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:
- “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.”
- 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!”
