Editor's Note: The software reviews in this article strictly reflect the author's opinion and should not be viewed as an endorsement or critique by PropertyCasualty360.com or its owner. Insurance agency operations have been transformed in recent years. Today, technology has changed the way insurance business is done. Most insurance agencies now use some form of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software or plan to purchase one soon. There are many such platforms available, but not all of them are created equal. This article will highlight some of the insurance industry's popular insurance CRMs and discuss how they stack up against one another in order to help agency leaders choose the best CRM for their business. |

A closer look at CRMs

A generic CRM allows users to manage contacts and generally offers some level of task management. But those that were not designed for the insurance world will have to be customized for an insurance agency. A recent survey of companies with 11 or more employees conducted by BuyerZone found that nine out of 10 respondents are using some manner of CRM software. An insurance-specific CRM caters to this industry's processes throughout the customer journey by including: |

• Lead capture;
• Lead nurture;
• A sales funnel;
• Onboarding;
• Policy management;
• Renewal services; and
• Win-back guidance.

An insurance CRM also might facilitate prospecting and onboarding, assist with social media and provide digital signature capabilities. It should enhance any software management system an agency already has in place. It should enable agency operations to run more efficiently and effectively. It also should empower agency employees to sell more policies, service current policyholders and manage all of the organization's operations faster, all while tracking every task. |

CRM software advantages

This type of technology represents one of the world's fastest-growing software markets because it is easily accessible, provides personalized solutions and simplifies many aspects of agency management. When it comes to insurance agencies, there are many challenges to business that can be solved with an insurance CRM tool. For instance, an insurance CRM can: Organize leads and automate marketing. Manually tracking leads can get chaotic. CRM software helps insurance professionals sort and prioritize leads so those prospects can be assigned to the right agents or producers. When a lead comes in, it will be organized into a specific category based on present parameters such as line of business, location or premium size. Agency leaders might set leads to go directly to specific team members based on each staffer's expertise. The CRM can automate calendar reminders, tasks, follow-ups, emails and text messages. CRMs also are powerful when it comes to creating automated market­ing campaigns. Agency leaders can create targeted email campaigns and automate them to go out to potential clients at scheduled intervals to nur­ture the lead. Then, all of the lead data and interactions are tracked in the CRM dashboard. Serve as a document repository and facilitate remote collaboration. What if you could get back all of the time you've spent over the years search­ing for a specific file or folder? CRM software helps insurance professionals keep track of all such documents by organizing them in a central location (such as the cloud), making it easy for different staff members to access from anywhere. In addition to policy specif­ics, CRMs can track agency procedures, general forms, carrier information, compliance documents and more. This is extremely beneficial for insurance agencies that have multiple office locations. No matter where an agency's staff is working, as long as they have an Internet connection, they'll be able to collaborate with the rest of the team and access any information they need. This type of power is especially important now with so many insurance professionals working remotely. Automate customer communications. Bad service can cost an agency customers. But when things get busy around the office, it can be hard to find time to return calls and emails, follow up on renewals or pursue new leads. CRM software can automate these communications. Reduce manual data entry. Insurance producers can waste nearly half of their time manually handling administrative processes. A CRM tool can help drive agency efficiency by working across channels to simplify data entry. The best insurance CRM will integrate with an agency's website. This way, potential clients can fill out a contact form or quote request online and the data is automatically carried over to the CRM system. The next time that same prospect or client is contacted, the data from their previous interactions will already be logged, saving staff the time it takes to capture all the data or create a duplicate entry. This frees up agents to spend more time on sales and growth activities, rather than the repetitive, low-value tasks that can slow them down. Initiate more conversions. Industry research indicates just how well insurance CRM software boosts conversion rates. According to Nucleus Research, for instance, CRM software has an average return on investment of $8.71 for every dollar spent on the tool. CRMs also help raise productivity rates and increase customer retention, all of which translates into an increase in insurance agency revenue. |

Choosing the right tool

With so many insurance pros realizing the value of CRM platforms, there are an increasing number of software options from which to choose. So how do you find the best insurance CRM for your agency? By looking into all of your options and picking a platform that will set you up for long-term success. The CRM tool agencies select should simplify daily management and sales functions and use automation to relieve agents and producers from unnecessary work. It may also help to break down some of the types of software functions that are well-known in the financial services sector. Agency Management Systems (AMS) only. There are many platforms that only suffice for agency administrative tasks and have little or no insurance-specific functionality. These tools include features such as customer contact information storage, interaction logs, policy information, Accord forms, ratings integration, IVANS downloads and commission/accounting services. While an AMS system focuses on policy management, there are limits and gaps in the sales and marketing tools that can really help agencies grow faster and smarter. However, most of them have done a great job in integrating with CRM systems to provide such capabilities to their clients. Some of the notable AMS platforms available include Applied Epic, AMS360, HawkSoft, Ezlynx, Nexsure, Nowcerts and QQCatalyst. CRM only. Niche specialization creates the most desired solution and tends to be well received by the customer base. Salesforce is widely considered a leader among CRM companies because it is the only platform with multifold capabilities that can create an expansive ecosystem. Customer relationship management plus agency management. Insurance AMS has done very well for the past 30-plus years. However, shifts in technology and customer expectations means that today sales and marketing functions are becoming equally important capabilities. AMS with CRM characteristics offer a more comprehensive solution as all of these tools are integrated. This creates a more seamless customer experience. It follows that a company like Vertafore (AMS) has acquired AgencyZoom (CRM). Some agencies also choose Hubspot because it helps to bring the best of both worlds together. Marketing automation. Marketing automation tools are designed to help streamline communications to current customers and potential leads. Some of these tools are very basic, allowing insurance agents to upload spreadsheets of contact information and use email templates to send out campaigns. More advanced platforms offer a lot of customization and more technology integrations. These tools can send out SMS text messages to customers and schedule social media and other online content through automation. Some popular agency marketing automation platforms include Agency Revolution, MailChimp, Eloqua, Hubspot and Marketo. Insurance-specific software. There are CRM tools on the market that are specifically designed to help insurance agencies streamline operations. These insurance CRMs are designed to support all of the industry's nuances and streamline workflows by including renewals, billing, premium financing and cross-selling opportunities. Some insurance CRMs are now built to integrate with AMS platforms, which can make them the most powerful software systems for insurance agencies. Such systems are attractive to insurance agency owners because they "play nice" with the other technology tools already in place. InsuredMine is an example of this type of tool. Raution Jaiswal ([email protected]) is CEO and co-founder of InsuredMine, makers of an all-in-one insurance Customer Relationship Management system. See also: |

• The secret sauce for efficient client communications
• CRM challenges in insurance — agents vs. carriers
• Upgrade and Outpace: How to Improve Agency Sales and Operations