Download: Your Cheapest Team Member
In-person events are back! I was recently at the Florida Association of Insurance Agents (FAIA) conference in Orlando and was excited to sit on a panel amongst my peers and technology experts from IVANS.
When I walked in, I saw a vintage car that had been revamped with an all-new engine, exterior and an IVANS logo splashed on the side. Turns out the IVANS CEO, Reid Holzworth, combined his love for remaking cars and his vision for his organization, with the idea that IVANS takes the traditional, manual insurance processes and modernizes them so that agents can be faster and more efficient.
This got me thinking about my business and how using technology, like download, helps me save time and spend more time on profitable tasks.
This was the perfect set up to our discussion during our panel about digital connectivity. I was talking about how download and other technologies have helped my agency become paperless. Out of curiosity, we polled the room of agents to see who was using download. I was shocked to see that only about 25% of agents raised their hands. Using download is such an essential part of my business and it doesn’t cost me anything. For me, it really is a no-brainer.
It became important for me to tell agents this not-so-secret industry secret. So for all the agents not using download, here are three reasons why you need download in your business workflows:
Doesn’t Call in Sick
When I first began my agency, three of my team members’ jobs were to file and input data into our agency management system. This manual process took a lot of time and if someone couldn’t come to the office that day, we’d have to spend even more time making up for that pair of hands that we’d lost.
It also put us at major risk for errors and omissions (E&O). If one of my team members input a wrong policy number, then the customer file didn’t correlate, and the entire chain was broken – making us spend even more time to fix the problem.
I soon learned how download automatically transfers all that information from the insurer to my agency management system. No additional data entry needed. I was instantly able to grow my business by promoting my staff who worked in data entry to more revenue-generating positions.
We are now able to handle even more business because we have IVANS doing the work of my three data entry staff members for free.
Helps to Understand Your Business
Before using download, it was difficult to truly understand the health of my business. I had to look at each of my insurers individually to know which policies were canceled and which were renewed. Then, I had to consolidate all of that information into a single report, taking a ton of time that I could have been using to grow my business.
On the other hand, agents who aren’t using download and solely look at their revenue as a growth gauge are missing big pieces of the puzzle, risking your bottom line. Look at it this way, you don’t just get your temperature checked when you go to the doctor. They need to check your blood pressure, eyes and reflexes, to make sure you’re completely healthy. Why wouldn’t you do the same for your business? You could be missing a huge piece of the puzzle by only checking your revenue.
When you download, all that information is automatically stored in your agency management system. That data is used to create real-time reports and dashboards with a single click. You can keep track of your business — which policies are doing well, which insurers are doing well, etc. — and know exactly what your next move to grow your business should be.
What About Hurricanes or Pandemics?
In 2009, we had a horrible hurricane rip through Florida, and everyone was without power and cell phone service for 10 days. This was the catalyst for our digital transformation. I wanted to make sure that my team would be able to work from anywhere in case we had another hurricane come through. Little did I know that a global pandemic would present the same challenge 12 years later.
This time, we were prepared. My team worked away from the office for nearly a year without interruption. We didn’t have to rely on the mail to communicate with insurers. All policy and customer information were automatically downloaded into our agency management system. And further, we didn’t have to worry about sending the policy documents to our customers via the mail because that download information — including the documents — was automatically sent to our customer portal. Customers were notified and could pull their certificates of insurance with virtually no work from my team.
Not Just an Agent Consideration
Policies are expensive for agents to write, especially if the insurer doesn’t download. And with the commission potential going down over time, it doesn’t make sense for an agent to write an inexpensive policy.
For example, I was talking to an insurer who was selling policies for $250. They were so proud to sell an inexpensive policy. I said, “That’s great! Do you download?” They replied that their systems were too old to be able to download. So, my next question was, “How do I write a $250 policy if I have to manually input it in my management system?” My commission is $20 to $25 and if I need to pay one of my staff members to update the data manually in my management system it means I’m losing money. Safe to say, I didn’t write that policy.
As I think about the time that download saves, I’m reminded of the book, The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, in which he talks about eliminating unnecessary steps. He says to take a ten-step process and find a way to make it five steps. Then do it again to make it two steps. Along the way, you are reducing human touchpoints that put you at risk for error. Download is a no-brainer to cut down on clicks and human input and is an initiative that the entire insurance ecosystem should be driving. It saves time and money for everyone involved.