How to address these challenges

Recognize your strengths. There's an intrinsic conflict in the five roadblocks: Customers are looking at price, not your expertise, while your ability to advise on risk management remains one of your strengths in the market. It becomes your job to educate customers, to take time to make client visits and to challenge their price-focused notions. It can be hard to find the time to do this, but it's essential for an agency's staying power.
Find time in new ways. To overcome the time crunch, dig deep into your operations. Are the right people doing the right jobs? Are all your well-paid experts free to spend time educating customers or are they weighed down by processing work? Ways of fixing these issues include organizational assessments and implementing lean continuous improvement. If undergoing an operational audit sounds daunting, lean on the expertise of consultants or partner with reputable organizations. Customer expectations are only rising, so you can't ignore the root causes of delays.
Don't lean on InsurTech as a strategy. In my experience, I see a major difference in the success of agencies that treat technology as a strategy and those that treat it as a means to an end. The latter allows a company to focus on the larger business objectives of growing revenue and improving retention, while the former tends to produce more chaos than cha-ching. Tech may help with speed, but can it replace the risk management expertise your organization has built for years, maybe even decades? You have to find a way to integrate new technology without losing sight of your customer and your key offering.

If all this sounds daunting, know that customers often report that they're willing to pay a premium for superior customer service. They're willing to shift on price if you're willing to refocus on the customer experience.

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5 roadblocks to delivering an amazing customer experience

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