If your insurance agency hasn’t already gone paperless, you need to start working on the transition. Going paperless is much more than just an environmental concern. It also provides plenty of benefits for your agency, employees, and clients.
You Help the Planet
The most frequently touted reason to go paperless is to help the planet. Depending on the size of your insurance agency, you could easily save hundreds or thousands of pages every single day just by switching to paperless systems. This can make you feel better about the planet you leave to future generations. You can also use it as a marketing point, especially when combined with other eco-friendly actions your agency has taken.
Improve Employee Efficiency
Going paperless also does wonders for efficiency and productivity. Instead of looking through piles of papers or binders, employees can access everything they need from their computers. With the right insurance agency management software, like Jenesis, everything is in a single program, making it even easier.
As mentioned, some of that boost to efficiency comes from the ability to access everything from within a single system instead of across various papers and files. But further efficiency comes from the fact that many paperless systems also include automated functionality. This is especially true with insurance agency management systems like Jenesis. That automation saves your employees even more time. It can even reduce the risk of human error.
Improve Client Interactions With Your Employees
Your employees will work more efficiently and improve their interactions with clients. Think about what happens when a client visits your office to discuss insurance options with your staff. There is a lot of shuffling of paperwork and time spent gathering papers from throughout the office.
With a paperless system, your staff and the client can use a computer and go over all options. On top of that, these paperless systems will make more information easily accessible. For example, your staff won’t have to pull out a binder or book to confirm what is included in a given policy; it will be right on the screen.
The result is a less wasted time during interactions with clients.
Especially Over Video Calls
While in-person interactions are returning, some people still prefer not to meet face-to-face. As such, your insurance agency may offer video consultations in addition to in-person ones. If you do, sharing paperless information is much easier than sharing information on paper. Your employees share their screens. There is no need to hold up a piece of paper to the camera or scan it into the system.
Improve Overall Client Experience Via Digital Access
Yet another way that switching to paperless systems will improve the customer experience is by making it possible for customers to access their information remotely. If your system relies on paper, you likely print documents and insurance information for clients. This means they need these papers handy to consult their insurance information. What if something comes up when they aren’t home?
The digital access that is a natural extension of paperless systems overcomes this issue. Paperless solutions are going to be digital. If you choose the right system, your clients will be able to access relevant information, such as their policy information. This is great for the customer experience, as they won’t need to contact you with questions or look for their documents.
Depending on your paperless system and client access, they may even be able to check whether they have an insurance premium due or print an insurance certificate.
Give Employees Work Flexibility
We mentioned potential videoconferences with clients instead of in-person ones because of the pandemic. But this also applies to your agents. What if someone is a bit under the weather (but feels well enough to work)? If you rely on paper, there isn’t a practical way for them to work. But with a paperless system, they can easily do so. You need to choose a system that will give them remote access.
Reduced Errors
We already touched on the reduced risk of human errors with automation and paperless systems, but this is worth repeating. When your team inputs information from paper into your system or copies it between paper documents, there is always a risk of human error. Using a digital system dramatically reduces this risk, as there is typically only one opportunity for error instead of several.
Saves Your Agency Money
One common theme among most of the benefits mentioned above is that going paperless will save your agency money.
- When employees work more efficiently, they don’t have to work as much overtime, or you may be able to reduce the number of people on your team.
- Giving clients easy access to their information reduces the time your team spends answering basic questions, further reducing labor costs.
- Preventing mistakes saves you from potentially costly ones.
Conclusion
Taking your insurance agency paperless does more than help the planet. It also improves the efficiency of your team and reduces the risk of errors. It improves the client experience via that boost to efficiency and clients’ ability to access their policy information anywhere. Given all the advantages of taking your agency paperless, there is no reason to put it off.