Low Cost Solutions

The seminar I was attending was “Low Cost Automation Solutions for Small Agencies”, but it might as well have been entitled “Agency Owners: Get Your Butts in Gear.”

The self-help session, held as part of IIAT’s Joe Vincent Management Seminar and led by the sprightly Mary Eisenhart, hit agency owners right where it counts: be committed to automation or don’t bother. That theme, repeated throughout the hour and a half, was much larger than the low cost solutions.

And the beauty of becoming committed to automation is that it’s about as low cost as low cost goes, being as it’s free. So what’s involved in becoming committed to automation?

Well, for one, it’s not merely purchasing an agency management system, though that’s a good start. It’s actually using it. How many agencies out there just use their system for accounting, but keep paper files as a “back up”. How many agencies keep a typewriter around for that occasional proof of insurance card? Having an agency management system is about turning it all over—using all the pieces, including the contact management system.

Other “low cost” pieces to this commitment include creating formal, written procedures. In my own world, there’s something very tangible about the written word. In order to write it, you have to think about it, process it and weigh its worthiness. Just writing things down should force you to weed out inefficient methods. And once you do write it down, no one’s lost or doing it their way.

New hires, traditionally expected to learn their new job by osmosis in many places, would have a guidebook on how your agency does things. While trial-by-fire is a fun and dandy phrase, it’s no way to manage your agency.

As much as the phrase “formal, written procedures” sounds like the hated five-paragraph essay from high school, agents should do it anyway. It’s part of that “Get Your Butts in Gear” theme that I mentioned earlier.

Being committed to being automated also means making sure you’re not “automating” when it doesn’t make sense. Take, for example, imaging. You get a paper policy from the company, someone scans it into your system as an attachment to their customer file and then you either dispose of the policy or file it in some way. The “attachment” in your computer is basically just a picture. You can’t use any of the data in the policy. If you wanted to remarket the account, you’ll have to fill out a new form, rekeying all the information that is right there in the file. How much time has that saved you? Is it really that much more convenient than just keeping the policy?

How many of you are truly committed to automating your office? If you’re not, it’s worth a thought.