Whether your agency has 20 employees or one, an agency management system can help improve your efficiencies. If you are looking to streamline your business without completely changing your operations, look to your management system to provide specific client reports, prospecting lists, and more.
Here are a few major benefits to using your management system more:
Client servicing and prospecting are easier.
An agency management system provides a single location for all your customers’ personal information along with their policy information. Remember, your management system is only as good as the information you add and update. By including prospects in the system, you have the option to market to them at any time. Creating a prospecting strategy is also made easier by segmenting and pulling lists of prospective clients with common data. The system maintains all policies, giving you the ability to remarket, cross or upsell with just a few button clicks.
Organization
Having one location to store all of your agency’s information makes locating documentation and updating information a breeze. A management system gives you quick and easy methods to obtaining the information you’re seeking, so you can forget spending hours digging through filing cabinets. Some of the information you can find in your system will include things like: Client notes, policy information, account contacts, account and policy documents, and signed applications. You will save yourself so much time whenever a client or carrier requests a copy of their documents.
Reporting Capability
Available reports from your agency management system provide you with information on your book of business, management, cancellations, policy expiration lists, production reports and more. One of my favorite reports is the Exception report which shows you downloaded policies that renew with an increase in premium. This way you can anticipate when a client will receive their increased renewal documents, and then you can help them shop around.
Financial reporting is also a key feature as well as producer and production reports. You can stay up-to-date on how much commission is being reconciled by your accounting department. Also, if you are splitting commission, a producer report will show you exactly what has been reconciled and how much to pay your producers.
Download Policy Information
Carriers download policy data directly into the management system, so there is no additional data entry on your part. Besides saving time, here are some of the benefits that download provides:
- It makes for easy processing of certificates of insurance, auto id cards, and evidence of insurance.
- The policy number and dates are correct, which means less policies on the Outstanding Commission Report.
- Your agency reports are accurate.
Claims and E&O Documentation
Claim’s status reports are available in your agency management system to assist your staff with providing superior service to your clients. Some carriers are beginning to provide the ability to download claim information directly into your agency management system to avoid manual updates. All letters, memos, proposals, spreadsheets, emails, voicemails, etc. can be tracked in your agency management system, which helps protect you against E&O.
Utilizing the ‘Activities’ and ‘Notes’ within the management system can help eliminate claims. I cannot say it enough: Document, document, document! The activities in Epic cannot be deleted and notes cannot be edited. In the event of a claim, Applied Systems can pull all the activities to show that you indeed are documenting everything related to your clients. Be sure to attach all your signed applications, policy change requests, and carrier documents directly in ‘Attachments’ under your client’s account. This will create a trail of documents on your client. To ensure everyone in your agency is minimizing risk, follow agency workflows within the management so everyone completes the same procedures.
Real Time
Using Real Time from your agency management system eliminates the need to remember separate login IDs and passwords for each carrier. With the click of a button, information is transferred from your agency system to the carrier’s system without the need to re-enter information for quoting, inquiry, and endorsements. Real Time represents the next major advance in agency workflows – enhancing both agency efficiency and customer responsiveness.
The agency management system has long been the hub for the agency’s internal operations providing a central location for agency information. With the advent of Real Time coupled with Download, the agency management system has now taken on an external focus as well, giving agents a consistent, efficient workflow to use when interfacing with their carriers.
Utilize ASNOA University and weekly trainings to help set up best practice within your agency by providing efficient workflows and procedures that all staff members can follow.