Choosing the right insurance agency management system is an important decision. You want something that will help your team work efficiently, let you track your profits and commissions, and improve the client experience. But what specific features should you be looking for? We suggest using the following as a checklist.
Email Integration
The best systems will integrate email, making reaching out to your clients easy. By integrating the email system into your agency management software, you can easily view relevant client details as you write the email without having to switch between programs or have multiple programs open. Look for a system that lets you compose emails from within a client’s profile and tracks all communications with that client in a single inbox.
Text Integration
Many insurance agency management systems now feature email integration, but text integration is still rare. That’s unfortunate as clients increasingly prefer to receive texts over email. So, look for software that lets you automatically send texts in addition to emails without having to leave the program.
Customer and Prospect Importing
One of the main goals of your insurance agency management software is to keep the information about your current clients and prospects organized. That includes easily importing them from whatever system you currently use or you may occasionally use. Specifically, you want to look for the ability to import clients and prospects via a .csv file, as that tends to be the standard file type.
Notes on Clients
In addition to the fields with designated types of information, your software should have the option to add whatever else you think is relevant. This will typically come in the form of the ability to take notes on clients.
Taking notes on clients can help you deliver a better experience. It will help your agents remember important facts about them, so you can customize your interactions, including policy suggestions. It will also reduce the mental load on your team, as agents can easily jot down notes about clients.
A notes feature is especially helpful if your agency shares clients instead of each client only working with a single agent. In that case, the notes feature ensures that anyone handling the client at a given moment knows all of the relevant information. This prevents clients from having to re-explain things and can reduce frustration for everyone involved.
Client Portal
The most basic insurance agency management systems only manage things for you and your team. But the best ones also have components that are accessible to your clients, such as a client portal.
The client portal should be easy for your clients to access and intuitive for them to use. It should give them access to all of the information they need, including your agency’s contact information and their policy information. There should be links to print certificates of insurance and make payments or just check payment history.
Choosing software with a client portal will dramatically improve the customer experience. Your clients will be able to access their information at any time from anywhere. This will also help your team work more efficiently, as they will spend less time answering simple questions from clients.
Analytics and Reporting
Insurance relies heavily on data, so you need agency management software that gives you access to that data. It is even better if you can customize the reports generated. Jenesis, for example, lets you instantly pull reports related to the source of business, renewals, production, and CSR efficiency on multiple lines of business.
Backup
You store a great deal of data in your insurance management system; without that data, your agency could not run properly. That’s why backups are so important. A backup minimizes downtime if something happens and you potentially lose your data. Not all programs offer backups, and many that do will limit them or charge extra. Top software, however, allows for unlimited data backup.
Invoicing
You want your insurance agency management system to do everything so that you don’t have to use multiple programs. This includes the ability to generate invoices. It should be straightforward to generate an invoice, as the relevant information will already be in the system. You should also have a few options for what to do with the invoice, including printing and emailing it.
In addition to invoicing, you should consider looking for other financial features. For example, your chosen software should be able to generate receipts for payments that customers make. This way, you can have those receipts in your records and send them to your clients for their own records.
Excellent Support and Training
Confirm that your chosen software is intuitive to use and will come with training of some sort. Some software just comes with a handful of instructional videos, and while those can be helpful, they aren’t always enough. The best companies, however, will give you the option of in-depth training. Some even offer certification programs that teach your team how to make the most of the system’s features.
While at it, confirm that the company offers good customer support. You want a reliable team to be on hand whenever you have technical difficulties, which will hopefully be infrequently.
Customization
While every insurance agency has similar needs, each one is unique. Your priorities may be different than those of another agency. You may also simply have a different working style. So, look for a program that offers some level of customization on the dashboard. Dashboard customization lets you easily streamline your workflow, boosting your efficiency and reducing the learning curve.
A Demo
Most insurance agency software offers demos for you to confirm that it seems to fit your needs. If the software doesn’t offer a demo or trial, consider another program instead.
Conclusion
Your insurance agency management system can streamline all the tasks you and your agents complete. The right system will improve efficiency, along with both employee and customer satisfaction. As you compare the numerous programs available, keep an eye out for the above features.