The U.S. is now experiencing soaring inflation, supply chain disruptions and geopolitical crises — indicators that the economy is heading for a recession. What can insurance companies do to prepare?
Digitize Payments to Increase Customer Satisfaction…and More
The trend is clear. People today prefer to pay digitally. That includes everything from Amazon purchases to their monthly utility bill – and yes, their insurance premiums! While there are still a few diehard check writers out there, digital transformation is here to stay.
The Many Benefits of Digital Payments
Customer convenience is often cited as the main reason businesses offer digital payments. And statistics bear that out. In a survey of billing executives, 97 percent reported higher customer satisfaction as a benefit of digitizing payments. The report, called “The Digital Edge”, also found other key business benefits, such as: reduced collection times (86.5%), increased operational efficiency (90.8%), cost reductions (81.6%) and gaining a competitive edge (92.3%).
Who wouldn’t want to collect payments faster and more efficiently, at less cost, and gain a competitive edge?
Do Your Research
As you know, the insurance industry has historically not been an early adopter of technology and innovation. However, that is changing. ePayPolicy has customers that have been using our digital payment solution for five or more years.
The pandemic also created a spike in insurtech adoption, as the industry turned to technology for remote team communication, customer relationship management and more. Customers and accounting teams needed no-touch payment options not only because of the risk of Covid, but also because checks being delivered to an empty office was of no use. Many of the habits left by the Covid pandemic are here to stay.
Where to look and what to look for
Which payment system is right for your organization? Read reviews, ask your state association rep (or look on their website for preferred partners), talk to your IMS provider. Which payment processor do they recommend? You want a system that streamlines internal processes, expedites receivables and integrates well with other systems already in place (or planned).
Because of the fiduciary nature of collecting insurance payments, a generic payment system built for retail transactions is likely not the best choice. You will want to focus your search on solutions designed specifically for the insurance industry. This will give way to insurance-specific features like management system integrations, and you can also rest assured that customer support will understand your specific problems when needed.
Try Before You Buy
Compare apples to apples. Understand what your payment processing vendor charges for setup, as well as their monthly subscription fee. Do they offer a free trial? Do you have to sign a multi-year contract? What kind of training/support do they provide?
At ePayPolicy, we offer 60 days free to new users, no contract or set-up fees.
Customer Adoption is Key
According to The Digital Edge survey, one of the biggest hurdles to digitization is employees with insufficient technical skills (59.6%). Be sure to choose a digital payment system that’s easy for your employees to use. After all, they will be the ones behind customer adoption.
Encourage everyone to advocate for digital payments. Announce proudly to customers (and prospects) that you now take payments online. Promote it across your website, newsletters, press releases, ads and social media. This will be welcome news! But don’t count on customers to remember from one payment to the next.
Put a “Pay Now” link on your invoices, in your emails, and a big, can’t-miss button on your website. Show customers how simple it is to pay their premiums through your digital payment portal. Increased loyalty is definitely part of customer satisfaction!
With so many business benefits and literally no downside, isn’t it time to prioritize digital payments?
InsurTech Tools for Every Business Category
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.
Tech-savvy Alpha Direct Agency Gets Digital Payment Processing Right
Alpha Direct Agency doesn’t just embrace InsurTech. Technology is one of their core values: “Driven to Win with Technology”.
The 17-year-old agency even offers (among other specialty lines) technology services insurance and drone liability. Licensed in 17 states, Alpha Direct Agency has offices in New York City, Raleigh and Miami, plus international presence in the Dominican Republic and soon in Ecuador. Clearly, technology is critical to the agency’s revenue, as well as connecting its producers to each other and to the flagship office in upper Manhattan.
Asked about his agency’s use of InsurTech solutions, Principal Emmanuel Osuyah chuckles. “We are the earliest of adopters! People look to me before they buy new software. They know if I’ve used it and recommend it, it’s going to work.”
It’s not surprising, then, that Alpha Direct Agency started offering digital payment processing way back in 2006. Notwithstanding his agency’s international footprint, Emmanuel describes his agency as locally focused. “Customers would literally take the elevator up with baby carriage in tow to find our suite.” Most paid in cash or by money order. But carrying large amounts of cash around is a hassle. And, says Emmanuel, “the cashless world has forced change on all of us.” About the decision to offer online payment, he notes: “There was a time when if you could process ACH (check) payments, you were king. We had to go there.” As for credit cards, Alpha Direct Agency is “all plastic all day long.”
He tried out a series of payment processors over the years before becoming an early adopter of ePayPolicy (which he fondly refers to as “ePay3”). As one of ePayPolicy’s first clients, Emmanuel is clear about why he made the move: batching and fees.
None of his previous vendors had the capability to separate transaction fees as ePayPolicy does. He had to reconcile their fees monthly, decidedly “batch unfriendly.”
Prior to Insurance, Emmanuel worked as a banker, where he had to triple count cash for verification (those were the days before the desktop teller machines). When he founded his agency, he was no stranger to triple counting cash late into the night; and that’s when he knew there had to be a better way. With other merchant services vendors, he would take a month-and-a-half to reconcile credit card payments. Some vendors have two separate portals for credit cards and ACH transactions; which necessitates two different logins. In contrast, with ePayPolicy, mid-month and at the end of the month, his bookkeeper would run the reports, and “the transactions are right there. Both credit cards and ACH in the same transaction summary. With another click you hop into the batches. It’s so smooth, with easily searchable fields, which gives us more time in the month to focus on other things.”
Agent Reaction to ePayPolicy
His agents like the payment portal also. He says, “I lean on my 15 employees for feedback. My people were complaining about the old platform.” The Agents particularly like that refunds to customers are easy with ePayPolicy. Confirmation of the refund can be sent to the customer from the platform within minutes of processing, saving them from having to take follow-up calls about the refund’s status.
The ePayPolicy Experience
The transition from the previous payment processor vendor was smooth. ePayPolicy integrated easily with Alpha Direct Agency’s website. Emmanuel shares that, “right off the bat, I was impressed with the seamlessness of it all. My logo was in the portal, access to reports was painless and payments were hitting my bank account in the expected time frames.”
Emmanuel also gives thumbs up for:
- Ease of payment (a big plus in redirecting customers away from cash payments)
- Speed of payment (frees up agents to spend more time on sales)
- Web 2.0 friendly (it offers a clean look without a lot of “gibberish” on the screen)
Alpha Direct Agency hasn’t had to lean on ePayPolicy’s Customer Service often, but they’ve been very responsive when called or emailed. He cites this example: “Our customers know immediately when a transaction fee shows up in their account. Disputes are rare. But one customer contested a fee, even though he knew he was in the wrong. ePayPolicy shut it right down once we provided supporting documents.”
The “fees” theme continued throughout the interview. Emmanuel finds ePayPolicy’s flat fees for ACH transactions ($3 per) a major benefit. He recently had another vendor pitch him, but they charge a percentage of the ACH transaction. Needless to say, that company will not be getting the Emmanuel Osuyah stamp of approval.
Next Steps for Alpha Direct
Alpha Direct does not currently use the invoicing function, but Emmanuel looks forward to implementing it. In addition, he’s excited to know that ePayPolicy’s platform has plans to integrate with his agency management system (Hawksoft).
Advice to Other Insurance Agencies
To any agencies out there researching digital payment processors or dissatisfied with their current vendor, Emmanuel Osuyah does not mince words:
“Sign up with ePayPolicy. Go straight to where the future’s at.”
2020 InsurTech Award Winners
We’re excited to share the results of the 2020 InsurTech Award presented by ePayPolicy. A record-shattering 165 agencies entered, representing a diversity of agency sizes and locations.
Each entrant received an ITA (InsurTech Adoption) score report. ITA scores assess the use of technology in six specific areas: sales, marketing, team collaboration, client experience, customer support, and agency management.
Congratulations to our 2020 top scorers. These agencies truly exemplify the spirit of the award through innovative use of technology across agency functions.
Meet Our 2020 Runner Ups
Insurance Brokers of Arizona, Gilbert, AZ
Insurance Brokers of Arizona was founded in 2005 by Cameron Brown. After 12 years of operating the agency “traditionally,” Cameron recognized multiple opportunities to modernize. Technology solutions help his team and his clients, making for a better experience for everyone. Cameron’s advice on technology adoption: “Start with your biggest pain point, find a solution that works for you, and implement it. Then move to the next pain point and keep going.”
ElmSure Insurance, New York, NY
ElmSure specializes in serving real estate investors, offering tailored risk mitigation solutions for properties at all stages of construction and occupancy. Spokesperson Lipi Raghunathan commented, “Building technology and processes take time, but as long as the organizational foundation is sound, it’s worth it to create these automated systems.” ElmSure views technology as increasingly essential as agents, staff, and clients balance working remotely and in person.
Portal Insurance, Mobile, AL
Bradley Flowers founded Portal Insurance in 2019 with a mission to make insurance more customer-centric. He suggests there are a lot of ‘shiny objects’ out there, and it’s easy to get distracted. Bradley’s threefold test for new technology:
- Does it integrate well with our other tech? Don’t buy systems that add work to your tech stack.
- Who owns this technology? He prefers someone who is “indie all the way.”
- Does this tech make it easier for my end consumer to do business with me? If the answer is not a resounding “yes,” don’t buy it.
… and Our 2020 Grand Prize Winner:
CalNonprofits Insurance Services, Capitola, CA
This women-led, nonprofit brokerage helps nonprofits throughout California navigate the insurance market. When they hired Colleen Lazanich as CEO four years ago, little did they know they were getting a self-described insurance geek, techie, data lover, and avid benchmarker. In four short years, Colleen has replaced every piece of hardware and software used by her team.
Calnonprofits had been operating like so many nonprofit organizations: way behind the technology curve. They purchased their computers at a recycling center. Virtually everything was done manually.
Colleen views integration with the AMS as the only way to have “one true source of data, one source of truth.” Replacing their management system was one of her first priorities. Many integrations and automation followed.
- As it happens, the new management system provider had just released a sales management application, which has been a boon to CalNonprofits’ agents.
- CalNonprofits was using a tool that digitizes the insurance application and renewal process. Soon, that application provider was bought by the new AMS provider.
- Other key technology upgrades include:
- A new enrollment platform
- An automated ticketing process (not currently integrated with the AMS)
- Replacing a well-known email marketing vendor. CalNonprofits recently purchased a new marketing automation system offered by … their AMS provider.
- Digital payment processing. CalNonprofits was in a beta test through one of their technology vendors. That product never made it to production but led Colleen and her team to ePayPolicy.
Says Colleen, “Being paperless has greatly improved us.” She is proud that her team has embraced so much automation in such a short time. One such change is a team collaboration/project management solution replacement in 2018. The new system is “intuitively organized and really ramped up productivity.” Because of that—and the other internal and client-facing automation—CalNonprofits was able to pivot to remote work in a single day when the COVID pandemic hit.
Colleen Lazanich says she entered the InsurTech Award competition specifically to get the ITA score report. Her team is thrilled to be recognized. But as long as there are new areas to automate, new technology solutions to integrate, CalNonprofits will continue to pursue them—and seek to better their 2020 ITA score in future years.
Once again, thank you to our 165 entrants. Congratulations to CalNonprofits, and to runners-up Portal Insurance, Insurance Brokers of Arizona, and ElmSure.
If you’d like to be notified of our 2021 call for entries, follow us on Facebook and stay up to date on all things InsurTech.
Automating Your Agency Management
Article 6 in a 6-part series
Agency Management is the last InsurTech category in our six-part series. We hope you have enjoyed learning about the strategies for investing in InsurTech and are getting ready to enter the 2020 InsurTech Award.
What is Agency Management?
An insurance agency management system (AMS) organizes all aspects of your agency’s book of business and increases operational efficiency. AMS automates the back office, carrier-facing and client-facing functions that agencies need to succeed.
Why It’s Important to Use These Tools
As independent insurance agencies embrace InsurTech solutions, it makes sense to start with the most primary functions first. AMS typically perform insurance-specific functions that drive and support sales. These include:
- Policy management
- Claims management
- Payment processing
- Accounting
- Commissions
- Invoicing
Once you get comfortable with your AMS, you can integrate function-specific apps and portals to manage allied functions such as team collaboration, customer support, payment processing, and more.
As one AMS provider explains it, “Your AMS is the best employee you’ll ever hire.” This star “employee” gets work done faster and more accurately, freeing your agents and staff for more high-ROI activities, such as interacting with clients.
Agency Management Tools
Following are some of the tasks you can automate. We’ve also included some solution vendors as examples. Our list is not intended to be exhaustive of all the options out there, nor does ePayPolicy endorse or prefer one vendor over another.
Automate Key Agency Functions
These multifaceted systems are designed to make agencies look good because they’re built for efficiency. AMS companies Applied Systems and Vertafore are perhaps the most widely known AMS solution providers. Both offer a variety of system options and features. Innovators like Hawksoft, Veruna, and NowCerts are carving out their own niches and earning accolades, as they build in more functionality and run on popular platforms like Salesforce.
Integrations
An AMS provides a central hub for specialized integration tools that increase sales and marketing, team collaboration, client support, and engagement with both clients and carriers. As you explore which capabilities you want to add to your technology stack (e.g., sales, chatbox, CRM, payment processing) start with your existing AMS provider or the provider(s) you’re evaluating. Different agency management systems integrate with particular vendors’ apps, and they’re usually featured on the AMS company’s website. That’s your assurance that:
- You’re seeing a pre-vetted list of preferred integrations partners
- The partner vendors listed will easily integrate with their AMS
Thinking Ahead
The right AMS for your agency is out there, whether you write P&C or life and health policies, are large or small, InsurTech-savvy or just starting your automation journey. Agency Management Systems are foundational, customizable, and easy to set up and use. With or without any add-on to automation tools, the AMS enables your whole team to work smarter, not harder.
Where Does Your Agency Stand?
Find out! ePayPolicy’s annual 2020 InsurTech Award is now open for entries. Top scorers will get cash and other awesome prizes. All entrants receive their InsurTech adoption score, along with valuable feedback. Enter today and find out how your agency stacks up against others (and how you’ve improved over time, if you’ve entered before). Judges even offer tips on specific ways to leverage automation for:
- Sales
2. Marketing
3. Team Collaboration
4. Client Experience
5. Customer Support
6.Agency Management Systems
Our 6-part series covers all of these InsurTech solution categories. We invite you to explore them all.
Automating Your Customer Support
Article 5 in a 6-part series
Customer support automation is one of six primary categories we recommend independent insurance agencies invest in to build out their InsurTech strategy in 2020.
What is Customer Support?
Customer support tools engage clients and prospects through virtual assistance, enhanced personal interaction and multi-channel communication.
Why It’s Important to Use These Tools
Insurance is a service business. You want to help prospects and clients efficiently, while not burdening your staff needlessly. Enter, automated customer support (ACX). ACX tools do two important things:
- They facilitate client communication, AND
- Allow you to help prospects and clients at scale without increasing staff count.
The New Model of Customer Support
Gone are the days when client support meant fielding calls or in-person visits during business hours. Clients have questions at all hours and expect instant answers. They access your agency via your website, text, mobile phone, even social media.
Today, customer support means engaging with your clients when, where and how they choose. The results are happier, empowered clients and happier, less stressed agents and staff.
Customer Support Tools
Here are some of the major work tasks you can automate. We’ve included representative solutions vendors as well. These are just examples. Our list is not intended to be exhaustive of all the options out there, nor does ePayPolicy endorse or prefer one vendor over another.
Live Chat
Live chat is like having a fully staffed customer service department. One live chat agent can handle multiple inquiries, while other employees attend to other business. And research shows customers are more satisfied with live chat than phone or email support. Companies like Zendesk, Podium, and Intercom help your agency:
- Engage people via websites, mobile, or social media — even before they ask a question
- Build credibility and trust with clients and prospects through personalized and non-intrusive interaction
- Track who’s using the service and how, including who’s asking to chat with “Sales” or “Support”
Self-Service
Save staff from answering the same questions over and over. A good first step is to add a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section to your website. FAQs:
- Encourage prospects and clients to find their own answers
- Cut down on the number of inquiries staff must handle
AI-powered chatbots are also a useful tool for self-service customer support. Chatbots use sophisticated natural language processing to simulate a human interaction. Vendors such as ChatBot, LivePerson, ada, and Bold360 make it easy to:
- Tailor a ready-to-go bot template to industry-specific use cases
- Assure that each inquiry triggers the right bot response
- Engage your visitors with a seamless, conversational experience
Phone Service
Today’s virtual (internet-based) platforms bring multiple communication channels together. VoIp phone service providers such as RingCentral, Grasshopper, Nextiva, and Ooma amp up your business interactions. You and your staff can present a consistent business brand as you:
- Conduct business via phone call, text message, or high-quality video session
- Serve clients with greater ease and reliability
- Do it all from your preferred device, anywhere you happen to be
Thinking Ahead
Your clients are quickly becoming used to automated support from other vendors and service providers. Adopting customer support solutions such as Live Chat, Self-Service and VoIP Phone Service shows clients you’re modern, highly responsive, and communication savvy for their convenience.
Where Does Your Agency Stand?
Find out! The InsurTech Award presented by ePayPolicy is now open for entries. Top scorers will get cash and other awesome prizes. All entrants receive their InsurTech adoption score, along with valuable feedback. Enter today and find out how your agency stacks up against others (and how you’ve improved over time, if you’ve entered before). Judges even offer tips on specific ways to leverage automation for:
Our 6-part series covers all of these InsurTech solution categories. We invite you to explore them all.
Automating the Client Experience
Article 4 in a 6-part series
Client Experience is one of six primary categories we recommend independent insurance agencies invest in to build out their InsurTech strategy in 2020.
What Is Client Experience?
Client experience is anything that gives your clients ease and comfort when doing business with you.
Why It’s Important to Use These Tools
You’ve worked hard to build an agency your clients trust. But in today’s digital world, more business is conducted virtually for buyer convenience. This presents opportunities for you to “up your game” and delight clients in new, tech-enhanced ways.
The Importance of Client Experience
The agent/client relationship can never be replaced. However, today that relationship extends beyond personal interactions. It encompasses every single touchpoint a prospect or client has with your agency.
InsurTech both guides and reflects this trend. Technology that supports responsive service and puts clients at ease is a good thing. It also gives you greater control of your brand.
Client Experience Automation Tools
Here are some of the major work tasks you can automate, and we’ve included representative solutions vendors as well. These are just examples. Our list is not intended to be exhaustive of all the options out there, nor does ePayPolicy endorse or prefer one vendor over another.*
Payment Gateways
Today’s shoppers expect convenient, cashless payment options. Most payment gateways, PayPal and Apple Pay, for example, are industry agnostic. These services let consumers:
- Make purchases via mobile device or computer
- Be assured of payment security
- Send or receive money instantly
Other portals (e.g., ePayPolicy)* are designed specifically for the insurance industry. They:
- Offer check-free payment convenience while speeding up agency receivables
- Handle the unique fiduciary and compliance requirements of the insurance industry
- Integrate into your Account Management System
Website
People access websites on computers, laptops, tablets, and phones. They use browsers like Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Safari. You:
- Do want to provide a seamless experience on your website across all devices
- Don’t want anyone to have to switch devices to visit your site
Likewise, you want your website to offer fresh, accurate and useful information. Web building platforms like Wix and WordPress:
- Let you be your own web designer (no coding needed)
- Make updating content a breeze
- Give you control over the user experience (UX) of your site
Data Security
Security threats are getting more aggressive. Give everyone peace of mind that all of their PII (Personally Identifiable Information), financial records, passwords, devices and applications are safe and secure.
McAfee, Duo Security, LastPass, and IBM Security are just a few of the powerful data security platforms you can choose to:
- Protect your agency
- Protect your staff
- Protect your clients
Client Onboarding
Once you bring on a new client it’s now time to create a successful onboarding strategy. This can be anything from a dedicated landing page highlighting how to “Get Started” to setting up automated email drips to keep your new clients engaged. Remember at the end of any good onboarding strategy is the request for a review. Although this seems slightly awkward it’s the most beneficial thing a new client can offer your agency. There are services out there like Rocket Referrals that have this down to a science. Those referral platforms help you:
- Simplify and automate client communications (e.g., personalized notes)
- Stand out online (rank higher with search engines, get more reviews)
- Track your performance and act on client insights
Integration Portals (client-facing)
This six-part series covers both agency-facing and client-facing integration portals. These are a few examples related to Client Experience.
Customer support integrations enhance:
- Client communication
- Client engagement
- Client satisfaction
And Sales and Marketing don’t stop when you ink a contract. You have ongoing opportunities to stay connected, keep learning about your clients, and build loyalty (including client referrals).
Thinking Ahead
There are many functions that individually and collectively work to create the client experience. Whether that experience is good or bad is determined by the tech solutions you have in place. The Client Experience tools mentioned above are designed to enhance client satisfaction. Enhancing internal satisfaction is just another InsurTech bonus!
Where Does Your Agency Stand?
Find out! The InsurTech Award presented by ePayPolicy is now open for entries. Top scorers will get cash and other awesome prizes. All entrants receive their InsurTech adoption score, along with valuable feedback. Enter today and find out how your agency stacks up against others (and how you’ve improved over time, if you’ve entered before):
- Sales
2. Marketing
3. Team Collaboration
4. Client Experience
5. Customer Support
6. Agency Management Systems
Our 6-part series covers all of these InsurTech solution categories. We invite you to explore them all.
Automating Your Team Collaboration
Article 3 in a 6-part series
Team Collaboration is one of six primary categories we recommend independent insurance agencies invest in to build out their InsurTech strategy in 2020.
What Is Team Collaboration?
Technology to keep your team organized and productive, using tools that allow you to message, meet virtually, share projects, and more. It’s often billed as a subcategory under the general heading “project management software.”
Why It’s Important to Use These Tools
Collaboration is essential for agencies of any size. You cannot do your job without the cooperation of multiple parties inside—and even outside—the agency.
Team collaboration software improves speed, efficiency and accuracy of teamwork. Sure, agencies will continue to use email and in-person communication, but why not take advantage of new tools that make it even easier to work together?
The New Importance of Virtual Work
As we have all learned from the Coronavirus crisis, virtual and remote work heightens the need for collaborative technology. Even before the current situation, the trend toward technology-enhanced teamwork was clear. With mobile technology, agents and staff can log in and perform their work remotely. Imagine how efficient and effective your entire team could be with a full suite of collaboration tools in place! And honestly, we don’t need a crisis to make these changes; better collaboration means better business, every day.
Team Collaboration Tools
What follows are some of the major work tasks you can automate, including some solution vendors as examples. Our list is not intended to be exhaustive of all the options out there, nor does ePayPolicy endorse or prefer one vendor over another.
Messaging
Communication is key to working effectively with your team. If you’re primarily using email, you might encounter some challenges that tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Skype for Business could solve. These tools allow you to:
- Save time by communicating instantly with coworkers
- Stay harmonized by sharing files and ideas in a centralized location
- Be in-the-know about teammates with status updates (“out for lunch,” “in a meeting,” “at home sick”)
Virtual Work / Video Meetings
It was not uncommon to work from home prior to the pandemic. Some days it’s a necessity—maybe you have a sick child at home, or you’re waiting on a maintenance fix—but meetings still need to take place. Having tools like GoToMeeting, Zoom, or Google Hangouts can allow you to:
- Meet with multiple people in an organized manner
- Simplify meetings with people outside of the office
- Share screens with participants to show current progress on projects
Task Management
You might have your own way of keeping track of individual projects, but there are situations where your whole team is working together on one project. How do you keep track of everyone’s responsibilities? Task management tools like Asana, Trello, and Basecamp help teams:
- Keep track of projects in a centralized place
- Send reminders to themselves as well as other team members
- Assign tasks and create checklists to stay organized
Thinking Ahead
Having team collaboration solutions in place is vital for a flexible, cohesive and powerful team. Technology developed for Messaging, Virtual Meetings and Task Management will make your team feel connected and empowered both inside and outside the office.
Where Does Your Agency Stand?
Find out! The InsurTech Award presented by ePayPolicy is now open for entries. Top scorers will get cash and other awesome prizes. All entrants receive their InsurTech adoption score, along with valuable feedback. Enter today and find out how your agency stacks up against others (and how you’ve improved over time, if you’ve entered before). Judges even offer tips on specific ways to leverage automation for:
- Sales
2. Marketing
3. Team Collaboration
4. Client Experience
5. Customer Support
6. Agency Management Systems
Our 6-part series covers all of these InsurTech solution categories. We invite you to explore them all.
Automating Your Marketing & Branding
Article 2 in a 6-part series
Marketing Automation is one of six primary categories we recommend independent insurance agencies invest in to build out their InsurTech strategy in 2020.
What Is Marketing Automation?
Generate qualified leads, craft personalized buying journeys, and interact with contacts from top to bottom of the funnel with powerful marketing tools that allow your team to work smarter not harder.
Why It’s Important to Use These Tools
Marketing is critical to feeding your sales team and keeping loyal clients in the fold. But that means connecting with prospects and clients where they live— increasingly, online.
Marketing in the Digital Age
Online is where the action is—and if you’re not engaging there, your competition is.
If you are doing some digital marketing already, that’s great. Now think about what you could do even better—or finally start doing—with these labor-saving tools.
Marketing Automation Tools
Here are some of the major tasks and functions you can automate. We’ve included representative solutions vendors as well. These are just examples. Our list is not intended to be exhaustive of all the options out there, nor does ePayPolicy endorse or prefer one vendor over another.
Email Automation
Email is a versatile way to stay engaged with prospects and clients alike. But it requires time and skills you may not have on staff. Today, managing email campaigns has never been easier or more affordable, with software from HubSpot, MailChimp and Marketo, to name a few.
Email automation tools enable you to:
- Customize templates to your brand and target campaigns by audience segment or their actions
- Schedule and deploy your campaign during prime time and track essential metrics and KPIs
- Split test different elements to continue improving your campaign outcomes
Social Media Presence
Yes! Businesses do need to be on social media. People expect to find you there. Each site has its own niche, but it’s important to have a presence on all of them:
- LinkedIn is a professional (business) networking site
- Twitter centers around real-time global conversations and timely trends
- Facebook is a multifaceted social networking site with the emphasis on “social”
- Instagram is a popular photo and video sharing site owned by Facebook
- Pinterest is a photo sharing site dedicated to visual inspiration
Social Media Management
Your social media visibility is only as good as your last post. Luckily, Social Media Management (SMM) tools do the heavy lifting for you. SMM software from Sprout Social, HubSpot, Hootsuite and the like allow you to:
- Schedule social posts when the right people will see them
- Save valuable time by posting for you across all the platforms
- See every interaction with your mentions
- Connect with prospects and clients to grow your brand
Digital Advertising
Digital, or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising complements your other online marketing (especially social). You can display brief advertisements, service offerings, video content and more on Google and social media platforms and only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Management software and platforms such as AdHawk, Google Ads, and,AdRoll can:
- Manage your digital advertising across all platforms
- Aggregate your data into one dashboard for real-time updates
- Suggest optimization tips based on viewer response
Thinking Ahead
If this seems like a lot to absorb, you can phase in these Marketing Automation Technologies at your own pace.
Email Marketing, Social Media Presence, Social Media Management, and Digital Advertising tools are designed to turbocharge your marketing. With their powerful analytics, you’ll see instantly how each channel is working for your agency.
Where Does Your Agency Stand?
Find out! The InsurTech Award presented by ePayPolicy is now open for entries. Top scorers will get cash and other awesome prizes. All entrants receive their InsurTech adoption score, along with valuable feedback. Enter today and find out how your agency stacks up against others (and how you’ve improved over time, if you’ve entered before). Judges even offer tips on specific ways to leverage automation for:
