Category: Miscellaneous

Tap Into the Benefits of Agency Automation

Posted on by EZLynx

Insurance Agent Automation

Looking to give your agency an edge over the competition? Automation is a great place to start. Insurance automation software lets you multiply your staff’s impact across business areas for increased revenue and growth.

What Is Agency Automation and How Can It Help You?

Agency automation software takes over essential but repetitive tasks in your business. With those assignments streamlined or out of the way, your employees have more time to focus on profit generation. But that’s only the start of how automation can benefit your business if used correctly – it also enhances customer engagement and sales, allows you to touch all renewals, aids in maintaining carrier compliance, and helps you manage and track documents.

Agencies need automation tools to:

  • Choice and flexibility iconStrengthen Relationships with Clients:Let automation track and send client communications at appropriate times, such as customers’ birthdays and if there’s a policy change. This way, you can deliver the personal touch that nurtures client loyalty while giving your staff extra time for other work.
  • Make Document Management Easier:Stop wasting your time organizing and keeping track of documents. Instead, save time with software that handles them for you, attaching the appropriate paperwork to client policy records and making it easier to locate and share documents with carriers and insureds.
  • Intelligence iconIncrease Productivity:Automation can get repetitive tasks done much faster than an employee normally could and more accurately. Use automated software to free your agents from monotonous but necessary operations so that they can focus their energies on more revenue-generating assignments.
  • Improve Retention:It’s silly to let a renewal slip through your fingers when you could use automation to ensure maximum retention. Touch 100% of renewals with software that helps you prioritize at-risk insureds and sends automated messages to the rest so you can give every client the attention they need.
  • Boost Sales:Capture more sales with automation that uses your book of business to source leads. Your software should also be able to track past prospects and alert you about when it’s an ideal time to reach out again.
  • Stay Compliant with Carriers:Minimize compliance stress and stay protected with automation that helps you keep track of the small details – like verifications, signatures, and follow-ups.
  • Implement Best Practices Across Your Agency:Give all your customers and prospects VIP treatment every single time and keep up with process management, too. Automation enables you to instill best practices across your agency so that your clients know you care and tasks are executed correctly even when you’re busy.

Agency automation offers your business a way to grow and achieve more, faster at every level of operations without breaking the bank. From customer outreach to renewals to task management, you’d be hard-pressed to find another tool that improves efficiency, productivity and profit like automation.

We hope this blog has given you some useful pointers about how to get the most from agency automation. To learn more, including 10 questions to ask when you’re considering which automation software to invest in, take a look at our Automation and Your Insurance Agency  EZGuide.

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How to Win the Game of Digital Marketing

Posted on by EZLynx

Grow Your Insurance Agency with Digital Marketing

“Winning” in today’s always-online culture means insurance agents need to leverage every facet of digital marketing to reach their agency’s full growth potential. Expanding your marketing campaigns to digital channels can be a real game-changer in the insurance industry. And you don’t have to hire a digital marketing agency to execute your strategy. There are many things you can do on your own.

To tap into the power of online marketing, though, you’ll need to understand what it is. Digital marketing is any aspect of your agency’s marketing efforts that takes place online. The goal of digital marketing is driving traffic to your website to generate new sales leads, increase sales with current customers, and build brand awareness and loyalty.

How can you do this effectively? By knowing where to focus your digital marketing game plan. Some online channels you should pay special attention to are:

  • Website

    Having a modern, user-friendly website is central to your digital marketing strategy. A simple-to-use website with fresh content optimized for different browsers and mobile devices helps build trust in your services to attract new clients and keep current customers coming back.

  • Content Marketing

    Having an appealing and user-friendly website is a great start. But you’ll still need to build on it. Content marketing delivers information (content) to a targeted audience that is helpful, useful, or even entertaining. It’s a great way to strengthen relationships with prospects and clients. Content marketing isn’t about selling but a way to build loyalty and bring prospects closer to a purchase.

  • Customer Reviews

    Most customers start by checking your online reviews, which can have an outsize impact on whether a prospect goes with your agency or another. Reviews can even affect your search results ranking, so It’s critical to have a way to generate five-star ratings from satisfied clients.

  • Email Marketing

    Email helps you bring in new customers and maintain relationships with current clients to keep them using your services. To take full advantage of email marketing, you’ll need software that lets you save time and stay organized with automation and pre-loaded email templates your agency can use out of the box.

  • Digital Advertising & Search Engine Optimization

    Digital advertising, also know as pay-per-click or PPC, via paid ads on Google and social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook lets you use demographic, location, and profile information to market to the audience most likely to be interested in your agency. This pinpointed advertising method can give you an excellent return for every dollar you spend on your marketing plan.

    Another excellent way to up your insurance marketing game is to optimize your website for search engines so that potential clients can easily find your brand. This is referred to as search engine optimization or SEO. Putting content on your website that includes keywords and terms that people search for on sites like Google and Bing is one of the first steps. Just be sure you don’t overuse SEO keyword terms since that can result in a poor showing in the search engine results. Additionally, you can optimize your website metadata page titles and descriptions. There are search engine optimization tools and applications you can use to help you optimize your website.

  • Social Media

    Social media campaigns are another effective way to get the word out about your brand. To fully capitalize on social media marketing, you’ll need to set up an agency business page on each social media platform.

There’s always more to learn about how to win with digital marketing. For more information on insurance agency marketing and a list of 9 questions to ensure you’re taking advantage of every online marketing channel’s potential, read our Digital Marketing EZGuide.

Posted in Advice, Miscellaneous |

Finding the Best Agency Management System for Your Business

Posted on by EZLynx

As an agency leader in the insurance industry, choosing the best management system for your company is one of the most significant decisions you’ll face. So, what do you need to know about these systems to ensure you choose correctly? Agency management systems are software applications that allow you to perform your essential business operations. These systems allow you to integrate multiple company operations via an online (SaaS) platform. Offering capabilities like policy management, accounting, integrated rating, sales automation, reporting and more, agency management systems help independent agencies save time, stay organized and gain an edge in the market so they can take their businesses to the next level.

The Importance of Agency Management Systems

Agency management systems are so crucial that 99% of insurance agencies use them. The highest quality systems don’t just help a business function, though; they help it thrive. A great system will streamline data input, consumer interfacing and business-to-business connectivity. It will even allow you to leverage data for critical insights into your performance. Features like these can give your company the agility and foresight to increase revenue, even in a competitive market.

Finding the Agency Management System That Fits Your Needs

Identifying the agency management system that fits your business’s needs is essential. An excellently designed system can supercharge your company’s growth, but a poor management system can stunt your potential. So, how can you make sure you’re picking the right system? Before you make this all-important decision, you need to know the right questions to ask.

Questions To Ask About an Agency Management System

Knowing what you’re looking for is the first step to finding it. So, what specific questions should you ask to ensure you get the best product possible? Well, to start, you should ask if an agency management system can help you:

  • Save time and effort?
  • Maintain and form valuable connections?
  • Identify and take advantage of new opportunities?

If the answer is yes to all three, you’re off to a good start.

There’s still more to consider, though. Make sure you’re getting the most out of your business with a management system that offers the specific capabilities your company needs. You’ll also want to look for a system that:

  • Manages your whole business Save time and money with a system that lets you manage standard and commercial lines on a single application.
  • Increases customer satisfaction with improved service Satisfied customers are loyal customers. Keep everyone happy with easy-to-use customer self-service applications.
  • Uses data to identify sales opportunities Leverage the power of data to help you increase revenue. An ideal system will help you keep track of sales, target opportunities and predict future revenue streams.
  • Expands your market reach with practical communication tools A system with effective communication tools is essential for maintaining current customers and taking advantage of cross-selling opportunities.
  • Saves time and money by increasing efficiency Free up your employees to focus on more critical revenue-generating tasks by automating routine processes.
  • Keeps your customers coming back Improve customer satisfaction with a system that helps you respond more quickly to clients’ needs.
  • Helps you gain insights from your data Make more use of your data with a system that generates reports and charts to easily track performance metrics.

A good agency management system empowers your company to fulfill its true potential. In addition to saving time and money, the right system can increase customer retention and help you expand to new clients and markets. When you choose a system with features that match your business’s needs, the possibilities are endless!

For more specific information about what to look for when selecting an agency management system, including a 10-point checklist, download our EZGuide: How to Find the Best Management System.

Posted in Advice, Insurance Industry, Miscellaneous | Tagged , ,

How Agents Should Observe National Car Insurance Day

Posted on by EZLynx

National Car Insurance Day is the perfect time to check in on your customers and ensure they are getting the best premiums along with the coverages they need. As you know, many people will purchase insurance and let the policies auto–renew without shopping.  

Touchpoints with your customers are a great time to build a relationship. When you know your customers and their needs you can help to better serve them. Everyone wants an insurance agent that they know is looking out for them! 

While you have your customer’s attention, this is also a great excuse to see if your insureds may be looking for other lines of insurance. If you already have them talking on the phone, your chances of making a cross–sell are higher! 

Here are a few quick ideas on how to engage with your customers and take advantage of this great holiday reminder! 

Email Campaign – Send your clients a notice and a quick note about their policies and remind them you are here to help them if they would like to explore their options and coverages. 

Social Media Post – Create a simple post that will help remind your connections on social about their car insurance, something most people purchase and forget.  

Blog – Time to let your writer side shine! There are a lot of scary statistics out there about accidents and this is a great time to educate your customers on the importance of car insurance and how important the right coverages are. 

You like to do the best you can for your customers and we at EZLynx like to be sure you have all the tools to do it effectively. From our #1 comparative rater, to our innovative agency management system, we give agents everything they need to accomplish more, faster. 

Keep an eye out for more helpful posts like this one and as always, an EZLynx employee is always happy to assist you with any questions. We hope to hear from you soon and have a wonderful National Car Insurance Day!  

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Top 10 Tips for Personal Lines Retention

Posted on by EZLynx

It’s no secret that successful agencies make retention a priority. They know that keeping a customer is much more profitable than going out to find a new one.

Here are 10 helpful tips to keep your agency focused and winning at renewal time.

  1. Have a Retention process. 
    This one may seem obvious, but it really does start here.

    Repeatable success won’t happen without a plan. Document a process and embrace it the same way you would any critical procedure within your agency.

  2. Work your Retention process daily.
    Retention should be a daily habit. Each member of the team should have an assigned role and a list of goals to achieve each day.
  3. Be proactive, not reactive.
    Know what’s happening with your client’s policy before the carrier sends the renewal notice. Then, communicate (quickly).

    Once clients receive their new rates from the carrier, they’re already shopping (without you). That means you need to touch 100% of your clients before the carrier.

    To stay ahead of the game, make sure renewals are downloading to your agency management system.

  4. Know when a client is at risk.
    Renewing clients should be managed in two categories—those at risk and those that aren’t.  (This may seem easier said than done, but technology can really help out in this area.)

    You’re going to touch both groups, but prioritize the communication.

    For at-risk clients, you’ll want to evaluate their policy first. If you recognize their renewal is out of line with the market, communicate that. Let them know better options are available and reassure them that you’re already working on it.

    For clients in a better spot, you’ll want to communicate that you’ve proactively reviewed their renewal. All is in order and in line with the current market, but you’re available for any additional consultation.

  5. Be ready to explain why the client’s premium increased.
    An on-screen comparison of the current and renewing policies is the quickest way to accomplish this. If there is an obvious reason for the rate increase (new car, coverage changes, etc.), viewing them side-by-side will quickly discover it.
  6. Be ready to provide multiple quotes.
    Customers want to feel like they have explored their options. By providing multiple quotes, you’re easing their minds and making them feel better about doing business with you.
  7. Know when to remarket, and when to educate.
    As retention becomes a daily priority, your agency will gain a feel for when it is appropriate to remarket your insureds.

    What does the client value? How big was the impact of the state rate change? What’s happening in the carrier market, or with the product offering?

    Educate your clients on current market conditions so you remain their trusted advisor.

  8. Stay in touch… not just at renewal time.
    Having a regular communication cadence will keep you top of mind all year round. Find reasons to reach out and add value to your clients’ lives.

    Account reviews are great opportunities to re-evaluate clients’ needs and reinforce your value.

  9. Cross-selling keeps customers.
    Rounding out accounts is a sure-fire way to strengthen them for the long term. Is the client bundled for home and auto? Does your agency offer Life and Health?
  10. Be unique in your community.
    You know why customers trust you to insure their risks, so make sure that value comes through at renewal time.

    Do you give back to the community through charitable work or volunteerism? Do you serve a particular demographic? What types of online services do you provide? Do clients have access to their policies online 24/7?

    This is the time to promote your brand and show customers that you care.

Final Thoughts

Always remember, agency retention doesn’t happen by accident. It’s something you must work toward constantly to be successful. With the right plan and practices, retention can become the cornerstone of your business and its long-term growth.

If some of these best practices seem daunting, it may be because your agency isn’t using all the technology available today. EZLynx can help with that. From Rating Engine to Management System, Communication Center, and the patented Retention Center, EZLynx has the tools you need to intelligently streamline the entire customer renewal process.

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Join the Official EZLynx Facebook Group

Posted on by Sara Button
We have launched an EZLynx Official Group on Facebook and we would like you to check it out. Within the group, we hope that agents currently using EZLynx join and discuss products, solutions, and help give feedback. Members of the EZLynx Support department will be on standby to respond to questions and to provide excellent customer service.
 
At EZLynx, we strive to seek the understanding of individual agent’s day-to-day needs in order to best create products and solutions to best serve them. Unlike other user groups on Facebook or LinkedIn, our EZLynx Official Group will include feedback directly from EZLynx staff members. We want to hear what you have to say! We encourage an open discussion and dialogue in a friendly environment geared toward helping everyone involved.
 
Won’t you check it out?
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Summer Marketing Tips for Independent Insurance Agents

Posted on by Sara Button

It’s officially Summer, and EZLynx has some handy marketing tips for independent insurance agents to help heat up your sales.

If you don’t have time to create an in-depth marketing campaign, we’ve got you covered. Taking small strides and focusing on your community and customers can go a long way. You can learn what works best with your agency the more you try, and that will, in turn, help you develop a more well-rounded strategy for the future.

Need some tips for Summer marketing? Here are some strategies to try this year.

Treat your customers.

Customers love being appreciated! Host an ice cream social or fun-flavored event in your office. Invite customers to come in for an ice cream and to review their policies or to update personal information. Beat the heat while also having fun.

Social media giveaway.

Partner with a movie theater or local eatery to award a winning customer “a night out” for participating in a social media giveaway. Everyone loves a social media giveaway and getting things for free. Make this Summer extra memorable for your clientele.

Sponsor local events.

Whether it’s an apartment complex’s pool party, a concert, or a school or University related function, put your name and company branding out there. Create a unique flyer and other marketing materials to help promote the event you’re sponsoring to ensure it’s a hit.

Have fun with holidays.

Summer brings in plenty of holidays, so have fun with them. You can do anything from hosting a hot-dog eating contest to sponsoring a fireworks show. Get creative with the holidays. One of the easiest places to start is mentioning the changing weather. This is a sure-fire way to connect with your customers, readers, and followers.

Give back to the community.

Work with your local Habitat for Humanity chapter or other give back organizations. This will not only help get your name out there, but your team will also be helping those in the community who need it most. That is a win/win. Everyone benefits from helping those in the community.

If you’ve tried something different or have a success story to share, please let us know in the comments. In the meantime, if you’re looking for industry-leading insurance agency software, look no further than EZLynx – your one-stop-shop for all things for independent insurance agents.

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EZLynx Says Goodbye to one of our own

Posted on by Riley Simmons

Bijesh KIt is with heavy hearts that we announce the loss of a member of the EZLynx team. Bijesh Karuvarathodiyil passed away unexpectedly this week at home with his family.

Working tirelessly behind the scenes, Bijesh had a hand in every successful product release at EZLynx for almost 3 years as one of our project managers and security specialists. His quiet dedication directly contributed to our success as a company, and indirectly to the success our customers have had using our products. Prior to joining EZLynx, Bijesh worked for Cognizant, Cisco Systems, and IBM.

We are lucky to have had Bijesh at EZLynx, however briefly. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife, Jwelna, and his two sons, Adit and Aman. He will be dearly missed.

For those of you interested in helping the family during this time, a site for donations has been set up here.

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How EZLynx Agency Management System Can Boost Your Customer Service

Posted on by Sara Button

ezlynx_blog1

Customer service is top priority in the independent insurance industry. Giving your clients and potential customers the attention they need and deserve is how you separate yourself from the competitors. A happy customer is more likely to refer your business to their friends, so why hinder organic business opportunities?

How are you streamlining all of your client information, policies, documents, quotes, and so on in one location? The more clients you bring on, the more data you have to store. Stop storing things in different places! With EZLynx Agency Management System you can cut your data entry time in half while accessing all of your client information, policies, and documents in one easy location.

Within EZLynx Agency Management System you can boost your customer service efforts by working within one space. Whereas you may have previously had to look at multiple calendars before, or rifle through multiple pages of policies each time a customer calls, now you have all of this information – and more – available at your fingertips.

What can you do within EZLynx Agency Management System?

  • Accounting – track payments, split commission tracking, commission downloads, and more.
  • Accessibility – we organize your documents in a user-friendly, searchable manner.
  • Easy Renewals – with our Policy Sync feature, you can get side-by-side comparisons of application and policy information.
  • Online Document Signing – you read it right, its 2016 and you can sign online. Quickly & safely sign documents and send to clients for signature.

More than what is listed above, we are constantly adding new features to our Agency Management System. We want to help your agency work smarter, not harder.

Not happy with your current Agency Management System? Don’t sweat, give EZLynx a call. All of the data that is currently in whatever Agency Management System you’re already using can be transferred to our system. We can help you streamline your entire agency, making your life multiple pages and hours of data entry less complicated.

 

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What’s In YOUR Agency Management System?

Posted on by Bryce Berkowski

So if I were to ask you, “What is your agency’s rate of retention?” (in general, not specifically by line of business), what would your answer be? 80%? 90%? Higher, or lower? Chances are, and I would be willing to wager on this, that your answer would be the same that I hear from most agencies: “Oh, we have a fantastic retention rate, I am sure it is over 90%!”

Well, that is fantastic, except that:

a) There is an excellent chance that your response is incorrect as it is most likely lower than you assumeb) How come you cannot tell me exactly what it is, for each line of business?

b) How come you cannot tell me exactly what it is, for each line of business?

Well, the answer to both of my statements above is very simple, but before we discuss the answers and why, let us chat a bit about retention, and its impact on your business and its employees.

Assuming your agency has a high rate of retention, let’s say 90%. That appears to be an excellent rate, considering all of the outside influences that the independent agents face these days with direct writers, online marketers, and what have you. However, even though 90% appears on the surface to be something to brag about on the golf course with your fellow agents and brokers, a 90% rate of retention very simply means that you now have to work 10% harder than you did last year, just to break even! In addition, let’s also assume that you have been in business for ten years, and each year your agency is operating at a 90% retention level, so when you extrapolate that figure out in reverse, you are constantly having to work harder and harder than the year before, just so that you do not lose what you and your staff worked so diligently for previously!

Let’s now complicate this calculation even further: have your carriers all called you this year and told you that they are going to raise your commission rates, increase profit sharing, and expect you to do less service work? I don’t think so…if anything, your commissions (if they haven’t been reduced), have most likely remained the same. Granted, premiums have increased so you will make up some of the revenue that way, but that is the equivalent of a supermarket raising the price of milk to offset the cost of bread. Furthermore, your agency expenses have been on the rise with labor costs, health care and other insurance costs, rent, utilities, etc., so an increase in premiums does not necessarily offset the 10% loss of clientele.

There are a few different ways to manage this loss of business and revenue. However, you cannot address the issue until you are fully aware of exactly what the issue is, and can definitively determine exactly what the agency’s rate of retention is. So how do you do that? Well, to begin with, you need an automated tool that will help you to measure exactly how you keep your existing business. For instance, as a business owner, you should have at your fingertips the ability to go into your management system, request a report on business retained and have the ability to manage the renewal process. You should also be able to not only see this information when you request it but also be alerted to indicators throughout the policy year on factors that may cause the policy to not renew. If you have this information automatically provided to you and your appropriate staff on a regular basis, you may then implement a process and schedule tasks to address these areas of concern, before you receive the call requesting a BOR (broker of record), or copy of their existing declarations page, or even worse: an LPR (lost policy release) which indicates that the coverage has been replaced.

Don’t work harder to generate less income…let automation do this for you. EZLynx has patented tools to automate these processes for you. For additional information on how EZLynx can help you and your business, please contact us today!

 

Posted in Advice, Frequently Asked Questions, Insurance Industry, Miscellaneous | Tagged , | Leave a comment