Less Is More When Agents Go Digital

IVANS recently sat down with Jay Green, Agency General Manager for Crye-Leike Insurance, a Big I agency and IVANS Connected Agent, to talk about their experience implementing digital technology to remove the burden of paper, provide staff with the information they need to be effective no matter where they are working, and connect with insurer partners and insureds quickly and simply.

IVANS Communications: What has the experience for your agency been like since adopting and implementing technology to do business versus before?

Jay Green: Doing business has been much easier since adopting digital technology. Currently, we gather information and automate our application and renewal process with Indio. Before, we would have a form like a PDF that would be emailed to customers and they would have to complete it, sometimes print it out to do so. It was hit or miss. Now, it’s a much easier process as a fillable form online. With this form, we have control now as to what information can be seen, and we can tailor it for what is needed. With a more structured, seamless process, we have more control over data capture and because of this, it’s a much better experience for us and our commercial clients.

IVANS: What was the catalyst, point in time, or issue that made you switch to be a digital agency?

JG: We aren’t a traditional agency. We mainly use remote working salespeople. I saw that writing new business was a lot of manual work, so I found a CRM system that could automate the process. We set up automated email campaigns, saving us time and eliminating the need to manually send tedious emails to clients. This really showed the potential of digital, so it was the start of moving everything digital.

IVANS: Has going digital changed the way you work with insurers? Specifically, do you lean more towards insurers that are more automated and digitize, versus insurers that are not?

JG: Generally, if carriers aren’t on the rater, my agents don’t use them. The agents writing business will go with the path of least resistance, and will choose the easiest carriers to deal with, the ones that are most accurate in the rater, to do business with. I have told carriers that they need to be in the rater because the agents aren’t going to go into multiple carrier sites for quotes if they don’t have to. When a carrier joins and gets on the rater, our business with them increases a lot.

IVANS: Does the same thought go towards insurers that can provide eDocs and download? Do you lean more with insurers that can digitally give access to policy information versus those mailing it?

JG: Oh of course. Having information directly in a system makes everything easier. Most of them do download now thankfully, but every once and a while we have to go to an outside company or newer carrier that doesn’t. Carriers that offer automation will always get more business from our agency. 

IVANS: What are your last thoughts for agents on going digital.

JG: If you don’t get into digital, you’re not going to be able to compete. Since becoming digital, we’ve seen a lot of growth in business, even with the same staff and size as before. Digital is the way everything is going, and it’s made us grow.

Technology Crye-Leike Insurance Uses To Do More with Less:

• Cloud-hosted agency management system to manage all lines of business across all locations and roles in a single application.
• Personal lines comparative rater to get the most accurate quotes from the broadest range of insurers.
• Digital data capture for commercial submissions to make the insurance application and renewal process faster, more collaborative and easier, minimizing E&O and saving agencies and their clients time and money.
• eDocs & Messages download to receive policy-related information, including Surety bond documents, Benefits documents and Dec pages, directly in the management system.
• Claims download for instant updates on claim adjustments, settlement information and new claims.
• Direct bill commission statement download to automate the commission process and ensure correct monthly reconciliation.
• Commercial and personal lines download to receive the latest policy-related information directly in the management system.

If you’d like your agency to do more with less, check out these free resources and best practices for adopting and implementing new technology to minimize your dependency on paper.

Visit the Less Is More Resource Hub

Automated Servicing, 2021, Agents, Industry Trends