Agency management systems have evolved considerably over the past five to 10 years. With the proliferation of new technologies and tools, the impact on an insurance practice can be significant. In the 2006 ACORD User Groups Information Exchange (AUGIE) Agency Technology Survey, 44.1 percent of respondents stated that the adoption of new technologies made them more efficient. In addition, 88 percent of respondents said new technology procedures had a positive impact on client servicing.
But in this market, what benefits do agency management systems impart beyond just an increase in efficiency and effectiveness?
One example of how an agency management system can improve your business is through better customer service. Agencies that provide high-quality customer service have better customer retention rates and typically higher revenue per customer. Your agency management system can be the most effective weapon in your customer service arsenal. For example, customers don't always know how much coverage they need, nor are they always aware of the different coverage options available to them. Using your agency management system, you can easily identify customers who have a home or car of a particular value and provide them an umbrella policy to protect their valuable assets. Another facet of this is using real-time downloads from your agency management system. With the click of a button, information is transferred to or from different carrier systems without the need to re-enter anything.
Companies have seen savings of thousands of dollars and hundreds of manpower hours a month.
Building on the customer service theme, many agency management systems come equipped with tools to help improve the overall customer experience. For example, with easy-to-read declarations page views, agents can instantly answer client questions. Similarly, many systems have predefined alerts to notify agents when certain conditions occur, such as when policies are set to expire, so clients can be contacted for renewal. Alerts can also notify agencies when bank balances drop below set thresholds or when employee licenses are about to expire, thereby reducing errors and omissions exposure.
Another benefit of an agency management system is the ability to control the overload of paper in the agency and thus improve productivity and simplify workflows. Many agencies struggle with mounds of paper in file rooms, on desks, and in storage areas. At times, this can become so overwhelming that companies invest in off-site storage areas.
This approach, however, can be costly and operationally inefficient, and can also increase errors and omissions exposure. Many agency management systems can reduce this paper overload either with a built-in document management capability or by integrating with third-party imaging applications.
One example of an insurance practice that maximizes their use of, and thus benefit from, their agency management system is Moody Insurance Agency Inc., a family-owned business with offices in Denver and Grand Junction,
CO. Moody's philosophy is simple: They want their producers focused on selling. Moody uses an agency management system to off-load many routine tasks and thus free up their personnel to sell. Moody is a paperless agency, using an integrated self-service portal so customers can manage many aspects of their accounts. Due to the efficiencies they've realized since automating, Moody has doubled its premium volume with only a 25 percent increase in staff over the past five years. Furthermore, its automation efficiencies enabled account managers to service $8 million to $9 million worth of premiums each as compared with the industry standard of $2.5 million dollars per account manager.
In today's volatile economy, agent concerns range from sustaining profitably during the current economic downturn to hiring and retaining a new generation of employees and attracting a new generation of clients. By investing in an agency management system, you can change the way your practice interacts with customers and improve the way you do business.
Understanding how an agency management system can automate your existing processes can help your business excel despite the difficult economy.
Gytis Barzdukas is vice president of product management and marketing at AMS Services. He can be reached at gbarzdukas@amsservices.com.
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