Procrastination is the greatest labor-saving device ever invented. Agency owners look at various changes they can make in their agency and say, 'This is a great idea and I’ll implement it as soon as I can get around to it.' In this document, Jack Fries suggests that you eliminate the talk and resolve to take action in the New Year — and watch your profits grow.
One way to boost earnings is to move your agency from a paper-driven organization into one that’s fully electronic. This conversion will allow your staff to do literally everything without ever leaving their desks (except for breaks and lunch). It’s been proven that going paperless can save a CSR, marketer, or claims person two hours per day.
What’s it worth to your agency to receive another full day a week of account development, marketing, renewal reviews, etc. from your staff? So, why wait? Going paperless will save you at least $4,000 per employee per year. Every day you wait is another day that you lose profits.
Although many agencies are scanning now, very few are doing it correctly. A CSR/marketer should be able to do everything from their desk. This includes:
- The ability to digitize and complete non-ACORD applications on their computer.
- The ability to assemble ACORD Applications, Loss Runs, and non-ACORD apps on their desktops and to batch them to carriers by fax or e-mail without creating any paper documents.
- The ability to convert applications to PDF forms and then e-mail them to clients so they can fill in the missing data on the screen and e-mail or fax the completed app back to the agency.
There are other benefits too numerous to mention in this article. The main thing I want to communicate is to move forward. If you don’t want to reinvent the process, contact us.
Another way to increase profits is to set up a sales and marketing plan for account development in your Personal Lines unit. It’s been proven time and again that the quote/write ratio is higher when selling to an existing customer than it is on a cold call. It’s also been proven that the more policies that you write for an individual, the longer they’ll remain your customer. Even though most agents know this, their CSRs still spend most of their time telephone quoting.
Resolve to focus on results, not activity, in 2002. Establish an account development plan. Be selective on telephone quoting, so that your CSRs have enough time to do account reviews, up-selling and cross-selling. Time is a valuable asset that’s non-renewable. How you and your staff use this asset will determine your success and profits.
Because people focus on what’s inspected, not what’s expected, you’ll need to create a plan for monitoring compliance and progress that will allow you to coach your staff to success.
If you’d like help in setting up either of these profit-builders, please drop me an e-mail or call.