency bill business clients paying by check. 
  2. Technology has reached a point where consumers (including businesses) expect a digital payment option. It’s a requirement to compete in today’s environment. 
  3. The third piece was our own business evolution. We’d grown to the point where we needed a controller. Kevin Speight (now VP of Finance) came in with fresh ideas and worked with our Systems Intelligence Manager. They did a high level review of our accounts receivable and what our clients and the market were asking for.” 

Once SeibertKeck made the decision to go digital, ePayPolicy quickly emerged as the vendor of choice. The agency’s research included checking out OIA company partners. They also conferred with their Vertafore contacts and were pleased to learn that ePayPolicy integrates with AMS360*. Tim says their concerns about client privacy and transaction security were allayed by the agency’s IT vendor. “We made sure to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s.”

With a quick, simple, and seamless installation, SeibertKeck began accepting credit cards and ACH payments — just in time for the pandemic.

Client Response 

Initially, there was some pushback. Some clients balked at paying the credit card processing fee. Putting on his sales hat for a minute, Tim describes coaching employees to overcome objections by emphasizing value. “Yes, there is a fee to use ePayPolicy, but it’s more convenient and more secure and faster than paying by check. And you know your policy’s not going to cancel.” Agents will even suggest that a client “try it this one time and see if you like it.”   

Over time, SeibertKeck clients have steadily embraced paying digitally, with smaller businesses using it more than larger businesses. “ePayPolicy has made quite an impact. We’re definitely seeing fewer checks,” Tim notes. He adds that  93 percent of the firm’s digital payments are ACH and 7 percent are credit card.

Favorite Feature

Tim answers emphatically: “My favorite thing is that it’s SIMPLE. The interface is fantastic. It looks and feels like any other transaction we do on the internet. That’s what I like. We’re proud to offer a payment interface that’s as simple as Amazon or PayPal, not 100 questions.”

Tim also comments on payment flexibility. People can pay by logging into their SeibertKeck client portal, which integrates to the AMS. Or they can simply go onto agency’s website and pay from there.  

Advice to Other Agencies

Tim shares his sales/client service philosophy. “Insurance, and the transaction of insurance, is more than just the premium. The transaction has to be part of the overall experience.  Make it all as easy as you can.”

Specific to offering digital payments through ePayPolicy, Tim advises:  “Make sure you are partnered with a solid IT vendor. And be transparent with your clients about how to use it and the fees associated with each payment. No surprises.” 

Finally, “Make this a part of your sales process. It shows you are current with payment technology. It’s a benefit for them, and they are going to be very happy.” 

*ePayPolicy also integrates with other Vertafore products and many other popular management systems.