Staying nimble is key for insurance agents post-COVID-19
The insurance landscape will shift as regions begin to open up and small businesses come back online.
When can I reopen my business? Will people come back if I reopen? Will we ever get back to the way we were?
Small businesses face many questions as lockdowns are eased and the country inches closer to normal life. No one knows the answers or what business will be like. But one thing is for sure: Whatever the answers to these questions, they will impact small business insurance policies. So agents need to be nimble to serve their clients.
It has been a tumultuous time for small business insurance. When stay-at-home orders were put in place, many businesses had to shift quickly. Many dine-in only restaurants started delivering. Others began stocking and selling groceries. Additional shifts included delivery services loosening package signing restrictions to maintain social distancing. And those businesses that could not maintain regular operations had to, unfortunately, let employees go. All of these changes can have an effect on insurance policies to ensure they are covered for the appropriate risks.
New risks to consider
As businesses reopen, they face new challenges and new risks that require adjustments with the help of their agents and carriers. For example, if a business’s insurance policy is based on revenue and store patrons are slow in returning, the policy will have to be updated. Restaurants that were once 80% dine-in, 20% delivery might see those ratios reversed, which would also require an insurance adjustment.
Carrier decisions also can impact the options for small businesses. Carriers may decide to step away from certain markets and risks, not unlike how some pulled away from coastal markets after major storms. Agents will need to help these clients find other options. It’s clear that agents will need to continue to stay nimble to serve small businesses in the pandemic’s aftermath.
Here are three ways they are approaching the challenge.
No. 1: Stay proactive with customers and carriers.
There are a lot of challenges for businesses ahead. Agents that are proactive by reaching out to clients and learning what changes they have made or are planning will have an advantage.
Some things agents will need to know include: Are these businesses hiring back employees? Have they been seeing increased customer traffic? Have they digitized a lot of their operations?
The answers to all of these questions can determine whether the agency should be talking to them about workers’ compensation, liability and cyber insurance, among other products.
Agents should also be proactive with carriers to make sure they have the most up to date information about products and plans. Insureds have many questions about covered items related to COVID-19. Carriers may be providing additional services and information that will be important to share with your small business customers. Talk with your carriers about how you can work together to make the policies more transparent for customers.
Agents — especially those who target specific segments — can aggregate what they’re seeing with clients and can apply that experience across many customers, such as restaurants or dry cleaners. They may also want to turn this into a set of industry FAQs that they update on a regular basis.
No. 2: Take advantage of digital solutions to maximize the time you can dedicate to serving customers.
From restaurants to barber shops, the challenges of reopening will vary across businesses and regions. Agents will need time to work with each client individually on their specific needs.
Implementing electronic solutions that allow agents to work with multiple carriers using a single interface can save valuable time. For example, some vendors — including CRMs, agency management systems, and quoting solutions — partner to share data between platforms so agents don’t have to enter information on multiple systems.
No. 3: Make your website a go-to source for important information.
With new products emerging and more questions about coverage options, customers will want to quickly get all the information they can about their options. Keeping your website current with information about changes and the types of coverage you offer can be very helpful to small businesses looking for answers. Consider implementing a chatbot for routine questions. This will allow you to spend less time on the phone talking with customers about basic information and more time handling more complex and unique insurance needs.
As regions begin to open up and small businesses come back online, the insurance landscape will shift. Agents need to be nimble to help them navigate the new landscape. With the right technology and open communication, agents can be ready to adapt to the changes and provide their customers with fast and efficient service.
Philip Charles-Pierre (philip@semsee.com) is CEO of Semsee, an InsurTech that provides automated small commercial quoting solutions for agents. These opinions are the author’s own.
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