Free digital tools that can
help agents tackle the market
By Kathy Hrach
The insurance industry is constantly evolving, shaped by customer expectations and the dynamic relationships between agents and insurance carriers. This is especially true in the commercial lines market. While more agents are diversifying their books of business to include commercial lines because of its potential for growth, this line of business can be challenging due to time-consuming, manual processes.
Agents often waste precious time trying to find which companies are willing to quote a specific type of business risk, sometimes missing out on a sale because they can’t find a suitable option. In fact, in this year’s Ivans Connectivity Survey, agent respondents said they spend 30 minutes or even over an hour every day just searching for markets. This search often relies on outdated methods like flipping through printed lists that quickly go out of date or checking multiple carrier portals which takes time.
Managing policies and claims can also involve a lot of tedious activity, like pulling documents from websites or typing information into various systems. This manual, paper-heavy work takes up valuable time, adds to expenses, and can lead to mistakes. Waiting on paper documents also makes it harder to help clients quickly.
But there is technology that can help that is completely free of charge for agents. These are all designed to fit seamlessly within agents’ daily workflows and management systems, creating a strong foundation to support the industry. Technology like this is already changing things, like checking if a carrier has appetite for a specific risk or automating and keeping track of policy and claims download.
By using simple technology that fits into how they already work, agents can save time, reduce administrative expenses, and ultimately make more profit. Think of this technology as the industry’s network, helping everyone connect and use data for better experiences across all stakeholders.
Let’s discuss three key areas where agents can make immediate changes to their operations using digital tools to more profitably tackle the commercial lines market: simplifying the process of finding markets, automating data exchange, and streamlining the management of carrier connections.
Easily search for the right market
While finding carrier or MGA appetite for a specific risk has traditionally posed big challenges for agents, digital tools specifically designed for searching carrier appetite and eligibility enable agents to find suitable markets far more efficiently. These tools allow agents to conduct searches directly within their daily workflows, delivering consistent, real-time appetite and eligibility guidelines without having to leave their management system.
The latest carrier and MGA details are conveniently available all in one spot, enabling agents to see what’s currently in-appetite for both new and renewal business. Agents can quickly search online by filters like state, classification, and risk size to quickly view product highlights and underwriting criteria across their currently contracted markets, as well as potentially discover entirely new options they hadn’t considered.
Using a digital appetite and eligibility search allows agents to more effectively match clients with the right carrier, even on the first attempt. This shift allows agents to work smarter and save valuable time that would otherwise be wasted on laborious manual searches.
Analytics dashboards within the search engine also offer insights into search habits, helping agencies understand trends and identify their preferred carriers. By expanding the range of market options available and drastically reducing the time dedicated to the search process, agents are empowered to pursue more commercial lines opportunities.
This increased efficiency directly boosts their capacity to handle more business and enhances their potential for greater margins.
Automatically receive carrier information and documents
Once a policy has been successfully placed, the ongoing servicing and management of policy and claims information can also be a time-consuming, manual process that drains valuable resources. Agents often dedicate staff specifically to manually pulling documents from various carrier websites or processing information received via email, which often requires multiple data entries across different agency systems and increases the risk of errors and omissions (E&O) exposure. Not being able to instantly see policy details also makes it harder to help clients quickly.
Download technology automatically sends policy and claims information directly from a carrier’s system into an agent’s management system, saving time and reducing manual work and paperwork. The latest details, changes, claims information, and other documents, including policy summary pages, cancellation notices, and payment information, are immediately available to the agent.
Agents also can get accurate claims updates securely and instantly, helping them serve clients quickly when they need it most. Plus, commission statement processing is automated to make sure commissions are checked properly, improving accuracy and changing a job that took days into one that takes hours.
There are endless stories from agencies using download that show its impact—all for free. For example, one agency found that they could get important documents easily, which helped them serve customers better and reduced the risk of mistakes.
Another agency could be more proactive because they got notifications and documents automatically, saving staff hours daily and allowing them to answer client questions right away instead of calling back later. This also led to keeping more clients, which meant more money.
Automating how documents are handled saves time for staff and makes workflows more efficient. With everything in one system and information instantly available, staff don’t need to spend hours typing or finding documents manually. Saving this time and reducing costs lets agencies focus on things that really matter, like finding new business and taking care of commercial clients.
Simplify carrier connectivity management
Managing all the digital connections with different carriers can be complicated. Agents need a clear, easy-to-understand picture of which carriers offer download capabilities for specific lines of business and the current status of their existing connections. Traditionally, this meant keeping manual lists or calling each carrier.
Agents can manage these connections with an online portal, making it simpler with one central place to see and manage everything. Using easy-to-understand dashboards to show a full picture of the connections, agents can see which lines of business they are downloading from their carriers and which connections they haven’t started yet.
This portal lets agents communicate directly with carriers regarding which downloads they are interested in and, vice versa, it also alerts agents when new types of insurance become available for download. This establishes an open and efficient line of communication for feedback and requests, significantly reducing the administrative effort and potential confusion often involved in coordinating connectivity with multiple carrier partners.
By using simple and free technology that makes these fundamental
processes easier, agents, especially those wanting to grow their
commercial business, can work more efficiently, be more competitive, and serve their clients better.
By streamlining communication and providing transparency into connection statuses and opportunities, agents spend less time managing connections and have more time for core business tasks, like finding and taking care of commercial clients. Plus, the insights gained into connection statuses can also help agencies prioritize which carrier partnerships to develop further based on their digital capabilities.
Embrace the future of connectivity
Digital connections are becoming increasingly important for how agents and carriers work together. By using technology that helps agents search for markets digitally, automatically exchange information, and manage carrier connections in one place, agents can solve key problems in the commercial insurance market.
These tools, designed specifically to integrate seamlessly with existing workflows and systems, are integral components of the evolving industry that supports enhanced connectivity and efficient data exchange. They effectively empower agents to sense the dynamics of the market, connect more efficiently through streamlined workflows, and analyze opportunities with new levels of insight.
The results reported by agents using these tools are clear: saving significant time, less manual administrative work, more accurate information, better client service, reduced costs, less risk of errors, keeping more clients, and being able to handle more business. These improvements directly impact an agency’s bottom line, freeing up people and allowing them to take on commercial business that might have been too much work before—ultimately impacting the agency’s top line as well.
The future of connectivity is already here, with more digital transactions and better use of data. By using simple and free technology that makes these fundamental processes easier, agents, especially those wanting to grow their commercial business, can work more efficiently, be more competitive, and serve their clients better.
The author
Kathy Hrach is the senior vice president of Product Management for Ivans, where she leads product vision and strategy. Kathy has helped grow Ivans’ product organization from a single-product focus to a multi-platform SaaS business, partnering closely with customers to develop industry-leading API ecosystems and analytics platforms that are changing the way insurers and agencies operate.
