For decades, technologically sophisticated agents have been begging insurers to provide real-time capability for handling transactions between agent and carrier. Now that some insurers have been offering such technology, however, the tables have turned. The burden has shifted to independent agents to use the tools provided. Insurers complain agents have been slow in adopting the technology, and some carriers are saying they won't continue to offer the service if they don't get a better response.
"To those carriers, I would say hang in there and work with us," stated Kim Favreau, newly elected chair of the Applied Systems Client Network (ASCnet), in an interview during the 2007 ASCnet annual conference in Orlando toward the end of last year. "Keep the dialogue [with agents] open. You have to sell real time to some agents and get them to use it."
Asked why some agents have been reluctant to embrace real time, Favreau, who officially took office on Jan. 1, noted agents are "traditionally resistant to change." In a smaller agency especially, she added, "change can be daunting."
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