The 2006 Agency Technology Study, conducted by the ACORD-User Groups Information Exchange (AUGIE), demonstrated the need for improved communication between carriers and independent agencies on interface and workflow enhancements, according to ACORD, the insurance standards organization.
With this in mind, AUGIE has created and issued "Productive Agency Visits by Insurance Carrier Marketing Reps: A Guide to Improved Communications on Workflow and Technology." The guidebook is designed to help principals communicate to their own staff key workflow and technology issues and to improve communications between agencies (owners and staff) and carrier field representatives, indicates Mike Bergstein, who headed the working group of volunteers who developed it.
"Too many agency owners and their staffs still don't recognize their business lives can improve dramatically with so many tools available today," says Bergstein, vice president of The Capacity Group, a New Jersey-based agency. "Our collective job is to continue to reach out to these agencies. We need to touch more than just the agency principal; this is a desktop-to-desktop battle to change behavior."
The online guidebook includes checklists for carriers and agents intended to help make meetings more valuable. It includes a form the agency can fax or e-mail to the carrier prior to the next visit to help the carrier prepare for the meeting and create an agenda.
Bergstein says the guidebook addresses some of the differences AUGIE has identified among the parties. For example, carriers complain they build new processes but agents often don't use them. In turn, agents say download and real-time interface are not being accomplished as fast as they would like to see. Agents are frustrated when their automation system doesn't accomplish all that they hoped it would.
The AUGIE guide urges carrier executives to evaluate the field position and align talent with responsibilities that will make a difference in the future. Field reps should be prepared to discuss how the agency's technology system communicates with the carrier's system and makes uploading, downloading, and real-time interface work. If the field rep can't explain the technology, he or she should bring someone along who can work with the CSRs to help them make their jobs easier.
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