To be or not to be Automated?
That is the question!

As I write this article, the events of September 11, 2001 still weigh heavily on the minds and hearts of Americans.   Americans everywhere are praying for wisdom for our leaders as they work to keep our country strong and safe and for God’s continued blessings for America.

As I phoned insurance agencies around the country during the week following the attack on America, I found many agencies not open, some not answering the phone, and others not willing to discuss any automation commitment. Agents previously interested in automating their agency now were just not sure about making any kind of commitment.

After a few days, agents once again started responding to my calls to wake up and consider the future of their agency.  Is the insurance world passing them by? I began to hear that old refrain, “I have got to do something.” They are right! To remain in business requires that you make a profit – a profit sufficient to meet your financial needs and the single step that you can take to make sure you are profitable is to automate your agency! The insurance companies are forcing agents to be automated, by requiring you to upload and download your policy.
Some adventurous souls are trying to survive without automating, saying that it creates more work. Sure, you have to enter the information into your computer and keep it up to date and that does take some time and labor. But what most of those agents don’t understand is that time and effort is redeemed the first time you can respond to your customer needs without going to the file cabinet
to pull the file (and don’t forget, someone has to replace the file in the file cabinet). This assumes that you can locate the paper file when the customer, company or lien holder calls.

Have you have ever lost a contract with a company or had a company stop writing business in your state? Or worse had one go out of business? How much business did you lose because you couldn’t quickly move that book of business to another company and assure your customers that you are taking care of their insurance needs? I remember some of the nightmarish scenes in Louisiana and Alabama in the last decade when a company was shut down by the insurance commissioner and TV stations filmed customers in line for 24 hours at an insurance agency trying to get rewritten.

 
I have said many times before; you have to automate to survive and as you do, you have to choose the software that best fits your needs and budget. If your agency consists of primarily standard carriers and a 60 – 40% split of personal lines to commercial, and your companies expect you to download into your system; there are software products on the market to fit your needs.

If you are primarily personal lines and use a comparative rater for most of your quotes with specialty auto carriers there are software packages designed for your agency.

As you choose your software, make sure you ask the right questions of software vendors. 

• How long have you been in business

• Do operate in one state, regionally or nationally?

• What type of support staff do you have?

• What type of training do you offer?

• Do you interface with my comparative rating software?

• Does the software easily handle receipting of payments?

• What about end of the day balancing?

• How does the software handle check writing and EFT tracking?

• How does your software handle agency accounting and production reports?

• What about processing renewal letters?

• How does the transactional filing system work?

• How does document scanning work?

• How do you view scanned documents?

• Can you attach digital photographs to a customer’s file?

• How does the software handle reconciliation of company statements?

• Is the software network ready?

• Do they support all lines of business and policy types?

• Is there a contract involved in the purchase or lease of the software?

• What are the terms of any agreement?

• How much do I have to pay up front to get started?

• What if I don’t like it? Do you have a money back guarantee?

When you have decided to automate and you are ready to purchase agency management software, take the time to determine exactly what your agency needs are. Many mistakes have been made by not asking the right questions. Ask all the above questions and any more that are important for your agency.
When I talk to an agency owner that asks these types of questions, I know they are taking the right steps to get the software that will meet their needs and make them more profitable and keep them in business for a long time So as we move forward from the tragic events of September 11, 2001, may you go forward in your resolve to keep America great and strong. The free enterprise system that has made us great is the backbone of the independent insurance agency. 

Automation will make you more productive. Automation will make you more profitable. Automation is the management tool you need to manage your agency and succeed – If you are going to be around much longer!
Until next month, keep automating those agencies; I really believe the only way that you are going to survive in the 21st Century is to automate. 

Remember, the bottom line is "Automation equals Productivity and Profitability."

Ron Webber

[top of page]