Help Your Agency Meet Customer Expectations
With 2.4 billion smartphone users by the end of 2017, how is your agency providing assurance to customers?
Insurance buyers turn to independent agents for assurance that the bases are covered and their risks are mitigated by a professional. Their expectations for engagement with their agent during this process has changed rapidly and will not stop evolving. Focusing on an Omni-channel experience with your client will satisfy their need for fast interaction, but still provide personalized touches only an independent agent can provide.
Empowered by technology, your customers have more leverage than ever before. You as an agency principal or staff have to embrace four imperatives:
- For speed, tap into mobile connections.
- For intelligence, set up systems to gather customer knowledge.
- For impact, build a better customer experience.
- To become more flexible, embrace digital transformation.
Meeting these changing customer expectations is hard and not every agency will pursue it equally. Watch Ellen Carney, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, Inc. teach us about data driven marketing, customer buying habits, and the future of the independent insurance agency.
Staying Relevant in the Age of the Customer
ANE CEO John K. Tiene's featured article in this week's edition of Insurance Journal.
Laptops, smartphones and tablets are giving consumers the power to make buying decisions from anywhere, and at any moment of their choosing.
“We’ve entered this new age — the age of the customer,” said Ellen Carney, principal analyst, Forrester Research at the ANE, Agency Network Exchange annual conference in April. “Digital has moved that power shift into the hands of customers.”
Forrester predicts 2.4 billion smartphone users and another 651 million tablet users by the end of 2017. The pervasiveness of these devices has changed consumer expectations: insurance agents need to provide their clients with the tools they want to interact with the agency. Agencies must have a robust mobile-friendly website, a mobile app, client portal and provide a location-specific experience.
Agents must rethink how they use technology to improve, differentiate from competitors and make data work for them.
At the ANE conference, I asked several industry executives and ANE member agents for their thoughts on how agents can stay relevant in the age of the customer:
- Matt Kirk, senior vice president, The Hartford: “Your clients are going to need advice and counsel about the products they are buying. They expect you to take care of their needs. That doesn’t change. What is their expectation of that engagement? How will you communicate with them? The way they are engaged is going to change, and it will change rapidly.”
- Gary Capone, vice president, Franklin Mutual Insurance Co.: “People still want to do business with an independent agent. Millennials are not just looking to buy online. They want professional advice. You have to listen to the customer, give them what they want, the way they want it, be very flexible and use many channels.”
- Bob Redden, vice president, Selective Insurance Companies: “The challenge is where to start. Everyone has limited resources. Where do you get the best return? Moving forward, a focus on an omni-channel experience for the customer becomes even more critical. You may have customers who prefer to interact by phone, some by web or text. One way to be relevant is to let them know their options.”
- Ellen Carney, principal analyst, Forrester: “A lot of organizations are available to help independent agents. You can have the same advantage as the most technically sophisticated agency. Someone else can manage the infrastructure, make sure the experience is fast, easy to navigate, and meets expectations in terms of mobile, social and whatever the next digital touchpoint could be. Technology is a lot different than it was in the 1990s when you had to build it yourself. Now there’s someone else who will build it and by the end of the day, you are up and running.”
- Freddie Marin, ANE agent, Your Insurance Solutions: “I was afraid that physical agencies were no longer relevant. Everybody is addicted to cellphones and 80 percent are doing research online, but they are looking for agents. You have to learn to interact in a new way through technology, but still provide the personal touch that a digital device can’t provide.”
- Doug Mohr, vice president, Vertafore: “It’s those little touches. I get the Starbuck’s card on my birthday, a note when it’s time for renewal. I think of my agent first before I think of the company. It’s because my agent has that personal touch.”
- George Reese, agent, Henry Young Insurance Agency: “We are in a changing world and the pace of change is accelerating. We need to be open to everybody in all the various ways they want to communicate, and be responsive to that.”
Forrester Analyst Says Insurance Agents Must Embrace Digital Technologies to Stay Relevant at 2016 ANE Conference
At the Agency Network Exchange Annual Conference this week, Forrester Principal Analyst Ellen Carney told independent insurance agents they must exploit digital technologies that create value and increase operational agility to stay relevant in the face of new competition from digital "disruptors" that are changing the way insurance is sold and serviced.
In Carney's keynote, "The Agent in the Age of the Customer: The Customer-Driven Changes that are Remaking Insurance," she outlined four market imperatives for independent agents:
- Turn big data into business insights
- Transform the customer experience
- Embrace the mobile mind shift
- Accelerate your digital business
"Agents who want to succeed must change how they do business by embracing the digital technologies today's consumers are looking to utilize," said John Tiene, CEO, ANE.
"Change is never easy, but it is essential and necessary to keep clients from migrating away from independent agents. ANE is helping our agents succeed by giving them the tools they need to transform their businesses."
Last year, ANE announced an agreement to make Vertafore the exclusive provider of agency management technology solutions for ANE members. ANE agencies receive preferred support and pricing for the Vertafore Agency Platform -- comprehensive software that helps agents easily and economically grow new business, retain clients, maximize profitability and manage business lines.
The ANE conference was attended by more than 160 independent agents and other insurance professionals from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. The event featured six break-out sessions for agency owners, producers, account managers and CSRs. Carney also participated in a panel with executives from The Hartford, Selective Insurance Company and Vertafore to discuss "What Agents Need to do to Stay Relevant."
Brave New Omni-Channel World: Adapt or Bust
As seen on IAMagazine.com, CEO of ANE, John K. Tiene, asks independent insurance agents what they are doing to transform their agency to embrace Omni-channel technology?
According to Google Research, 98% of Americans switch between devices throughout the course of one day.
Technology is changing the buying patterns of insurance consumers, and not just among millennials. Every baby boomer has a smartphone and knows how to use it. This emphasis on ease, convenience and mobility has opened the door to new insurance competition from retail goliaths like Wal-Mart, Amazon, credit card companies and a host on insurance startups.
Meanwhile, large insurance carriers are using data analytics to leapfrog agents and sell directly to consumers. Mergers and acquisitions, perpetuation headaches and carrier-retailer partnerships are also putting the squeeze on agents.
In almost every service industry today - from banking and investing to local pharmacies and car dealerships - consumers want to interact on their own terms, whether that's in person, via phone, text, email, social media or the Internet. They expect an Omni-channel experience that leverages a convenience cocktail of technology and customer service that provides them with access to products, services and information in real-time, 24/7, 365 days a year.
Aberdeen Group found that companies with extremely strong Omni-channel customer engagement retain on average 89% of their customers - compared to 33% for companies without it. Change is happening so rapidly that agents who don't adapt soon will find their customers going where they can get the seamless service model they demand.
The nature of agent-client relationships has changed drastically from what it was years ago. Agents who gave smart, professional advice used to have the edge. Now, people still value consultation with an agent, but they also want the convenience of Omni-channel access to get their information or complete service activities seamlessly. Whether the customer is shopping online, by telephone or in a brick and mortar store, these are the options they want.