Today, insurance agents don’t just compete against each other; they also compete against self-serve online portals from major carriers that can bypass the need for an agent altogether. As a result, it’s more important than ever that agents look for any advantage they can get in finding and recruiting the customers that still want the human touch in their insurance journey.

Ironically, while technology is driving insurance agents’ main competition in self-serve portals, it’s also their best ally when it comes to refining their lead management, differentiating themselves from their peers, and closing more deals in a difficult market. Customer resource management technology is increasingly the solution insurance agents are turning to thanks to its ability to enhance prospecting, sales, and administration through a single system, eliminating the need to juggle a handful of different programs.

The following are just a few of the key ways insurance agents use CRM systems, but the full list of benefits they offer to agents and the industry as a whole is much longer.  

 

Keep Better Track of Prospects and Policyholders

Insurance sales is a dynamic game because policyholder risk profiles are constantly evolving. That’s especially true in commercial insurance, where everything from a hardening market to new risks introduced by the pandemic are changing policyholder needs at a rapid pace. Keeping better track of policyholders and prospects improves an agent’s ability to match evolving needs with the correct coverage, maximizing both client value and cross-sales opportunities in the process. 

A CRM is an ideal tool for insurance agents looking to keep better track of prospects and clients because CRMs are all about centralizing customer data to make it both easier to manage and easier to use. The lead management tools in a platform like CRMDialer enable insurance agents to store an unlimited amount of data on each lead or client, to track each and every contact, and to automatically pull new data from everything from meetings to emails to phone calls right into the system. With the totality of customer data no more than a few clicks away, agents can maintain constant situational awareness of each lead’s status, their needs, their existing policies, and more. As a result, fewer sales opportunities will slip through the cracks. 

 

Lock Down Renewals with Personal Service

Big insurance companies treat renewals as an automatic slam dunk, but smaller agencies and independent agents can’t afford to be flippant when it comes to extending a client’s policy for another year. A form email is not good enough, and more and more clients – especially in commercial insurance – are demanding a more personal touch and a higher level of service in exchange for valuable repeat business. With a new policy from a competitor just a web form away in many cases, insurance agents just can’t depend on automatic form emails alone to secure renewals. 

A CRM is an ideal tool for locking down renewals for a variety of reasons. First, the CRM can be used to automatically send out a renewal reminder email to the client and a contact reminder to the insurance agent at the same time, ensuring no agent ever forgets to follow up personally. The agent can then use the customer’s CRM profile to refresh themselves in minutes on the full details of the customer’s policies, business or personal needs, and even personal information they’ve collected that can help make the customer feel like more than just a number. 

 

Automate and Streamline Daily Tasks

A good CRM does more than just centralize customer data; it also centralizes a variety of daily tasks to make everything from marketing to administration to paying vendors easier. CRMDialer, for instance, comes with built-in productivity tools to help automate and improve almost all areas of operations, including, but not limited to:

• Calling: Insurance agents can use the system’s built-in power dialer to replace outdated and expensive enterprise phone systems. The dialer enables everything from automatic dialing of a day’s call list to capture of lead data from calls to advanced tracking and much more. 
• Scheduling: CRMDialer enables insurance agents to integrate their Gmail or Outlook calendars directly into the platform, minimizing the number of different systems and accounts used, saving time, and making scheduling simpler and easier. 
• Communications: Gmail and Outlook email accounts can also be integrated into the system, along with self-hosted accounts. Beyond email, the system also offers full SMS functionality, facilitating two-way communication with clients, partners, and vendors without ever having to leave the platform. 
• Billing and Payments: CRMDialer’s built-in billing and payments suite makes creating automatic invoices for new clients nearly instantaneous and enables agencies to both collect payment through the built-in credit card processing and make payments to vendors through the built-in ACH integration. 
• Reporting: Knowledge is power, and CRMDialer automatically captures key data not just from each policy sale, but from each client and lead interaction as well. Management can quickly and easily gain as broad or narrow a picture of the business as they need, covering everything from agent calling to close rates to lead sources to account statuses to top clients and beyond. 

 

Simply put, a good CRM centralizes all of the client-facing aspects of an insurance agent’s work, and many administrative tasks as well. By giving insurance agents unparalleled access and insight into all the key data about their customers and leads, they can deliver more efficient sales processes, offer better customer service, and work more efficiently. The result is fewer leads squandered, more revenue generated from each policyholder, and lower costs. 

To find out more about how CRMDialer can help your insurance agency, get in contact with a member of the team or start your no-commitment free trial today!